Bachelor Thesis Opinion leaders in the new social environment A Youtube case on social media opinion leaders Authors: Amanda Gonzalez 911123 [email protected] Joseph Blomqvist 911105 [email protected] Tianchen Hu 930329 [email protected] Supervisor: Dan Halvarsson Examiner: Åsa Devine Date: 2016-05-27 Subject: Marketing Level: Bachelor Degree Course Code: 2FE21E Abstract Due to the development of new technology, there has been a shift in many communication concepts. With consumers now gaining more control in the online environment, more influential consumers, or ‘opinion leaders’, can also gain from this increase in power. However, insufficient research has been conducted regarding the concept of social media opinion leadership, and in particular what the relational nature of these new opinion leaders is. Therefore, this study aims to explore this issue within the social media opinion leadership theory. A qualitative research design was applied to get a more in depth insight to the issue, in where interviews were conducted with followers of specific opinion leader on a social media platform. The empirical data was analyzed through the means of coding and interpretation which then lead into the theory of what possible relationships can be found amongst social media opinion leaders and their followers. Conclusively, three types of relationships emerged as most dominant: the trustworthiness relationship, the friendly relationship and the passive relationship. The theoretical contributions of this paper together with practical implications and suggestion for future research are discussed based on that conclusion. Keywords Opinion leaders, opinion leadership, social media, opinion followers, Youtube i Acknowledgements We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the people who have helped us bring this research into fruition. Without their input, help, and encouragement, this research would not have seen the light of day. We would first like to acknowledge Dan Halvarsson for his assistance and guidance with our paper. With his advice the research was able to keep on the right track. Second, we want to thank Åsa Devine for her “divine” dedication and patience to help all her students with their thesis work. We also want to graciously extend that thanks to our opposition groups, who selflessly put time on the side to provide us with helpful feedback that would improve our paper. Finally, we thank all our participants for their time and effort provided by them which made our research possible. ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Amanda Gonzalez Joseph Blomqvist Tianchen Hu ii Contents 1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 1 1.1 Background ______________________________________________________ 1 1.2 Problem Discussion _______________________________________________ 2 1.3 Purpose _________________________________________________________ 4 1.4 Research Question(s) ______________________________________________ 4 2 Theoretical Framework _______________________________________________ 5 2.1 Opinion leaders ___________________________________________________ 5 2.1.1 Who one is: the personification of values ___________________________ 6 2.1.2 What one knows: the competence-personality traits ___________________ 7 2.1.3 Whom one knows: the strategic location in the social network. __________ 9 3 Method ____________________________________________________________ 11 3.1 Quantitative vs qualitative research __________________________________ 11 3.2 Research design _________________________________________________ 12 3.3 Data sources (primary vs secondary) _________________________________ 13 3.4 Case: Youtube opinion leaders ______________________________________ 14 3.5 Data collection method: Interviews __________________________________ 15 3.6 Sampling _______________________________________________________ 16 3.7 Operationalization _______________________________________________ 18 3.8 Interview guide __________________________________________________ 19 3.9 Data analysis method: Coding & Interpretation _________________________ 19 3.10 Quality criteria (Trustworthiness) __________________________________ 21 3.10.1 Credibility _________________________________________________ 21 3.10.2 Transferability ______________________________________________ 22 3.10.3 Dependability ______________________________________________ 22 3.11 Ethical considerations ____________________________________________ 23 4 Empirical investigation _______________________________________________ 26 4.1 Interviewee 1 ___________________________________________________ 26 4.2 Interviewee 2 ___________________________________________________ 27 4.3 Interviewee 3 ___________________________________________________ 28 4.4 Interviewee 4 ___________________________________________________ 29 4.5 Interviewee 5 ___________________________________________________ 31 4.6 Interviewee 6 ___________________________________________________ 32 4.7 Interviewee 7 ___________________________________________________ 33 4.8 Interviewee 8 ___________________________________________________ 34 4.9 Interviewee 9 ___________________________________________________ 36 4.10 Interviewee 10 _________________________________________________ 37 4.11 Interviewee 11 _________________________________________________ 39 5 Analysis ____________________________________________________________ 41 5.1 Personification of values __________________________________________ 41 5.2 Personality traits _________________________________________________ 43 5.3 Social networks _________________________________________________ 45 5.4 Overall analysis _________________________________________________ 47 5.4.1 Trustworthy relationship _______________________________________ 47 iii 5.4.2 Friendly relationship __________________________________________ 48 5.4.3 Passive relationship ___________________________________________ 49 6 Conclusion _________________________________________________________ 51 7 Research implications ________________________________________________ 52 7.1 Theoretical contribution ___________________________________________ 52 7.2 Practical implications _____________________________________________ 52 7.3 Suggestions for future research _____________________________________ 53 8 Reference List ______________________________________________________ 54 9 Appendices __________________________________________________________ I 9.1 Appendix A Interview Questions ______________________________________ I 9.2 Appendix 2: Coding _______________________________________________ II iv 1 Introduction This chapter introduces the focus of this paper, starting with the background of the topic of opinion leadership and social media, moving on to the discussion of the problem regarding the concept of social media opinion leaders, and lastly, introduced the purpose and research question of the study. 1.1 Background Since the development of the Internet, the rules for communication has changed in order to adapt to the new environment of the digital age (Armstrong, et al., 2012 ; Scott, 2013). No longer is the traditional marketing concept enough, with its one-way communication and expensive strategies that may yield little to no success (Scott, 2013). Now, consumers have access to an overwhelming amount of information in a convenient and speedy way through the Internet (Armstrong, et al., 2012). Instead of being idle ’audience’ in the marketplace, consumer now act more like ’participants’, as they have become more connected with other consumers and companies alike (Armstrong, et al., 2012 ; Rose, 2011). Through the development of technology, marketers are now also able to reach consumers through new channels, such as mobile phones, virtual online worlds and podcasts. Even more recently, social media has caught a lot of attention as a marketing tool (Armstrong, et al., 2012). Social media differs from traditional media in that anyone can contribute to it by creating, comment and add more content online, and has many shapes (e.g. audio, video, images and more) (Scott, 2013). The social web nowadays provides an environment through which both user’s and marketer’s message may go viral swiftly. It means that messages can be transmitted quickly through word of mouth or strengthened by the network effect of social media channels (Evans, 2012). The expanding of social media, such as Youtube and Facebook are good examples to exemplify it. If the proper path is recognized via the right social media channel, any message can actually reach another side of the world easily. Furthermore, many viral phenomena happen innocently through the web. For instance, someone makes a funny video clip or story to amuse others. If one person finds it interesting, he or she may immediately send it to another person, and afterward that person might send it to others as well, and so on (Scott, 2015). Information could be spread through specific people, namely ‘opinion leaders’ (Baines, et al., 2013). Opinion leaders are individuals that, due to knowledge, personality, special skills and/or other characteristics, have influence over other consumers (Kotler & 1 Armstrong, 2012). Opinion leaders are regular ordinary people, but when they talk people listen (Baines, et al., 2013 ; Kotler & Armstrong, 2012). These individuals have the capability of being more influential than information received from mass media, and are a part of the same group as the other consumers