What do superdiffusers do when they want to persuade someone about politics on Facebook?

Abstract

Social network sites such as Facebook offer opinion leaders an unprecedented ability to attempt to persuade people about politics. This survey (N = 295) sought to explore opinion leader types of and motives for producing political messages aimed at persuading others on Facebook. The results indicated that mavens, a type of opinion leader, were more likely to broadcast messages aimed at persuading their network as well as target individuals using Facebook’s affordances. Furthermore both intrinsic and extrinsic motives were identified that moderated the strength of these relationships. This study contributes to both understanding opinion leadership as well as political persuasion attempts in social media.

Keywords:

• Opinion Leaders
• Political Communication
• Social Influence
• Social Media
• Social Network Sites

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.