Proactive Engagement of Opinion Leaders and Organization Advocates on Social Networking Sites

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to examine opinion leaders’ and organization advocates’ proactive engagement with advocacy campaigns on social networking sites (SNSs). By examining the Empty Plate Movement, a campaign advocating food saving in China, this study compared proactive engagement activities by traditional and virtual opinion leaders, organization advocates, and other participants. Specifically, this study focused on three proactive engagement activities: publishing descriptive and injunctive normative messages and messages showing supportive/adoptive behaviors. The findings reveal organization advocates are the most likely source of descriptive and injunctive normative messages, and the least likely source of messages showing adoptive/supportive behaviors. Virtual opinion leaders are the most likely to publish messages showing adoptive and/or supportive behaviors. Both message features and message sources influence users responses. The findings suggest that organizations practice strategic communication in advocacy. Because of their motivations for self-involvement and online interaction, virtual opinion leaders frequently publish messages about their supportive/adoptive behaviors. The strategic value of SNSs lies in the mimicking process. Practically, this study suggests that virtual opinion leaders and organization advocates are useful to advocacy campaigns on SNSs.

Notes

¹ Binary logistic regression in SPSS Version 22 automatically recodes categorical exogenous variables.