CONCEPT
Opinion Leadership
The capacity of specific individuals in a social system to informally influence others' attitudes and behavior regarding innovations — the interpersonal mechanism through which diffusion actually occurs.
Opinion leadership is the informal influence that some individuals in a social system exert on the attitudes and behavior of others. Rogers identified it as the primary mechanism by which innovations move from the margins into the mainstream. Opinion leaders are typically not the highest-status or wealthiest members of a community, but those who combine social connection, perceived expertise, and conformity to community norms. They are sought out for advice, trusted for their judgment, and emulated in their behavior. The path from innovation to majority adoption runs through them. Mass media and cosmopolite channels can create awareness, but only interpersonal influence from opinion leaders can produce the commitment that sustains adoption.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Rogers's emphasis on opinion leadership grew out of the two-step flow theory developed by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz in the 1940s and 1950s: ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from opinion leaders to the wider public through interpersonal channels.
The opinion leader's effectiveness derives from a