Who are opinion leaders and how to choose them correctly

They are called trendsetters, influencers, brand ambassadors and advocates, it-girls and opinion leaders. But the essence is the same. Opinion leaders are people whose opinion influences the opinion of the audience.

A blogger, journalist, TV presenter, politician, TV show participant, director, dancer, or any other Facebook or Instagram user whose posts and lifestyle attract crowds of fans or followers on social media is an opinion leader. It is not that difficult to get into their circle of interests. It happens that a trendsetter voluntarily and out of love for art makes a post about the goods or services they like. But in most cases, opinion leaders need to be motivated to do so.

How to identify an opinion leader

The first is the number of subscribers to a social media profile. Of course, the more followers you have, the more effective your cooperation with this person will be.

But no less important is audience engagement - the likes and comments of followers under posts. You can use the following rule of thumb: the number of likes under each post should ideally be about 8-10% of the total number of subscribers. Comments should indicate that they are written by real people, not bots (comments like "Future profession: write to direct mail", "Nice pic", etc. are bots, in case you were still in doubt). If this is the case, it means that the opinion leader is real and his followers are also real, not bought.

How to find: 

Opinion leaders

The choice depends on the product being promoted and the similarity between the target audience of the potential consumer and the target audience of the opinion leader.

Consider the following situation:

The advertised product is the cream "Youthful Apple". The retail price is 4 UAH 86 kopecks.

The brand's PR manager has decided to involve LM in the promotion. He is very impressed by a lady who is popular on social media. The results are really impressive:

  • 100,000 followers on Facebook;
  • 200,000 followers on Instagram;
  • She has countless live and "dead" followers on VKontakte, and in general, she is a really interesting and popular person.

What we know about her from the media, publications and rumours:

  • Drives a Porsche Cayenne;
  • Two children, a husband who is a deputy and, of course, a philanthropist;
  • At the last event, I wore a Tom Ford dress, and Tom himself was very upset that he couldn't fly in to see his creation in person.

The situation is hypothetical and exaggerated, but in any case, the question arises: even if our active PR manager offers her an exorbitant amount of money to advertise her cream, will it fit in harmoniously? Will the consumer believe it?

Or we take an active mum who looks 28 in her 40s and has 2,000 followers on Facebook (similarly active mums), but for them she is a real, not exaggerated, opinion leader.

In the case of clothing, the choice of leaders is, of course, much easier. It's enough to periodically look through the gossip columns and analyse who dresses how.

You always need to analyse your subscribers to understand how suitable your audience is.

In the fashion industry, high-quality fashion bloggers are best placed to promote a national brand and attract real customers. They fulfil an educational mission - they popularise the brand and elevate it to the rank of an "object of desire" rather than sell it.

If your product is aimed at a mass audience, Instagram LMs work very well, as the feature of this service is spontaneous purchases. You should monitor Instagram communities with a large number of followers. Pay attention to the likes under the posts, but most importantly, to the comments and commercial interest in buying from people who leave feedback.

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