Characteristics of public opinion leaders

Public opinion leaders are different from leaders appointed by the administration and are related to the social fields involved in public opinion. Some people are public opinion leaders in public affairs, while others are public opinion leaders in fashion trends. A person who is a public opinion leader in one field is not necessarily a public opinion leader in another field that has nothing to do with it. In a group, who leads and who follows depends on what problems are involved. Public opinion leaders generally have the following characteristics:

(1) The social additional attribute of opinion leaders is diluted. In the traditional communication mode, the life experience, sociality and socio-economic status of opinion leaders are two necessary indicators. But the anonymity of the internet makes opinion leaders exist in name only. At the same time, the scope of opinion leaders has been expanded. But this does not mean that this has become the "threshold" for opinion leaders.

② There is great heterogeneity between opinion leaders and their followers. Mainly manifested in the expansion of the influence of opinion leaders. The openness of the network makes the people who participate in it not limited by geographical location, social model, Beijing status and other factors, and has great differences, which determines the heterogeneity of them and the information they spread. This has fundamentally led to the expansion of the influence of online opinion leaders, and the "butterfly effect" is imminent.

③ The rapidity and instability of establishing the position of network opinion leader. The rapidity of network information dissemination makes it possible for the comments and opinions of network opinion leaders to spread and form a scale in a relatively fast time, which makes it a "shortcut" to establish the status of network opinion leaders. However, the opinion leaders formed in this way will easily become "short-lived" if they cannot continuously transmit valuable information and opinions for a long time; At the same time, due to the rich information and talents on the Internet, coupled with the "fast-food" information consumption mode, the attention of followers of opinion leaders is easily diverted, thus threatening their status. All these make the network opinion leaders have strong instability.

④ The role of opinion leaders as "information transmitters" is weakened. In the Internet age, through search engines and other technologies, the audience can easily get any information they need directly, and the role of network opinion leaders in transmitting information is greatly weakened. Their influence is more manifested in the role of information analysis, viewpoint guidance and attitude demonstration.

⑤ Low noise of opinion leaders' opinions. In the network, the opinions of network opinion leaders are spread through text forms such as words and images, which to a great extent ensures that the opinions of network opinion leaders are not distorted in the spread process. Therefore, it is easy to be resolved in this two-way communication. In this way, the noise caused by the opinions spread by the network opinion leaders can be minimized.

⑥ The opinions of opinion leaders are more objective. The flattening of network information dissemination makes opinion leaders and more other group members in the same big language environment, which promotes closer communication and interaction between them. Through interaction and communication, members of these groups become the reference for the socialization of opinion leaders. In other words, the equality and timeliness of the network make the network audience not only willing to bow to the opinion leaders, but also more willing to accept the opinions of the opinion leaders in the process of communication and sharing through dialogue and discussion. This provides sufficient feedback information for online opinion leaders to adjust themselves, and makes their views more objective by integrating the voices of all parties.