Strategies of Parasocial Opinion Leaders in Using Twitter to Convey Health Messages to Followers

Saw Teck Chew, Emma Mohamad, Sabariah Mohamed Salleh

Abstract


Medical and health professionals who actively share and discuss health information through social media to influence their followers are known as social media health opinion leaders. However, the parasocial relationships between social media health opinion leaders and their followers can influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and effective actions of the followers towards leading a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the strategies employed by social media health opinion leaders when using social media to communicate health issues. This study integrated the process model of health parasocial opinion leadership on social media by Saw et al. as the study guide. An in-depth interview was conducted with five (5) social media health opinion leaders on Twitter. The results of the study show that social media health opinion leaders use a variety of strategies depending on the topic of discussion to effectively convey information to their followers. The strategies revealed in the study show that the delivery and sharing of information by social media health opinion leaders play an important role, namely in reducing information complexity, health orientation, stimulating interest, correcting information and mythic perceptions, and strengthening the image and ethics of medical professionalism. However, there is no emotional stimulation for those who follow their favourite social media health opinion leaders. As a result, the study suggests that social media health opinion leaders improve their emotional stimulation strategies to add value to the quality of parasocial relationships with their followers, thereby strengthening their relationship with their followers.

 

Keywords: Opinion Leadership, parasocial relationship, parasocial opinion leadership, health communication, social media.

 

https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2022-3804-07


Full Text:

PDF

References


Akdevelioglu, D., & Kara, S. (2020). An international investigation of opinion leadership and social media. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 14(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-11-2018-0155

Aneesa Abdul Rashid, Irfan Mohamad, & Ahmad Firdaus Mohd Haris. (2021). The role of social media in making an impact to health knowledge and behaviour on Covid-19 in Malaysia. Malays J Med Sci., 28(3), 155–157. https://doi.org/gk637h

Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2005). Social psychology (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bashar, M. A., Nayak, R., & Balasubramaniam, T. (2022). Deep learning based topic and sentiment analysis: COVID19 information seeking on social media. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 12(90). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-022-00917-5

Creswell, J. W., & Guetterman, T. C. (2019). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (6th ed.). New York: Pear.

Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE.

Emma Mohamad, Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Sabariah Mohamed Salleh, & Ummu Khadijah Wan Sulaiman. (2017). Breaking the traditional communication flow: Exploration of social media opinion leaders in health. SHS Web of Conferences, 33. https://doi.org/g9pb

Emma Mohamad, & Ummu Khadijah Wan Sulaiman (2018). Selebriti media sosial sebagai pemimpin pendapat kesihatan. In Abdul Latiff Ahmad & Emma Mohamad (Eds.), Media di era konvergens (pp. 93–110). Kuala Nerus: Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.

Emma Mohamad, & Wan Chooi Han (2017). Opinion leaders communicating on plastic surgery: An analysis of Instagram postings by selected social media celebrities. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 33(1), 261–279.

Eugene, C. X. A., & Stephanie, H. W. C. (2021). “Stop the unattainable ideal for an ordinary me!” fostering parasocial relationships with social media influencers: The role of self-discrepancy. Journal of Business Research, 132, 146–157. https://doi.org/gmvg2c

Folkvord, F., Roes, E., & Bevelander, K. (2020). Promoting healthy foods in the new digital era on Instagram: An experimental study on the effect of a popular real versus fictitious fit influencer on brand attitude and purchase intentions. BMC Public Health, 10(1677). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09779-y

Horton, D., & Wohl, R. R. (1956). Mass communication and para? Social interaction: Observations on intimacy at a distance. In R. Gump (Ed.), Inter media: Interpersonal communication in a media world. New York: Oxford University Press.

Joyce, C. L.-S., & Azlina, K. (2021). Online opinion leaders in the health promotion digital era. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 37(4), 295–309. https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2021-3704-17

Katz, E., & Lazarsfeld, P. (1955). Personal influence: The part played by people in the flow of mass communications. New Jersey: The Free Press.

Katz, E. (1960). Communication research and the image of society convergence of two traditions. American Journal of Sociology, 65(5), 435–440. https://doi.org/bzpzkz

Katz, E. (1957). The two-step flow of communication: An up-to-date report on an hypothesis. Public Opinion Quarterly, 21(1), 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1086/266687

Katz, M. S., Anderson, P. F., Thompson, M. A., Salmi, L., Freeman-Daily, J., Utengen, A., Dizon, D. S., Blotner, C., Cooke, D. T., Sparacio, D., Staley, A. C., Fisch, M. J., Young, C., Attai, D. J. (2019). Organizing online health content: Developing hashtag collections for healthier Internet-based people and communities. JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, 3, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1200/cci.18.00124

Lazarsfeld, P. F., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (2021). The people’s choice: How the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign (Legacy edition). NY: Columbia University Press.

Little, J. S., & Romee, R. (2020). Tweeting from the Bench: Twitter and the physician-scientist benefits and challenges. Current Hematologic Malignancy Reports, 15(6), 419–423. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11899-020-00601-5

McCroskey, J. C., Hamilton, P. R., & Weiner, A. N. (1974). The effect of interaction behavior on source credibility, homophily, and interpersonal attraction. Human Communication Research, 1(1), 42–52. https://doi.org/cfcmcq

McCroskey, J. C., Larson, C. E., & Knapp, M. L. (1981). An introduction to interpersonal communication. Prentice-Hall.

Meskó, B., Radó, N., & Gyorffy, Z. (2019). Opinion leader empowered patients about the era of digital health: A qualitative study. BMJ Open, 9(3), e025267. https://doi.org/gg8hth

Na, Y., Kang, S., & Jeong, H. (2021). A Study on the network effectiveness of sustainable K-fashion and beauty creator media (social media) in the digital era. Social Media and Sustainability in the Digital Era, 13(16), 8758. https://doi.org/jp57

Pershad, Y., Hangge, P. T., Albadawi, H., & Oklu, R. (2018). Social medicine: Twitter in healthcare. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 7(6), 121. https://doi.org/gfw73d

Rothfischer, K. (2021). Social media - Key opinion leaders of the future? Journal of European CME, 10(1), 2014094. https://doi.org/10.1080/21614083.2021.2014094

Savolainen, R. (2021). Expert power as a constituent of opinion leadership: A conceptual analysis. Information Research, 26(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.47989/irpaper898

Saw Teck Chew, Emma Mohamad, & Sabariah Mohamed Salleh. (2019). The quality of health parasosial opinion leaders on social media. A literature review. e-Bangi: Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 16(8), 1–21.

Saw Teck Chew, Emma Mohamad, & Sabariah Mohamed Salleh. (2021). Acceptance of health messages conveyed by parasocial opinion leaders on Twitter among followers. Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication, 37(4), 104–121.

https://doi.org/10.17576/JKMJC-2021-3704-07

Sherman-Morris, K., Poe, P. S., Nunley, C., & Morris, J. A. (2020). Perceived risk, protective actions and the parasocial relationship with the local weathercaster: A case study of Hurricane Irma. Southeastern Geographer, 60(1), 23–47.

Stehr, P., Rössler, P., Leissner, L., & Schönhardt, F. (2015). Parasocial opinion leadership media personalities’ influence within parasocial relations: Theoretical conceptualization and preliminary results. International Journal of Communication, 9, 982–1001.

Su, B. C., Wu, L. W., Chang, Y. C., & Hong, R.-H. (2021). Influencers on social media as references: Understanding the importance of parasocial relationships. Sustainable Electronic Commerce, 13(19), 10919. https://doi.org/jp59

Weimann, G. (1994). The influentials: People who influence people. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


e-ISSN: 2289-1528