New influentials: An exploratory study on blogs

Abstract

Influentials are individuals whose opinions and behaviours affect other people's choices, and online influentials include bloggers. The authors performed exploratory research to understand how bloggers use their influence to support commercial interventions in their online space. They collected and analysed longitudinal data from three blog sites and interviewed the author of each. In selecting the cases to study, they considered the diversity of the narratives and the existence of communication related to products in the blog. Results indicate that blogs are a means for bloggers to disclose aspects of themselves through the blog narrative. Readers develop ties with both the blog and the blogger, while homophilic traits are relevant to explaining readers' choice of blog affiliation. Commercial intervention on blogs generates buzz if aligned with the blog's language, if the message content fits the blog's narrative, and if the product is close to the blog's subject of interest. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.