New Influentials: How Consumption Manifests On Blogs

Abstract

Influentials are individuals whose opinions and behaviors affect other people’s choices. Online influentials include bloggers. We performed exploratory research to understand how bloggers use their influence to support commercial interventions in their online space. We collected and analyzed longitudinal data from three blogs, and interviewed the author of each. In selecting the cases to study, we considered the diversity of the narratives and also the existence of communication related to products in the blog. Our results indicate that blogs are means for bloggers to disclose aspects of themselves through the blog narrative. Readers develop ties with both the blog and the blogger, and homophilic traits are relevant to explaining their choice of blog affiliation. Commercial intervention on blogs generates buzz when it is aligned to the blog’s language, when message content fits the blog’s narrative, and when the product is close to the blog’s subject of interest.