World Media Economics and Management Conference 2016

Diffusion of innovation are a set of theories that seek to explain how new ideas and technologies diffuse though a specific population. This paper considers the role of social media as an essential change agent in the diffusion process. Special attention is given to the importance of opinion leadership which in its classic definition means select individuals who wield considerable influence on the people and members of a social system. Opinion leadership in the 21st century takes on a whole new meaning given such power and persuasion techniques as blogs, social media postings as well as ratings and evaluation comments on E-Commerce sites. A major argument of this paper is that digital opinion leaders legitimize and speed up the diffusion process.