The Study Of The Microblogging Opinion Leaders’ Influencing Factors Based On Crisis Event

Nowadays crisis caused by unstable factors takes place all the time with the rapiddevelopment of China’s economy. Crisis spreading is critical in crisis management. As a newmedia, microblogging is changing the traditional information dissemination model by virtueof its unique advantages to rise rapidly which has an important impact on crisis managementand monitoring. In2011, according to the data provided by Internet Public Opinion Institutein Communication University of China, the percentage of the information whose source ismicroblogging is up to18.8%. No matter how the times change, opinion leaders are alwaysthe major part in guiding public opinion, especially in the more open microblogging era,therefore, the study of microblogging opinion leaders are more practical.By the literature review of existing research on the microblogging opinion leaders, it isfound out that most researches are about its characteristics, function, and other attributes, butquantitative research is relatively rare. Based on social capital theory and personal motivesthis study sums seven factors influencing microblogging opinion leaders by empiricalresearch and reviewing a lot of literature. Using the severity of crises and enduring participantas the moderators, the study also reveals that in the event of a crisis, users to become opinionleaders will be affected.In this study the seven factors influencing microblogging opinion leaders includeinteraction, trust, identity, shared language, reputation, self-worth and altruism.We found thatenduring participant can moderate reputation and self-worth, and the severity of crisis just canmoderate reputation. At last, the study comes up with the corresponding managementsuggestions based on the analysis results, and points out the weakness and expectations of thestudy.