(Routledge, 2022) Britt, Brian C.; Britt, Rebecca K.; Anderson, Jenn; Fahrenwald, Nancy; Harming, Shana; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; South Dakota State University; Texas A&M University College Station
Opinion leaders are increasingly recruited to diffuse information, attitudes, and behaviors to serve communication campaigns. However, this has historically required opinion leader identification before launching the campaign. A priori identification is impossible in many contexts, such as when addressing unfamiliar topics or insular communities. The authors introduce a two-stage campaign approach that resolves this problem, and a public health campaign is used to demonstrate it. This approach is applicable to a wider variety of contexts than traditional a priori opinion leader identification.