Under the influence of a blogger: The role of information-seeking goals and issue involvement

Bloggers in the post-modern era can influence the behaviour of consumers and alter their perceptions. The current study looks at the blogger influence phenomenon from a different theoretical perspective than existing literature did. By combining information behaviour and communication theory, it proposes a new conceptual framework by relying on the characteristics of the blogger, the blog content, motivation and goals of information seeker. In this model, information seekers’ objectives and issue involvement are important drivers of blog selection and determinants of the blog’s influence. The framework was empirically tested in a sample of American users of beauty blogs. The results provide a confirmation of the postulated relationships. Three types of blog visits are identified and their effects and their attributes that make a blog influential are examined