The social media garden : The evolution of the relationship between followers and opinion leader on social media

Abstract: Social media have become more and more present in the daily life. At the same time, online communities were created about all kinds of topics and the number of opinion leaders increased. With time, those leaders attract followers, starting from nothing to millions of them. Through this thesis, I studied the evolution of the relationship between followers and opinion leaders on social media. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of followers-opinion leaders relationship and simultaneously fill gaps within the leadership field.In order to study this relationship, several methods of data gathering has been used. Both sides has been interviewed, the followers via qualitative questionnaires and face-to-face interviews and the opinion leader only via qualitative questionnaire. Additional data has been collected on the social media platforms used by the interviewed opinion leaders.To conclude my thesis, I described the evolution with the garden metaphor. It highlighted the different phases which opinion leaders and followers are going through.