Exploring Influential Factors in Expert Advice Adoption on Social Media: Insights from Weibo Trending Topics

Social media has long served as a platform for discussions on public agendas. However, the dissemination of expert advice on social media is facing a crisis of public trust. To explore the factors influencing the adoption of expert advice on social media, this paper focuses on 326 Weibo trending topics related to expert advice and user comments. Drawing upon theories related to information adoption, professional opinion leadership, and science communication, this study examines the impact of factors at the expert level, media level, and information level on user information adoption behavior. The results indicate that factors including the expert’s field, the expert’s academic affiliation, media type, topic type, use of multimedia, level of detail, information framing, and narrative style have an impact on user information adoption. This study expands the theory of science communication on social media and provides guidance for social media platforms and media entities on how to effectively disseminate expert advice.