Social networks such as Facebook are increasingly used as a platform for healthcare marketing. We study the role of advertisements on Facebook and their influence on consumer purchases of weight-loss products. We explore this relationship through variables measuring opinion leadership and the theory of planned behavior. We found that perception of benevolence of the opinion leader, and social norms and intentions of the user have an increasing influence on the odds of purchasing a weight-loss product, while behavior control of the user in seeking additional information about a product has a decreasing influence on purchase behavior. Medical marketers can use these findings to effectively utilize social networks to motivate consumer purchases. Management information systems professionals can design social networks with relevant functionality that allows marketers to be effective in targeting consumer advertisements and for consumers to be responsive to these advertisements.
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