| Summary: | The rapid development of social media use today has an impact on various political strategies and the relationship between political leaders and the public. The importance of popularity on social media affects the influence and political success of a leader. With the large voting power of young people in this digital era, effective use of social media has become essential for political leaders to gain support and expand their influence. This development is come with challenges, especially in distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate content, which risks causing the spread of misleading information that can influence public opinion on political issues. In addition, biased content can restrict users' access to diverse political perspectives and real information. The lack of explanation and models on how political leaders can best use social media to win over users motivated the need for this study. Moreover, the fast nature and ability to influence users' emotions on social media platforms make it a tool for promoting sensationalism that can undermine healthy political discourse. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a comprehensive model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Value Theory to examine users’ attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and planned values in the context of political influence on social media. This model examines the key factors that influence users’ political engagement, including curiosity, expectations, sensitivity, socialization, information sources, communication platforms, availability, self-efficacy, accessibility, prosperity, progress, and effectiveness, with the aim of providing a deeper understanding of how these elements shape users’ behavior towards political content. An online questionnaire was administered via purposive sampling to evaluate the proposed model and data analysis was performed using the Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling. Data from 403 valid responses collected through the use of Google Forms with social media user across Malaysia, showed that 13 out of 16 hypotheses had significant relationships. The results of the analysis highlighted factors such as curiosity, self-efficacy, and accessibility as the main drivers of political engagement, along with factors such as attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. These factors can guide political leaders on what to emphasize when posting or communicating on social media. These findings also provide useful information for political leaders in optimizing social media usage strategies, increasing voter engagement, and aligning communications according to user needs. Future studies can focus on sentiment analysis related to user sharing on social media to devise effective strategies by political leaders in meeting users' needs.
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