Social Network Analysis:

Social network analysis is the process of investigating social structures

through the use of networks and graph theory.
Network Theory
Nodes: (A,B,C,D,E in the example) are usually representing entities in
the network, and can hold self-properties (such as weight, size,
position and any other attribute) and network-based properties (such
as Degree- number of neighbors or Cluster- a connected component
the node belongs to etc.).
Edges: represent the connections between the nodes, and might hold
properties as well (such as weight representing the strength of the
connection, direction in case of asymmetric relation or time if
applicable).
These two basic elements can describe multiple phenomena, such as
social connections, virtual routing network, physical electricity
networks, roads network, biology relations network and many other
relationships.
Real-world networks
Real-world networks and in particular social networks have a unique
structure which often differs them from random mathematical
networks:
Small World phenomenon claims that real networks often have very
short paths (in terms of number of hops) between any connected
network members. This applies for real and virtual social networks (the
six handshakes theory) and for physical networks such as airports or
electricity of web-traffic routings.
Scale Free networks with power-law degree distribution have a
skewed population with a few highly-connected nodes (such as social-
influences) and a lot of loosely-connected nodes.
Homophily is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with
similar others, which results in similar properties among neighbors.
Centrality Measures
Highly central nodes play a key role of a network, serving as hubs for
different network dynamics. However the definition and importance of
centrality might differ from case to case, and may refer to different
centrality measures:
Degree — the amount of neighbors of the node
EigenVector / PageRank — iterative circles of neighbors
Closeness — the level of closeness to all of the nodes
Betweenness — the amount of short path going through the node
Different measures can be useful in different scenarios such web-ranking
(page-rank), critical points detection (betweenness), transportation hubs
(closeness) and other applications.
Building a Network
Networks can be constructed from various datasets, as long as we’re
able to describe the relations between nodes.
Types of social media
1. Social networks
Social networking sites help people connect with each other and offer a
multitude of ways for different brands to attract individuals. Users can
share their thoughts, form groups based on their interests, curate
content, upload photos and videos and participate in group
discussions.
You can reach wide and diverse audiences with advertisements and
persuade influential people with the right targeting metrics. You can
also build connections between your brand and those individuals,
research user preferences and monitor online conversations about
your business. Learning what people post about your brand on social
networks can help you use that information to create a positive
presence and boost brand awareness. Examples of social networking
platforms:
Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn TikTok
2. Discussion forums
Discussion forums encourage people to answer each other's
questions and share ideas and news. Many of these social media
sites focus on posing questions to solicit the best answer.
Answering them correctly and honestly can increase your credibility
on the forum.
That credibility and respect could lead to an increase in visits to
your business or product website. You can also use discussion
forums to do market research by asking people what they think of
your products and brand. This can help you create more focused
marketing campaigns. Examples of discussion forums:
Reddit
Digg
Quora
Clubhouse
COMMON NETWORK TERMS
NETWORK:
At a very basic level, a network is a group of nodes that are connected with
links. Nodes (also known as vertices) can represent anything, including
individuals, organizations, countries, computers, websites, or any other
entities. Links (also known as ties, edges, or arcs) represent the relationship
among the nodes in a network.
SOCIAL NETWORKS:
A social network is a group of nodes and links formed by social entities where
nodes can represent social entities such as people and organizations. Links
represent their relationships, such as friendship and trade relations. Social
networks can exist both in the real and online worlds. A network among
classmates is an example of real world social network. And a Twitter follow-
following network is an example of an online social media network. In a
Twitter follow-following network, nodes are the Twitter users, and links
among the nodes represents the follow-following relationship (i.e., who is
following whom) among the users.
SOCIAL NETWORK SITE
A social network site is a special-purpose software (or social media tool)
designed to facilitate the creation and maintenance of social relations.
Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn are examples of social network sites.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
The act of forming, expanding, and maintaining social relations is called
social networking. Using social network sites, users can, for example,
form, expand, and maintain online social ties with family, friends,
colleagues, and sometimes strangers.
SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS
Social network analysis is the science of studying and understanding
social networks (Hanneman and Riddle 2005) and social networking. It
is a well-established field with roots in a variety of disciplines including
Graph Theory, Sociology, Information Science, and Communication
Science.
COMMON SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK TYPES
The following are some everyday types of social media networks that
we come across and that can be subject to network analytics.
FRIENDSHIP NETWORKS
The most common type of social media networks are the friendship
networks, such as Facebook, Google+, and Cyword. Friendship
networks let people maintain social ties and share content with people
they closely associate with, such as family and friends. Nodes in these
networks are people, and links are social relationships (e.g., friendship,
family, and activities).
FOLLOW-FOLLOWING NETWORKS
In the follow-following network, users follow (or keep track of) other
users of interested. Twitter is a good example of follow-following
network where users follow influential people, brands, and
organizations. Nodes in these networks are, for example, people,
brands, and organizations, and links represents follow-following
relations (e.g., who is following whom). Below are two common
Twitter terminologies.
Following—Following are the people who you follow on Twitter.
Following someone on Twitter means: You are subscribing to their
tweets as a follower. Their updates will appear in your Home tab. That
person is able to send you direct messages.
Followers—Followers are people who follow you on Twitter. If
someone follows you, it means that: They will show up in your
followers list. They will see your tweets in their home timeline
whenever they log in to Twitter. You can send them direct messages.
FAN NETWORK:A fan network is formed by social media fans or
supporters of someone or something, such as a product, service, person,
brand, business, or other entity. The network formed by the social media
users subscribed to your Facebook fan page is an example of a fan
network. Nodes in these networks are fans, and links represent colikes,
cocomments, and coshares.
GROUP NETWORK: Group networks are formed by people who share
common interests and agendas. Most social media platforms allow the
creation of groups where member can post, comment, and manage in-
group activities. Examples of social media groups are Twitter professional
groups, Yahoo Groups, and Facebook groups. Nodes in these networks
are group members, and links can represent cocommenting, coliking, and
coshares.
PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS
LinkedIn is a good example of professional networks where people
manage their professional identify by creating a profile that lists their
achievements, education, work history, and interests. Nodes in these
networks are, for example, people, brands, and organizations, and links
are professional relations (such as coworker, employee, or collaborator).
An important feature of professional networks is the endorsement
feature, where people who know you can endorse your skills and
qualification.
CONTENT NETWORKS
Content networks are formed by the content posted by social media
users. A network among YouTube videos is an example of a content
network. In such a network, nodes are social media content (such as
videos, tags, and photos) and links can represent, for example, similarity
(content belonging to the same categories that can be linked together)
DATING NETWORKS : Dating networks (such as match.com and Tender)
are focused on matching and arranging a dating partner based on
personal information (such as age, gender, and location) provided by a
user. Nodes in these networks are people, and links represent social
relations (such as romantic relation).
COAUTHORSHIP NETWORKS: Coauthorship networks are two or more
people working together to collaborate on a project. Wikipedia (an online
encyclopedia) is a good example of a social media-based coauthorship
network created by millions of authors from around the world. A more
explicit example of the coauthorship network is the ResearchGate
platform: a social networking site for researchers to share articles, ask and
respond to questions, and find collaborators. In these networks, nodes
are, for example, researchers, and links represent the coauthorship
relationship.
COCOMMENTER NETWORKS: Cocommenter networks are formed when
two or more people comment on social media content (e.g., a Facebook
status update, blog post, or YouTube video). cocommenter network can,
for example, be constructed from the comments posted by users in
response to a video posted over YouTube or a Facebook fan page. In
these networks, nodes represent users, and link represents the
cocommenting relationship.
COLIKE: In a similar way, colike networks are formed when two or more
people like the same social media content. Using NodeXL (a social
network analysis tool), one can construct a network based on colikes (two
or more people liking a similar content) over Facebook fan page. In such
network, nodes will be Facebook users/fans and links will be the colikes
relationship.
COOCCURRENCE NETWORK
Cooccurrence networks are formed when two more entities (e.g.,
keywords, people, ideas, and brands) cooccur over social media outlets.
For example, one can construct a cooccurrence network of brand names
(or people) to investigate how often certain brands (or people) cooccur
over social media outlets. In such networks, nodes will be the brand
names and the links will represent the cooccurrence relationships among
the brands.
GEO COEXISTENCE NETWORK Geo coexistence networks are formed
when two more entities (e.g., people, devices, and addresses) coexist in a
geographic location. In such a network nodes represents entities (e.g.,
people), and links among them represent coexistence.
HYPERLINK NETWORKS In simple words, hyperlink is a mechanism to
move among electronic documents (such as websites). Hyperlinks can be
referred to as being either in-links, thus bringing traffic/users to your
website) or out-links (i.e., links originating in your website and going out ,
thus sending traffic to other websites). Hyperlink also forms networks.
Typically, in these network nodes are website, and links represent referral
relationships (in the form of in-links or out-links).
TYPES OF NETWORKS
From a technical point of view, the above-mentioned networks can be
classified in a variety of ways, including
1) based on existence,
2) based on direction of links,
3) based on mode, and
4) based on weights.
BASED ON EXISTENCE Based on the way the networks exist online or are
constructed, they can be classified as
1) implicit networks or
2) explicit networks.
Implicit Networks Implicit networks do not exit by default (or are hidden)
and need to be intentionally constructed with the help of dedicated tools and
techniques. Examples of such networks include keyword cooccurrence
networks, cocitation networks, cocommenter networks, hyperlink networks,
etc. Constructing and studying implicit networks can provide valuable
information and insights.
Explicit Networks
Explicit social media networks exist by default; in other words, they
are explicitly designed for social media users to be part of. Most social
media networks are explicit in nature.
Examples of explicit social media networks include Facebook
friendship network, Twitter follow-following networks, LinkedIn
professional networks, YouTube subscribers’ network, and bloggers’
networks. In this chapter we will focus on explicit social media
networks.
BASED ON DIRECTION Based on the directions of links among the nodes,
the networks can be classified as
1) directed networks, and
2) undirected networks.
Directed Networks: A network with directed links among nodes is called a
directed network . Usually, a link with an arrow is drawn to show the
direction of the relationship among the nodes. For example, the Twitter
following-following network is a directed network where direction of the
arrow shows who is following whom.
Undirected Network: In undirected networks, the links among the nodes
do not have any direction. A Facebook friendship network is an example of
undirected network.
BASED ON MODE
Based on the composition of nodes, networks can be classified as
1) one-mode network,
2) two-mode networks, and
3) multimode networks.
One-Mode Networks A one-mode network is formed among a single set
of nodes of the same nature . A Facebook friendship network is an
example of a one-mode network where nodes (people) form network ties
(friendships).
Two-Mode Networks Two-mode networks (also known as bipartite
networks) are networks with two sets of nodes of different classes . In
these networks, network ties exist only between nodes belonging to
different sets ,
Multimode Network A multimode network is also possible where
multiple heterogeneous nodes are connected together. It can be
considered as an amalgam of one and two-mode networks.
BASED ON WEIGHTS
Networks can also be classified based the weight assigned to the links
among the nodes. Mainly there are two types of weighted networks:
1) weighted networks, and
2) unweighted networks.
Weighted Networks In weighted networks, the links among nodes bear
certain weights to indicate the strength of association among the nodes.
The link (relationship) between, for example, two Facebook friends (nodes)
will be thicker if they communicate more frequently . Weighted networks
can provide rich information, but are difficult to construct.
UNWEIGHTED NETWORKS In unweighted networks, links among nodes does
not bear weights. The links only indicate the existence of a relationship and
cannot provide clues about the strength of relationship (Figure 6).
Unweighted networks are easy to construct, but may conceal useful
information.
COMMON NETWORK TERMINOLOGIES : Network properties can be
divided into two categories
1) node-level properties, and
2) network-level properties.
NODE-LEVEL PROPERTIES Node-level properties focus on one node and its
position in the network. Some important node properties include degree
centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and structural
holes.
Degree Centrality Degree centrality of a node in a network measures the
number of links a node has to other nodes. In a Facebook network, for
example, this will measure the number friendship ties a user has. In a
Twitter network, it will equate to the number of followers a user has. In a
directed network, degree can be either in-degree or out-degree. In-degree
is the number of incoming links a node in a network receives.
For example, in a Twitter network, in-degree represents the
number of followers a person has. Out-degree represents that
number of out links a node sends. In a Twitter network, for
example, the number of people a person follows represents out-
degree of a person (node). In certain networks, such as a Twitter
network, in-degree (number of followers a person has) is a more
important measure of a node’s influence than out-degree
(number of people a person follows).
Betweenness Centrality Betweenness centrality is related to the
centrality (or position) of a node in a network. The nodes with high
betweenness centrality have the ability to control or facilitate
collaboration or flow of information due to their central position in
the network .
In a Facebook friendship network, for example, the users who occupy
the central position are better positioned to control the flow of social
media content.
Eigenvector Centrality Eigenvector centrality measures the
importance of a node based on its connections with other important
nodes in a network. It can provide an understanding of a node’s
networking ability relative to that of others.
Components
Components of a network are the isolated sub-networks that connect
within, but are disconnected between, sub-networks. In a connected
component, all nodes are connected and reachable, but there is no path
between a node in the component and any node not in the component. The
main or largest component of a network is the component with the largest
number of nodes.
Diameter The diameter of a network is the largest of all the calculated
shortest path between any pair of nodes in a network and it can provide an
idea of how long it would take for some information/ideas/message to pass
through the network.
Average Degree The average degree centrality measures the average
number of links among nodes in a network.
NETWORK ANALYTICS TOOLS
NodeXL: NodeXL is the free tool for social network analysis and
visualization. It can help you construct and analyze Facebook networks
(based on colikes and cocomments), Twitter networks (followers, followings,
and tweets), and YouTube networks (user network and comments), among
others.
UCINET: UCINET is a social network analysis software application for
windows operating system. It also includes Netdraw tool for network
visualization. It can be downloaded and used for free for 90 days:
https://sites.google.com/site/ucinetsoftware/home.
Pajek: Pajek is a software application for analyzing and visualizing large
networks (http://mrvar.fdv.uni-lj.si/pajek/). Pajek runs on Microsoft
Windows operating systems and is free for noncommercial use.
Netminer: Netminer (http://www.netminer.com/) is also a software
application for large social network analysis and visualization. The
application can used be for free for 28 days.
Flocker: Flocker (http://flocker.outliers.es/) is a Twitter real-time retweets
and mentions networks analytics tool.
Reach: Reach is an online platform to map hashtag networks and identify
the most influential accounts in the Twitter conversation:
http://www.reachsocial.com/.
Mentionmapp:
This online tool is used to investigate Twitter mentions networks
(http://mentionmapp.com/).
NETWORK MEASURES
Degree Distribution
Degree is used to describe individual nodes. To get an idea of the degree for all the
nodes in the network, we can build the degree distribution. This shows how many
nodes have each possible degree.
To create a degree distribution,
calculate the degree for each node in the network. Table 1 shows the degrees for
each node in the graph shown in Figure .
The next step is to count how many nodes have each degree. This is totaled for each
degree, including those for which there are no nodes with that count. Table 2 shows
the node count for each degree in this network.
Table1 Table 2
The most common way to show a degree distribution is in a bar graph.
The x-axis has the degrees in ascending order, and the Y-axis indicates how many
nodes have a given-degree. For the data in Table 2, we would make a bar graph as
shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2
Density
Graph density represents the ratio between the edges present in a graph and the maximum
number of edges that the graph can contain. Conceptually, it provides an idea of how dense
a graph is in terms of edge connectivity.
The graph G1 contains 4 nodes and 4 edges. We’re interested in knowing the maximum
number of edges G1 can contain.
We added 2 more edges to the graph G1. Therefore, the graph,G2 now contains 4 nodes
and 6 edges. We can’t add any more edges to it.

G1 G2
Standard formula to calculate the maximum number of edges in a simple undirected graph:

And for the directed graph

Example
We’ll calculate the density for a directed and an undirected graph.
The directed graph has 5 vertices and 6 edges. But in order to calculate density, first, we need
to calculate the maximum number of edges possible in the graph. Finally, we divide the
number of edge present in G2 with the maximum number of edges in order to calculate
density:
The undirected graph G3 has 6 vertices and 8 edges. First, we’ll calculate the maximum number of
edges for G3:

G3
Connectivity
Density measures the percentage of possible edges in a graph. Connectivity measures how
those edges are distributed.
Connectivity is a count of the minimum number of nodes that would have to be removed
before the graph becomes disconnected; that is, there is no longer a path from each node
to every other node.
In G4 , the connectivity is 1 because removing node B, C, or D would disconnect the graph.
Since removing any one of those nodes disconnects the graph, the connectivity is 1.
In G5 , the connectivity is 2. For example, removing nodes E and F would separate G5 from
the rest of the graph. If we removed B and D instead, node A would become separated.

G4 G5