16,086 research outputs found
Identifying influencers in a social network : the value of real referral data
Individuals influence each other through social interactions and marketers aim to leverage this interpersonal influence to attract new customers. It still remains a challenge to identify those customers in a social network that have the most influence on their social connections. A common approach to the influence maximization problem is to simulate influence cascades through the network based on the existence of links in the network using diffusion models. Our study contributes to the literature by evaluating these principles using real-life referral behaviour data. A new ranking metric, called Referral Rank, is introduced that builds on the game theoretic concept of the Shapley value for assigning each individual in the network a value that reflects the likelihood of referring new customers. We also explore whether these methods can be further improved by looking beyond the one-hop neighbourhood of the influencers. Experiments on a large telecommunication data set and referral data set demonstrate that using traditional simulation based methods to identify influencers in a social network can lead to suboptimal decisions as the results overestimate actual referral cascades. We also find that looking at the influence of the two-hop neighbours of the customers improves the influence spread and product adoption. Our findings suggest that companies can take two actions to improve their decision support system for identifying influential customers: (1) improve the data by incorporating data that reflects the actual referral behaviour of the customers or (2) extend the method by looking at the influence of the connections in the two-hop neighbourhood of the customers
Twitterâs big hitters
We describe the results of a new computational experiment on Twitter data. By listening to Tweets on a selected topic, we generate a dynamic social interaction network. We then apply a recently proposed dynamic network analysis algorithm that ranks Tweeters according to their ability to broadcast information. In particular, we study the evolution of importance rankings over time. Our presentation will also describe the outcome of an experiment where results from automated ranking algorithms are compared with the views of social media experts
What Trends in Chinese Social Media
There has been a tremendous rise in the growth of online social networks all
over the world in recent times. While some networks like Twitter and Facebook
have been well documented, the popular Chinese microblogging social network
Sina Weibo has not been studied. In this work, we examine the key topics that
trend on Sina Weibo and contrast them with our observations on Twitter. We find
that there is a vast difference in the content shared in China, when compared
to a global social network such as Twitter. In China, the trends are created
almost entirely due to retweets of media content such as jokes, images and
videos, whereas on Twitter, the trends tend to have more to do with current
global events and news stories
Searching for superspreaders of information in real-world social media
A number of predictors have been suggested to detect the most influential
spreaders of information in online social media across various domains such as
Twitter or Facebook. In particular, degree, PageRank, k-core and other
centralities have been adopted to rank the spreading capability of users in
information dissemination media. So far, validation of the proposed predictors
has been done by simulating the spreading dynamics rather than following real
information flow in social networks. Consequently, only model-dependent
contradictory results have been achieved so far for the best predictor. Here,
we address this issue directly. We search for influential spreaders by
following the real spreading dynamics in a wide range of networks. We find that
the widely-used degree and PageRank fail in ranking users' influence. We find
that the best spreaders are consistently located in the k-core across
dissimilar social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal and
scientific publishing in the American Physical Society. Furthermore, when the
complete global network structure is unavailable, we find that the sum of the
nearest neighbors' degree is a reliable local proxy for user's influence. Our
analysis provides practical instructions for optimal design of strategies for
"viral" information dissemination in relevant applications.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters
Conversations on Twitter create networks with identifiable contours as people reply to and mention one another in their tweets. These conversational structures differ, depending on the subject and the people driving the conversation. Six structures are regularly observed: divided, unified, fragmented, clustered, and inward and outward hub and spoke structures. These are created as individuals choose whom to reply to or mention in their Twitter messages and the structures tell a story about the nature of the conversatio
#WhyIDidntReport: Using social media analysis to inform issues with sexual assault reporting
The #MeToo movement allowed victims of sexual assault to go public with their stories. When Dr. Christine Blasey Ford came forward with allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in September of 2018, she was scrutinized by President Trump for not reporting the incident to authorities âwhen it happened nearly 30 years ago.â Promptly, #WhyIDidntReport came to fruition on Twitter, uncovering the shame victims feel and the complexities behind why so many individuals didnât and still donât report their assaults. Victim-service agencies âprovide victims with support and services to facilitate their physical and emotional recovery, offer protection from future victimizations, guide victims through the criminal justice system, or assist them in obtaining restitution.â Unfortunately, the utilization rate of victim-service agencies is still only 8% for all violent crimesâ not just rape and sexual assault. The purpose of this study is to identify contemporary themes around sexual assault and to determine what factors impact reporting and utilization of sexual assault services in the U.S. By using social media this study identified barriers and challenges victims face when reporting sexual assaults. From this data, I was able to recommend best practices for engaging with the public in online spaces in order to increase agency utilization
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