Social Media

Analytics
Module 1
Introduction to Social Networks/Media
Overview - Introduction to Social Networks/Media

 Overview and Basic Concepts

 Definition and importance of Social Networks
and Social Network Analysis.(SNA)
 Historical background and evolution of SNA.
 Three Levels of SNA, Applications and tools.
 Preliminaries and Basic concepts: nodes,
edges, graphs, networks.
 Graph Visualisation Tools
 Main Text Book -Social Network Analysis -
Tanmoy Chakraborty, Wiley Publications
Social Media

Social Media is the use of electronic and Internet tools for

the purpose of sharing and discussing information and
experiences with other human beings in more efficient ways.

Built on the Web 2.0 philosophy (i.e. give more control to the
user over the content) social media is an easy-to-use
Internet-based platform that provides users with
opportunities to create and exchange content (such as text
videos audio and graphics) in a many-to-many context.
What is Social Media?

• Social media is not limited only to the well-known platforms

such as Facebook Twitter YouTube and blogs.

–Any online platform (proprietary or purpose built) that enable

users to participate collaborate create and share content in
a many-to-many context can be considered social media.

4
Examples of Social Media Platforms:
• Facebook: One of the earliest and most popular social networking
platforms, Facebook allows users to connect with friends, share updates,
photos, and videos, and join interest-based groups.
• Instagram: Focused on visual content, Instagram is a platform for sharing
photos and short videos. It is widely used by individuals, influencers, and
businesses for brand promotion.
• Twitter: Known for its short-form content (tweets limited to 280 characters),
Twitter is a microblogging platform that facilitates real-time conversations
and the sharing of news and updates.
• LinkedIn: Geared towards professionals, LinkedIn is a platform for
networking and career development. Users can showcase their professional
achievements, connect with colleagues, and explore job opportunities.
Examples

1.YouTube: A video-sharing platform, YouTube allows users

to upload, share, and discover videos on a wide range of
topics. It has become a significant platform for content
creators and marketers.
2.Snapchat: Known for its disappearing content, Snapchat
is a multimedia messaging app where users can share
photos and videos that disappear after being viewed.
3.TikTok: A short-form video platform, TikTok is popular for
user-generated content,
Pinterest
• It is a visual discovery and bookmarking platform that allows users to
discover and save ideas for various topics such as fashion, recipes, home
decor, and more.
• Users can create virtual pinboards where they "pin" images and content
from the web or within the Pinterest platform itself.
• Pinterest functions as a social network in that users can follow each other,
repin content, and engage with others through comments and likes.
• It provides a visually-oriented and highly interactive environment, making it a
unique social media platform compared to more text-centric platforms.
• Businesses and individuals often use Pinterest for inspiration, sharing ideas,
and promoting products or services through visually appealing content.
What is Social Media Analytics (SMA)?

• 📌 SMA is the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting

data from social media platforms.
• 📌 Why it’s Important:
• - Business Insights & Customer Sentiment
• - Trend Prediction & Marketing
• - Misinformation Detection
• 📌 Key Platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,
YouTube
Key Techniques in SMA

• 📊 Engagement Analysis: Likes, shares, comments.

• 📢 Sentiment Analysis: Positive/negative opinion
mining using NLP.
• 📈 Trend & Hashtag Analysis: Identifying viral
content.
• 👥 Influencer Identification: Finding key users via
engagement.
Limitations of SMA

• 🚨 What SMA Alone Cannot Do:

• - Engagement metrics don't reveal influence.
• - Virality isn’t explained without tracing connections.
• - Fake accounts/bots can manipulate engagement.
• - Communities exist, but SMA alone doesn’t detect them.

• 👉 This is where Social Network Analysis (SNA) helps!

Introduction to Social Network Analysis (SNA)

• 📌 SNA studies connections (relationships) instead of just

individual content.
• 📌 Key Concept: Graph Theory – Users are nodes, and connections
are edges.
• 🔹 Why SNA Matters:
• - Helps identify real influencers beyond simple follower counts.
• - Maps information diffusion to track viral trends.
• - Detects bot networks and misinformation spread.
• - Identifies communities and clusters of users.
Key Metrics in SNA

• 🔹 Nodes & Edges: Representing users and their relationships.

• 🔹 Degree Centrality: Identifying influential users based on
connections.
• 🔹 Betweenness Centrality: Finding 'bridges' that connect
communities.
• 🔹 Community Detection: Identifying groups of users with strong
interactions.
• 🔹 Information Diffusion: Understanding how content spreads.
Case Study – Viral Tweet Analysis

• 💡 Problem: A brand notices a tweet goes viral but doesn’t know why.

• 📊 Solution with SNA:

• Build a Retweet Network – Map who retweeted whom.
• Identify Key Influencers – Find users with high centrality.
• Detect Community Spread – Track how different audience groups
engaged.
• ✅ Outcome: The brand learns how to optimize future campaigns by
engaging key influencers.
Applications of SNA in SMA

• 📌 Influencer Marketing: Brands use centrality measures to find

real influencers.
• 📌 Fake News Detection: Mapping misinformation spread using
network analysis.
• 📌 Community Detection: Identifying interest-based clusters for
marketing.
• 📌 Bot Detection: Unusual dense clusters can signal bot activity.
• 📌 Crisis Management: Tracking rumor spread to prevent panic.
Swiggy's 'Why is This a Swiggy Ad' campaign.
• In October 2022, Swiggy shared an image filled with various details and challenged
the audience to guess why it was a Swiggy ad. Participants stood a chance to win ₹1
lakh each. This campaign became a major talking point on the internet during that
period.
• To understand the success and impact of such a campaign, Social Network Analysis
(SNA) can be instrumental.
• Identifying Key Influencers:Centrality Measures: By analyzing metrics like degree
centrality (number of direct connections) and betweenness centrality (nodes that act
as bridges), SNA can pinpoint individuals who played pivotal roles in disseminating
the campaign content.
• Community Detection:Clustering Algorithms: Techniques such as the Louvain method
can uncover sub-communities within the larger network that were particularly
engaged with the campaign.
Swiggy Example - Contd

• Information Diffusion Analysis:

• Cascade Models: By modeling how the campaign's content spread, SNA can reveal
the pathways through which the message propagated and identify any bottlenecks or
accelerators in the information flow.
• Sentiment Analysis within Networks:Opinion Leaders: By overlaying sentiment
analysis on the network structure, it's possible to determine how positive or negative
sentiments about the campaign spread and which influencers had the most impact
on public perception.
• By leveraging SNA, companies can gain a deeper understanding of how their
campaigns traverse social networks, identify key players in the dissemination process,
and refine future strategies for enhanced engagement and reach.
FoodPharmer - 2024
• In 2024, a significant viral social media campaign in India was led by the influencer
Revant Himatsingka, known online as FoodPharmer.
• He gained widespread attention by highlighting the high sugar content in popular
food products, notably targeting Bournvita, a well-known health drink.
• His video critiques resonated with a vast audience, leading to over 12 million views
on Instagram before being taken down due to legal pressures.
• To understand the dynamics and impact of this campaign, Social Network Analysis
(SNA) can be instrumental.
• Identifying Key Influencers:
– Centrality Measures: By analyzing metrics like degree centrality (number of direct
connections) and betweenness centrality (nodes that act as bridges), SNA can
pinpoint individuals who played pivotal roles in disseminating the campaign
content.
 FoodPharmer – Contd.
• Community Detection:
– Clustering Algorithms can uncover sub-communities within the larger network that were
particularly engaged with the campaign.
• Information Diffusion Analysis:
– Cascade Models: By modeling how the campaign's content spread, SNA can reveal the
pathways through which the message propagated
• Sentiment Analysis within Networks:
– Opinion Leaders: By overlaying sentiment analysis on the network structure, it's possible
to determine how positive or negative sentiments about the campaign spread and which
influencers had the most impact on public perception.
• By leveraging SNA, we gain a comprehensive understanding of how such health-related
messages disseminate through social media, identify key players in the spread of
information, and develop strategies to effectively manage public perception and response.
Zomato’s Viral “Blink-And-Miss” Twitter Campaign & Social
Network Analysis
• Overview
• Zomato, one of India’s leading food delivery platforms, is known for its
witty and viral social media campaigns. In 2023-2024, Zomato ran a
“blink-and-miss” Twitter (X) campaign, posting cryptic one-word tweets
that got users guessing, engaging, and resharing.
• This campaign went viral, with massive user participation, meme pages,
and influencers amplifying the buzz.
• While Social Media Analytics (SMA) helped track impressions and
engagement, Social Network Analysis (SNA) played a key role in
identifying viral content spread, influencer impact, and audience
clusters.
Using SNA -1

• Identifying Key Amplifiers & Trend Drivers

• Zomato used SNA to analyze the engagement graph on Twitter (X).
• The most influential nodes (accounts) that drove the highest retweets
were identified—these included:
–Meme pages like “Trendulkar” & “Gabbar Singh”
–Influencers & food bloggers
–News/media handles that picked up the viral trend
• ✅ Impact: Allowed Zomato to engage with top trendsetters directly and
boost organic reach.
Using SNA -2

• Tracking Hashtag Spread & Virality

• SNA tracked how the campaign’s hashtag (#ZomatoBlinkTweet) spread
across social media.
• Using network graphs, analysts observed:
–Early adopters (who engaged within the first few minutes)
–Engagement spikes when celebrities or brands joined the trend
–How different online communities (tech, memes, food lovers)
reacted
• ✅ Impact: Helped predict when engagement would peak and adjust
post timings accordingly.
Using SNA -3
• Community Detection for Targeted Ads
• SNA revealed distinct communities engaging with the campaign,
including:
–Meme pages & casual Twitter users (for fun engagement)
–Food bloggers & restaurant owners (business tie-ups)
–Tech & marketing professionals (who analyzed the campaign strategy)
• Based on this, Zomato ran targeted paid promotions:
–More meme-based ads for casual users
–Business-focused engagement for restaurants
• ✅ Impact: Higher ad conversion rates and better audience segmentation.
Using SNA - 4
• Sentiment Analysis & Crisis Detection
• SNA overlaid with sentiment analysis helped Zomato track how users
were reacting:
–Positive clusters: People enjoying the campaign, creating memes
–Negative clusters: Users confused or criticizing it as overhyped
• When negative sentiment nodes began forming, Zomato:
–Responded with funny replies & explanations
–Introduced food offers linked to the campaign, turning confusion into
engagement
• ✅ Impact: Crisis averted & engagement sustained without negative PR.
Using SNA -5
• Measuring ROI on Viral
Engagement
• Zomato tracked direct impact on
app downloads & food orders.
• SNA linked viral tweet
engagement with real-time
order spikes.
• Compared ROI of organic social
media vs. paid influencer
marketing.
• ✅ Impact: Data-driven insights
helped optimize future
campaigns.
Tools for SNA in Social Media Analytics

• 🛠 Gephi – Visualization of social media networks.

• 🛠 NetworkX (Python) – Programmatic network
analysis.
• 🛠 Twitter API + Tweepy – Extract real social media
data.
• 🛠 Graph Theory Algorithms – Used in AI-driven
analytics.
Definitions
Social Networks
• Social networks refer to structures made up of individuals or entities connected by
relationships, such as friendships, professional ties, or shared interests.
• These networks can exist in offline settings (e.g., family connections, professional
networks) or online platforms that facilitate interactions.
• In the context of Social Network Analysis (SNA), social networks are studied using
graph theory, where nodes represent entities (people, organizations) and edges
represent relationships between them.
• Social Media
• Social media refers to digital platforms and technologies that enable users to create,
share, and interact with content and other users.
• It includes websites and applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn,
and TikTok. Social media platforms often serve as online social networks by allowing
users to connect, communicate, and engage in various forms of social interaction.
Summarizing

• Social Media: Platforms (like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) where users create,
share, and engage with content.
• Social Networks: The underlying connections between people, organizations, and
communities that exist within and outside of social media.
• 📌 Example of Their Connection:
• When you follow someone on Instagram, you're creating a social network
connection.
• When you like, comment, or share a post, you're engaging in social media activity—
which can be analyzed using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to understand who
influences whom.
What is Social Network Analysis?
Network:
An abstract representation of relations
among entities

Social Network:
A simplified representation of the social
structure characterized by actors and ties

Social Network Analysis:

The application of networks and graph
theory to analyze the relations present in
a society
 Network: Definition
• A network, also referred to as a graph, is defined as an ordered pair G(V, E), where V is a
set of nodes (also referred to as vertices or entities), and E is a set of edges (also referred
to as links or relations) joining the nodes.
• Depending on the nature of application, the above definition may be revised or
augmented, as follows:
– the nature of edges may vary – undirected (also called asymmetric, or irreversible)
edges, directed (also called symmetric, or reversible) edges, or hyperedges, etc.
– both the nodes and/or the linked are associated with one or more attributes/features
like weights, timestamps, textual features, etc.
• An edge in a graph may have same node as end nodes. Such edges of a graph are called
self loops (or, simply, loops).
• A graph may have more than one edge joining a pair of nodes. Such edges are called
parallel edges.
 Network: Definition (contd…)

A graph having neither self loops nor parallel edges are called a
simple graph.
A graph having directed edges (i.e. links having a direction) is
called a directed graph. Directed edges are also referred to as
arcs. A directed graph
A graph having no direction in its edges is called an undirected
A graph with loops 3
graph.
and parallel edges 3
A graph having weights associated with its edges are called a -6
1
weighted graph. A weighted graph can be directed as well as 6 2 9 7
undirected. 4 7
A graph having its nodes and/or edges attributed with feature -5
values is called an attributed graph. -2
A simple graph A weighted graph
A sample of Twitter follower-followee network
(image source: http://allthingsgraphed.com/2014/11/02/twitter-friends-network/)
Social Networks

• A social network is a set of actors that may have relationships with one
another.
• Networks can have few or many actors (nodes), and one or more kinds of
relations (edges) between pairs of actors.
• A social relation is anything that links two actors. Examples include:
• Kinship Co-membership
• Friendship Talking with
• Exchange Trust
• Coauthorship
Facebook as a Graph
• In the Facebook network model, there are three types of nodes which are users, posts
and groups.
• The links are friendship (red), reactions on posts (green), creation of posts (blue),
messages (pink) and group membership (purple).
• Four sub graphs can be extracted from Facebook network model to analyze the user
behavior of Facebook.
• They are; Friendship graph, Graph for reacting on posts, Groups graph, Messaging graph.
Social Network as a Graph

• A natural representation of social network data is to view its structure as

a graph.
• Entities are converted to nodes in the graph.
• Nodes can be of different types—e.g., people, organizations, and events.
• Edges in the graph correspond to relations between entities.
• If a degree associated with the relationship, represented by labeling the
edges.
• Edges can be one-directional, bi directional and need not be binary.
Nodes and Edges

A network is a graph, or a collection of points connected by lines

• Points are referred to as nodes, actors, or vertices
• Connections are referred to as edges or ties

Node
Edge
Graphs - Sociograms

• Labeled circles represent actors

• Line segments represent edges ( ties)
• Graph may represent one or more types of relations
• Each tie can be directed or show co-occurrence
• Strength of ties:
–Nominal
–Signed
–Ordinal
–Valued
Nodes or Actors

• In a friendship social graph, nodes are people and any pair of people connected
denotes the friendship between them
• Depending on the context, these nodes are called nodes, or actors
– In a web graph, “nodes” represent sites and the connection between nodes indicates web-
links between them
– In a social setting, these nodes are called actors
– The size of the graph is
Edges

• Edges connect nodes and are also known as ties or relationships

• In a social setting, where nodes represent social entities such as people, edges
indicate internode relationships and are therefore known as relationships or
(social) ties

• Number is edges (size of the edge-set) is denoted as

Directed Edges and Directed Graphs

• Edges can have directions. A directed edge is sometimes called an arc

• Edges are represented using their end-points .

• In undirected graphs both representations are the same
Graph Representation

• Graph representation is straightforward

and intuitive, but it cannot be
effectively manipulated using
mathematical and computational tools

• We need representations that can store these two sets in a way

such that
– Does not lose information
– Can be manipulated easily by computers
– Can have mathematical methods applied easily
 Network Representation: Adjacency Matrix

An adjacency matrix 𝐴 = 𝑎𝑖𝑗 for a graph 𝐺(𝑉, 𝐸) is a square matrix of dimension |𝑉| × |𝑉|
such that each element 𝑎𝑖𝑗 of A indicates the existence of an edge between the node 𝑣𝑖 and
node 𝑣𝑗 (also the weight of the corresponding edge in case of a weighted graph) in 𝐺.

8
1 2 1 2
0 1 1 0 0 7
1 0 1 1 1 5 0 8 3 0 0
A(G1) = 1 1 0 0 1 3 6 8 0 5 6 7
5 0 1 0 0 1 5 A(G2) = 3 5 0 0 9
0 1 1 1 0 0 6 0 0 2
3 3 9 0 7 9 2 0
2
4 4
G1 G2
Adjacency Matrix (a.k.a. sociomatrix)

 1, if there is an edge between nodes 𝑣𝑖 and 𝑣𝑗

Aij  
 0, otherwise

Diagonal Entries are self-links or loops

Social media networks have

very sparse Adjacency matrices
 Adjacency Matrices
Friendship
Jim Jill Jen Joe
Jim - 1 0 1
Jill 1 - 1 0 Jill
Jen 0 1 - 1 1 3
Joe 1 0 1 - Jen
9
Jim

Proximity 15
Jim Jill Jen Joe 3
2
Jim - 3 9 2 Joe
Jill 3 - 1 15
Jen 9 1 - 3
Joe 2 15 3 -
Adjacency Matrix and Connectivity

• Consider the following adjacency matrix

• Number of Common neighbors between node 𝑖 and node 𝑗

• That’s element of [ij] of matrix 𝐴 × 𝐴𝑇 = 𝐴2 i j

• Common neighbors are paths of length 2
• Similarly, what is 𝐴3 ?
Network Representation: Adjacency Matrix (Cont…)

Advantages Disadvantages

Consumes 𝑂( 𝑉 2 ) storage space, even

Easy to implement and follow
if the graph is sparse

Addition, and removal of an edge Addition or removal of a node require

require 𝑂(1) time 𝑂 𝑉 2 time

Query to an edge require 𝑂(1)

time
 Network Representation: Adjacency List

An adjacency list for a graph 𝐺(𝑉, 𝐸) is a collection of unordered lists such that each node
correspond to a list from the collection that indicates the set of neighbours of the node.
Every entry in an adjacency list 𝐴𝑖 for node 𝑣𝑖 in the graph is a node adjacent to node 𝑣𝑖

1 2 3 1 2,8 3,3
1 2 1 8 2
2 7 2 1,8 3,5 4,6 5,7
1 3 4 5 5
5 3 6 5
3 3 1 2 5 3 1,3 2,5 5,9
3 9
4 2
4 2 5 4 4 2,6 5,2
G1 G2
5 2 3 4 5 2,7 3,9 4,2
Network Representation: Adjacency List (Cont…)

advantages disadvantages
Require 𝑂(|𝑉|+|𝐸|) space
Removal of edge require 𝑂(|𝐸|)
Insertion of vertex and edge require time
𝑂(1) time
Query to an edge require 𝑂(|𝑉|)
Removal of vertex require time
𝑂(|𝑉|+|𝐸|) time
Adjacency List

• In an adjacency list for every node, we maintain a list of all the nodes that it
is connected to
• The list is usually sorted based on the node order or other preferences
Edge List

• In this representation, each element is an edge and is usually represented

as 𝑢, 𝑣 , denoting that node 𝑢 is connected to node 𝑣 via an edge
 Types of Social Relations

In general, a relation can be: (1) Binary or Valued (2) Directed or Undirected

b d b d

a c e a c e

Undirected, binary Directed, binary

b d b d
1 3 1 2

a c
4
e a c e

Undirected, Valued Directed, Valued

Type Definition Real-World Example

Relationship exists (1) or does not Two people are friends on Facebook
Binary Relation
exist (0) or not
Relationship has a weight (frequency, Number of messages exchanged on
Valued Relation
strength) WhatsApp

Type Definition Real-World Example

Twitter follow: A follows B, but B
Directed A → B (one-way interaction)
may not follow back
Facebook friendship: A and B are
Undirected A ↔ B (mutual interaction)
both friends

Type Definition Real-World Example

A relationship exists, but only in one
Binary-Directed A emails B, but B does not reply
direction
Binary-Undirected A relationship exists and is mutual Two people have a LinkedIn connection
Number of times A likes B’s Instagram
Valued-Directed Strength of interaction in one direction
posts
Number of times two co-authors publish
Valued-Undirected Strength of mutual relationship
papers together
 Follows Relationship in Twitter

Jack

Kris Pete Mary

Bob
Alex Eve
Tim

• Instagram LinkedIn are examples of Directed Social graphs

FaceBook – Undirected Edges

Stan

Brin Pete Mark

Bob

Irene
DBLP- Weighted Edges

Tan

2 2

1
Liu Ping Mark

3
2
Han
1
Kumar
Heterogenous Social Graphs
• Different types of entities (multi-mode network) and relationships
(multirelational network).
–Co-purchasing network -product nodes and customer nodes. Edges may
exist if a customer purchases a product.
–In Amazon it is reasonable existence of distributor information to add a
third type of node.
–Edges between customer and a product, a product sold by a distributor,
and also a customer and a distributor. Different customers could buy the
same product from different distributors.
–Movies dataset UCI eight different node types, actor, movie, role, studio,
distributor, genre, award and country and links between them.
• k-partite graph - k is the number of different node types.
• k-partite graph consists of k disjoint sets of nodes, with no edges between
nodes of the same set.
• One special graph is a bi-partite graph where k=2.
A tripartite Social Graph

X1 X2

X3
A

P1
B C

P2
Signed Graphs

• The graph with signed data uses a + on the arrow to indicate a

positive choice, a - to indicate a negative choice, and no arrow to
indicate neutral or indifferent.
Type Definition Real-World Example
Relationships exist but lack Facebook friendships, LinkedIn
Unsigned Network
sentiment (only presence/absence) connections, Email networks
Reddit upvotes/downvotes,
Relationships have positive (+) or
Signed Network Trust/Distrust networks, Online
negative (-) sentiment
product reviews

Network Type Signed or Unsigned? Example

Presence of a connection, no explicit
Facebook Friends Network Unsigned
"dislike"
Follows are one-directional, no explicit
Twitter Follower Network Unsigned
negative ties
Users mark others as trustworthy (+) or
Epinions Trust/Distrust Network Signed
untrustworthy (-)
Users can upvote (+) or downvote (-)
Reddit Upvotes/Downvotes Signed
content
Users rate others as reliable (+) or
Bitcoin Alpha Trust Network Signed
unreliable (-) in transactions
Network Types: Link-centric View
Unipartite Network
• Link-Centric Social Networks focus on the
relationships (edges/links) between entities
(nodes) rather than the individual entities
themselves.
• These networks emphasize interactions, strength,
and type of connections.
Consists of a vertex set V and an edge set E. There is no restriction
on the formation of edges between nodes of the network

Example: An organizational LAN, where nodes are the devices, and

edges are the local area links.

Used to model the situation when links can join any pair of nodes
of the network
Network Types: Link-centric View
Bipartite Network
Consists of a vertex set V that is divided into two sets V1
and V2 that are disjoint and independent. Each edge of the
network connects a vertex in V1 to another vertex in V2
Example: An e-commerce user-product network. One part
consists of the users, the other part consists of the
products, the links are based on the basis of who bought
what.
Generalization of Bipartite network is n-partite networks,
where the vertex set is partitioned into n number of part,
an edges join a node from one part with a node from
another part.
 Network Types: Link-centric View
Signed Networks
Consists of a set of nodes V, a set of edges E, and a function f : E
+ → {+, −} that assigns each edge a positive or a negative sign
+
+ -
+ Example: Consider a social media website that allows users to
+ - tag other users as friends or foes. The positive edges are
friendship links and negative links are between foes.

studied specifically in the context of balance and status theory

which determines the stability or existence of certain types of
structural patterns in a network.
Link Centric Networks
• Social Media: Identifying influencers on Twitter.
• Healthcare: Analyzing patient-doctor referral networks.
• Finance: Detecting fraud through transaction links.
• E-commerce: Product recommendation via purchase links.

• Problem: How does Facebook recommend new friends?

🔹 Solution: Facebook uses Link Prediction Algorithms
• It identifies mutual friends
• Looks at past interactions (likes, comments, tags)
• Suggests potential new friends based on graph structures
•
Node Centric networks
• node-centric social networks focus on individual entities (nodes) rather
than the relationships (links) between them. These networks analyze
how important or influential a node is within the structure.
• Common measures include:
–Degree Centrality:
–Betweenness Centrality: etc
• Examples of Node-Centric Social Networks
– Twitter Influencer Network –
– Disease Spread in Healthcare Networks
– LinkedIn Professional Networks
– Facebook Friend Network
Network Types: Node and Link-centric View: Homogeneous
Network

Consists of a set of nodes V, all of which are of same

type, and a set of edges E , all of which are of same
type

Example: Follower-Followee network of any kind.

Nodes are the users of the platform (all nodes are
of same type),
Links are the follower-followee link between these
nodes (all links are of same type)
Network Types: Node and Link-centric View: Heterogeneous
Network Consists of a set of nodes V and a set of edges E, and two associated
mapping functions, fv and fe, for nodes and edges, respectively. fv maps a
node to a node type and fe maps an edge to an edge type
Example: We consider a specific instance of Twitter network like the
figure.
Two types of nodes:
Twitter Users
Tweet Posts
Four types of edges representing four types of relations between these
nodes:
.Posted-by (User – Post: Directed links)
Followed-by (User – User: Directed links)
Similar (Post – Post: Undirected links)
Retweet (User – Post: Directed links)
 Network Types: Node and Link-centric View: Attributed
Network
Consists of a set of nodes V and a set of edges E, and two
associated mapping functions, fv and fe, for nodes and edges,
respectively. fv maps a node to a node attribute vector and and fe
maps an edge to an edge attribute vector CSE, IIT

Example: We consider a specific instance of Facebook network like ECE, IIT CSE, NIT

the figure
Nodes are some Facebook users ECE, NIT

CSE, IIT
Edges are given by Facebook friendship relationship between CSE, NIT

these users
CSE, IIT ECE, IIT
Node attributes are the users’ academic affiliations
There is no edge attribute in this network
 The example is a node-attributed network
 Network Types: Node and Link-centric View: Multidimensional
Network

A special type of multilayer network where each layer

represents a particular type of relationship among
nodes
Example 1: A special instance of Twitter network:
Nodes are Twitter users in both layer
Layer 1 edges: user – user similarity links (based on
mutual interests) – Undirected links
Layer 2 edges: user – user follower-followee links –
Directed links
Note: In this example, each layer is node homogeneous.
 Network Types: Node and Link-centric View:
Multidimensional Network (Cont…)
 Example 2: Customer – product relationships as a multidimensional
complex network system
Layer 1: One type of nodes, one type of edges:
Nodes: Customers
Edges: Customer Social Interaction – Undirected links
Layer 2: Two types of nodes, two types of nodes
Nodes:
High performance Cars,
Fuel efficient cars
Edges:
Car feature association – Undirected links
Car preference association – Directed links
Inter-layer edges: two types of edges https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Modeling-customer-preferences-using-
Customer – Car: Purchase decision – Undirected links network-in-Wang-Chen/539c7f0632041903521b8cbc42eabd27b8844673

Customer – Car: Consideration decision – Undirected links

Network Types: Local View: Ego-centric Network

 A network of the form G(V, E, u), that corresponds to a node u ∈ V, usually

known as the ‘ego’, and consists of the node u as the central node, the nodes
that are connected directly to the node u, usually known as the ‘alters’, and
the induced subgraph for the same.

Example: A subgraph of a Facebook

Friendship Network:
Ego node corresponds to a user,
Alter nodes are his Facebook friends
from different capacities and
affiliations.
Ego Centric Networks

• An ego network is defined as a portion of a social network

formed of a given individual, termed ego, and the other
persons with whom she has a social relationship,
termed alters..
• For example with ego centric analytics, We find that friends
who favor similar topics form topic-based clusters; these
clusters have dense connection, large growth rates, and little
overlap.
• Useful to measure information diffusion too
EgoCentric Network in FaceBook

•Facebook Friend Circle

•Twitter Mention Network
•LinkedIn Professional
Network
•YouTube Collaboration
Network
Network Types: Temporal View: Time-varying Network

Consists of a set of nodes V and a set of edges E where each edge ei,j ∈ E is
represented by a three- tuple ei,j = {vi, vj, tij}. Here, vi and vj are two end-points, and
tij indicates the persistence duration of the edge eij

Example: Person-to-person communication network over a span of time. The visible

components are snapshots of the network at different time instances.
Network Types: Generalized View:
Hypergraph
Defined by a set of nodes V and a set of edge or hyperedges E, where
each hyperedge e connects multiple nodes of the hypergraph
Example: A special representation of Coauthoship Network:
Nodes are authors
Papers are hyperedges connecting the coauthors of the paper

•Group Chats & Forums

•Collaboration Networks
•Online Social Communities
Social Network Analysis: Key Features

• Required Knowledge Domains

 Sociology  Psychology  Mathematics  Statistics  Computer Science

• Study Benefits
To know the way social interactions influence a network
To learn how the information flows inside a network
To characterize roles of the individuals in a network
To characterize communities inside a network
To characterize the evolution of a network
 Key Application Areas

Healthcare Police & Military

Combating Epidemics Fighting cyber crimes
Mass Vaccination Fighting terrorism
Social Media & E-Commerce Network-centric warfare
Friend & Follow Recommendation Scientific Research & Academic Collaboration
Know Your Customers Ranking scientific publications
Recommendation & viral marketing Ranking scientific authors
Web & Cyberspace Ranking publication venues
Search engine optimization Miscellaneous
Malware detection Computer-supported collaborative learning
Spam detection Complex project management
SNA Applications: Healthcare
Modeling the spread of infectious diseases

Contact tracing during epidemic outbreak to

identify possible patients

Identify and isolate super-spreaders

Planning lockdown schedule

Identify vulnerable population during

vaccination

Planning vaccination schedule, etc. 2003 SARS contact Network in Taiwan

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6892-0_15
 SNA Applications: Social Media
Identifying friendship structures in online social
media

Recommending friends, and groups, or pages to

follow

Identifying information propagation patterns in

social networks

 Designing Humanitarian response applications

after large-scale crises, etc.
An Example Map of a Facebook Friendship Network
https://mathconceptions.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/application-snippet-friendship-and-influence-in-social-networks/
SNA Applications: E-Commerce
 Customer profiling to Know the customers

 Product/Service recommendation based on customer

profile

 Instigating viral marketing by pinpointing influential

players

 “People like you buy”, “Frequently bought with this”, or

“Frequently browsed”, “Trending” are common buzzwords

Influential Communities in Social Network

https://towardsdatascience.com/influential-communities-in-social-network-simplified-fe5050dbe5a4
SNA Applications:
Cybercrimes & Terrorism
 Online fraud, fake news propagation, cyber
bullying/trolling, sharing risk materials, etc. rising with
growth of social media

 Terrorists often use social media to communicate as well as

to brainwash innocent people

 These people often span across countries and use

untraceable communication devices

 Tracking cyber criminals in conventional methods are

difficult due to user anonymity, fake accounts, lack of cyber
laws, etc.

9/11 Terrorist Network

 Social network analysis techniques help nabbing these
http://www.orgnet.com/hijackers.html criminals
 SNA Applications: Scientific Research & Academic Collaboration

 Scientific authors cite (refer) the works of other authors in their

publications to authenticate their claims

 Finding the dynamics of these citations attracted social scientists

 Various networks of scholarly articles may be formed exploiting

this relationship
 Paper-paper citation network
 Paper-paper co-citation network, etc.

 Various popular metrics are outcome of analysing these

networks.
 Publication related: H-index, i-10 index, g-index, etc.
 Venue related: impact factor, CORE rank, etc.

https://library.bu.edu/citedreferences
 SNA Applications: Scientific Research & Academic Collaboration

 Scientific authors collaborate with one another to

improve research quality

 Various scholar networks may be formed using

these relationships
 Author collaboration network
 Author citation network
 Author co-citation network, etc.

 Information retrieved from these networks may

be used to measure authors’ research quality

https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2017/04/07/updated-figures-
scale-nature-researchers-use-scholarly-collaboration-networks/
 SNA Applications: Computer-supported Collaborative Learning

 Pedagogical process of observation where students learn

progressively through active group interaction using ICT

 SNA techniques used to extract relationship between

various actors (human and non-human) of CSCL

 Study insights are used to improve the students’ learning

outcome and user experience

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Characteristics-of-the-Computer-
Supported-a-on-Hashim-Ismail/42176e6bf76dd15a2c9874e6fa8696e153a3f554
Popular Real-world Networks

Social Network Information Network

Telephone call network World Wide Web (WWW)
Email message network Citation network
Film actor collaboration network Technological Network
Academic co-authorship network Electric power grids
Biological Network Networks of airline routes
Protein-protein interaction networks Network of Railway Routes
Genetic regulatory networks Electronic circuits
Neural networks Delivery networks of post-office/Courier
Metabolic networks The Internet
Food Web Language Network
Cell signalling networks Network formed by using the persons
speaking a particular language
 Levels of Social Network Analysis: Microscopic Level

We begin by analyzing how a pair of nodes interacts and gradually trace the
interactions at the group level or subgraph level.
Dyadic level  Interaction patterns among two nodes
Examined properties: homophily, reciprocity, social equality, mutuality, etc.
Derived global statistics: assortativity, mixing coefficient, etc.
Triadic level  Interaction patterns among three nodes
Examined properties: triadic closure
Derived network properties: Clustering Coefficient, local bridges, etc.
Ego-centric circles  Interaction pattern between ego node with its alters
Levels of Social Network Analysis: Mesoscopic Level
Mesoscopic analysis is an intermediary between microscopic and macroscopic
analyses, which mostly deals with a subset of the entire population.
Communities  Formed due to frequent interactions among homogeneous
nodes in a network
Within a community, the nodes exhibit a particular kind of dynamicity
Across communities, the dynamic behaviour differs
Network Motifs  Subgraphs that repeat themselves frequently within or across
a network
Highly effective in capturing functional properties in a network

Undirected motifs with size 4 and their names

Levels of Social Network Analysis: Macroscopic Level

At macroscopic level, we deal with the entire network as a whole and try to
understand the micro-level dynamics by exploring the overall graph property.
Features of Interest :
Connectedness,
Diameter or Average path length,
Degree Distribution,
Edge Density, etc.
Example:
We find that the diameter of a network is too small ⇒ network may look like a
star, or a clique
We further find that overall edge density is too high ⇒ network looks like a clique
 History - Early Foundations (1930s–1970s)
Year Key Event Contributor(s) Significance
First graphical
1930s Sociograms introduced Jacob Moreno representation of social
networks
Mathematical modeling
1950s Random graph theory Paul Erdős, Alfréd Rényi
of networks
Basis for network flow
1950s Information theory Claude Shannon and communication
models
Explains how weak
1973 Strength of Weak Ties Mark Granovetter connections help spread
information
Defines key measures:
1979 Social network centrality Linton Freeman degree, closeness,
betweenness
History - Computational & Web Graphs (1990s–2000s)
Year Key Event Contributor(s) Significance
Larry Page, Sergey Ranks web pages using link
1998 PageRank algorithm
Brin analysis
Duncan Watts, Shows real-world networks
1999 Small-world networks
Steven Strogatz have short path lengths
Facebook's Social Popularizes social graph
2003 Mark Zuckerberg
Graph concept
Twitter’s follower First large-scale directed
2006 Twitter Team
network social network
Identifies hubs and
2008 HITS algorithm Jon Kleinberg authorities in social
networks
History - AI & Big Data in Social Networks (2010s)
Year Key Event Contributor(s) Significance
Enables efficient storage
2012 Graph Databases Neo4j Team of large-scale social
graphs
Introduces deep
2014 DeepWalk Algorithm Perozzi et al. learning on graphs for
embeddings
Improves representation
2015 Node2Vec Algorithm Grover & Leskovec learning for social
networks
Graph Convolutional Applies deep learning to
2017 Kipf & Welling
Networks (GCN) graph-structured data
Uses attention
Graph Attention
2018 Veličković et al. mechanisms for social
Networks (GAT)
graph analysis
History - Real-Time & AI-Driven Social Graphs (2020s & Beyond)

Year Key Event Contributor(s) Significance

Misinformation
Identifies fake news
2021 detection via Graph Various AI Labs
in social networks
AI
Uses social graphs
Twitter/X graph-
2023 Twitter/X AI Team for personalized
based ranking
content delivery
Improves social
Research
2024+ Graph Transformers network predictions
Community
and understanding
 Graph Visualization Tools
Web-based tools Standalone tools
Pollinode: https://www.polinode.com (Non- NDlib-Viz:
open source application) https://ndlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/viz/n
NodeGoat: https://nodegoat.net (Non-open dlib-viz.html (Open source application)
source application) CytoScape: https://cytoscape.org (Open
Linkage: https://linkage.fr (Open source source application)
application) Gephi: https://gephi.org (Open source
EchoDemo: application)
https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/demos/echo Vizster:
(Non-open source application) http://vis.stanford.edu/jheer/projects/vizste
Palladio: r (Open source application)
https://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio (Open SparklingGraph: https://sparkling-
source application) graph.github.io (Open source application)