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05

Nov

What are social networks, and why are they so special?

Written by Jeremy Webb

Category: Blog

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Many people talk about social networks without actually understanding what they are. Bear with us as we delve into the maths of networks, and you’ll have a better understanding of why and how you can use them to your advantage.  Social networks are a special type of network as defined by mathematicians - a “small world” network, made so by the existence of random connections.

In a regular network, with highly ordered connections, you can see that the number of “hops” from one dot to another can be quite high. Try it now - how many hops it takes you to get from the top dot to the bottom dot in picture (a)?



In picture (b) all we have done is make some of the connections random, rather than to their nearest neighbour. This changes connectivity dramatically and many long connections become dramatically shorter. How many hops between the same two dots now?

This shortening is a characteristic of small world and also social networks. It has been the basis of much study, and popularised by the “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon” game, where it has been shown that in the huge pool of 1.5 million living actors, the number of links via movies from any one actor to Kevin Bacon is no more than 6. Try it here - it’s really quite amazing. (http://oracleofbacon.org/)

What does all this mean? Social networks are interesting as it’s the random connections that give them their magic, reducing distances from one person to another. Some people advise “targeting” people when using social media. You might target people with a huge number of followers, or who is highly influential in your field. We say yes, this is a valid strategy, but it’s as important to make those random connections that unbeknownst to you lead to the vital connection that will make a big difference to you or your organisation. - This is an extract from the forthcoming book, "Twitter for charities, non profits and the voluntary sector" by Jim Byrne and Jeremy Webb. Available from iTunes and this site December 2011.

Explore the concept of social networks more deeply with this TED talk by 

Nicholas Christakis.