Learning outcomes:
Understand the purpose of the Influencer Network Graph
Learn how to interpret the graph to identify highly-connected individuals
Discover how to use the graph to gain insights into the spread of subjects, ideas and content
What is the Influencer Network?
The "Influencer Network Graph" is a powerful, live, browser-based engagement graph that maps the way people engage with each other across any data source that has an engagement relationship between two or multiple authors. An engagement in this case can be a comment, a reply or a repost. By using this graph, you can understand who is reacting to whom, and therefore who is central to the conversation and driving it. What’s also unique about our network graph analysis is that the graph is not cached but updated as new data comes in and any filter applied to the dataset will be reflected in the network graph visualisation.
The network graph logic is as follows:
Each node (circle) represents an author and the size of each node represents the number of engagements that the author has generated.
The lines connecting the nodes are called edges, and we shorten or lengthen the edges based on the weight of the specific node (i.e.) the number of engagements it has generated.
To identify highly-connected individuals, you need to look for nodes that have a high number of connections, which are typically located at the centre of the clusters.
By focusing on these groups within the network, you can gain insights into how the discussion flows from one person to another and identify communication patterns around the online conversations that you're analysing.
The more engagements an author generates, the greater their influence within the network, which can provide valuable insights for marketers and researchers looking to understand the dynamics of online communities and conversations.
Note: In addition to this, Pulsar is the only social listening platform that retains a network graph model of any dataset it analyses and allows the user to export the entire dataset as a graph for independent analysis and visualisation. This can be done via our Gephi integration. Gephi is an open-source software application for visualising and analysing large networks and graphs. It provides a user-friendly interface for creating and manipulating complex network graphs, as well as a suite of tools and algorithms for exploring and analysing the structure of these networks.
💡 Top Tip: You can view these highly-connected individuals and the posts that they're contributing to the conversation by clicking on the nodes, like in the screen recording below.
Furthermore, the Influencer Network Graph enables you to gain a better understanding of the spread of subjects, ideas and content. By identifying the highly-connected individuals, you can see how the information flows from one person to another and gain insights into the patterns of communication around the online conversations that you're analysing.
Finally, you can export this graph as an PNG File, XLS, or SVG file. As is the case with most visuals within TRAC, you will find the export option on the top-right of the Network Graph.
