Using Graph Theory to Identify Social Media Influencers for Marketing
https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2020/03/using-graphs-to-identify-social-media-influencers/
https://grin.co/blog/influencers-network-analysis/
The two articles, “Using Graphs to Identify Social Media Influencers” by Prateek Joshi and “How Network Analysis Helps in Finding the Right Influencers” by Grin Technologies, both discuss the social media network and its connection to graph theory. Specifically, they describe different ways to identify the right influencers to reach out to promote a business. Social media has a profound presence in our society today and due to this influence social media has on our world, it has dramatically changed the way businesses market their products. In their article, Grin includes results from a 2017 survey where 28% of their sample has responded that influencer marketing is the fastest method to grow their customer base. Social media has made it possible for any ordinary person to gain a following of thousands and even millions of followers. These influencers have grown a vast network through their followers and this network is a great tool for marketing. Both Grin and Joshi agree that brands should use social network analysis to grow their customer base and take advantage of the ever-growing social media network.
To show how graph theory can be utilized to find the right influencers, Joshi presents this graph and highlights the connections of nodes 6 and 4. In this graph, each node represents a person in this social network, and each line, or edge, indicates a connection between the people. Joshi points out that while node 6 has connections with the most people, node 4 acts as a “route” for nodes 11, 2, 1, and 9 to the other nodes. In other words, node 4 forms a bridge between two groups of nodes. Without node 4, nodes 11, 2, 1, and 9 have no connection to the rest of the graph. Bridges are known to have the possibility of bringing in new information. Due to this quality, the two articles discuss the importance of recognizing influencers that form bridges between social networks. Although compared to 6, node 4 does not have many connections, node 4 could be powerful as an influencer because they can introduce new products to different groups of people and thus, expanding a brand’s customer base. On the other hand, node 6 is connected to the most people, so this can also benefit a brand when reaching out to new potential customers. Grin recommends that brands looking to expand their demographics should look for an influencer like node 4, who is connected to various segments, and brands looking to establish trust as well as expand reach should look for an influencer like node 6 that has many connections in their social media network. Before finding the right influencer for your brand, it is important to establish your goal to know what networks you want to reach. Using graph theory and networks, we are once again able to see the great role social media plays in our world.