Facebook and Strongly Connected Communities
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121108131450.htm
http://www.epjdatascience.com/content/1/1/9/abstract
Recent research by Italian scientist Emilio Ferrara analyzes the network structure of Facebook. In his research, he demonstrates through the use of statistical and mathematical analysis that the majority of strongly connected communities within the overall Facebook network are rather small and that large similar communities are relatively rare. These densely connected communities arise not because of individuals but because of larger groups of friends.
This research has important scientific and economic implications. This will allow scientists to test the theory of the strength of weak ties, in which weak connections between individuals allows those individuals to access previously unknown information and opportunities. This research would also help advertisers and businesses to more efficiently transfer information throughout Facebook by specifically targeting strongly connected components. These components allow for high speeds of information transfer. This high-speed transfer is further amplified via the direct benefit effect in which users of a product in the community induce their connections to begin using the same product.
~mrbaggins