Social Networks Wk 2
What is a social network? Connections (ties) between people (nodes) of varying strength and relationship (direct or indirect). How does this connectivity influence the probability of a topic/post being shared (contagion)? Many factors influence whether someone shares and what they say about the post or topic they share. How do we influence/predict that?
To share or not to share are very personal decisions and often driven by the day, mood, and perceived freshness or importance of the post.
Just because someone is a hub (lots of connections) does not mean they will be a great influencer on Word of Mouth (WOM). Several studies have shown that high connectivity does not have a direct correlation to the spread of information. It is getting the message to the right people, at the right time and then if they feel it is important and they connect with it, they will share. I bet if you ask 10 friends, why they share something, the reasons will vary.
Watch your social platforms for the next week from an objective point of view:
- What is shared? By whom? and Why?
- Who else shared it?
- Who didn’t and why?
- See if you can piece together some hypothesis on why your connections are sharing the posts they are?