IDENTIFYING KEY USERS IN SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES FOR MARKETING PURPOSES: A SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS APPROACH

Abstract

The widespread adoption of the Internet has had a profound impact on the social behavior of youths over the past few years. More time is spent socializing online in social networking websites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, where youths can “hang out” with their friends online. The ease of digital communication and social access has made such websites important communities of “social information” where youths exchange the latest gossip, news and ideas with their friends. This peer-to-peer “social conversation” has gathered much attention among marketers for its influential role in opinion formation among the youths. However, there is a black hole of research and understanding about who the influential communicators are in such online domains. The information flows within a network has to be examined in the context of the social structure and the relationships between the agents involved in this communication. This paper explores social network analysis methods as an introductory tool to understand the social patterns of communication and influence. Using datasets from Facebook.com, the popular college-oriented social networking website, I seek to find network structural properties useful in identifying the important players involved in the communication and influence process. Lastly, this study will be studied in the context of viral marketing and how marketers can harness information about “influential” SNW members in such social networks for design of future SNW-based marketing campaigns.