Visualize your Twitter network

Simple Twitter network analysis using NodeXL and Gephi Olli Parviainen Verkostoanatomia 050 380 6739 www.verkostoanatomia.fi [email_address]

Olli Parviainen Verkostoanatomia twitter: jattipaa blog: verkostoanatomia.wordpress.com www.verkostoanatomia.fi [email_address]

First things first
This presentation is an example on how to create your first Twitter network analysis. I don’t go deep in the network analysis side: using this you can create a basic visualization of a search term network.
First, load gephi (http://gephi.org/) from http://gephi.org/users/download/ Gephi is used to visualize, manipulate and analyze networks. It's a very powerful (and cool tool) that has a active developing community.
Then, download NodeXL (http://nodexl.codeplex.com/). "NodeXL is a free, open-source template for Excel 2007 and 2010 that lets you enter a network edge list, click a button, and see the network graph, all in the Excel window."
In short, NodeXL uses your Office 2007 to pretty much the same things as Gephi does but with Excel. We will use NodeXL to import data from Twitter. The reason why I use Gephi is the efficiency and for the more visually appeasing graphs it produces. Feel free to NodeXL, it's also a excellent tool.

Importing tweets 1/3
Open NodeXL and choose NodeXL from the ribbon
Select import – From Twitter Search Network
Feel free to try the other search types. They are slower (can take hours depending on the network size) and using Twitter during the sweep can cancel your run

Now we can choose a keyword. The keyword can be a word or a hashtag and you can use Twitter’s search operators finding it

Choose your keyword and check all but the ”Follows relationship” (slows things down) in the ”Add an edge for each ” boxes
Uncheck the ”Limit to ” box (unless you checked the ”Follows relationship”, it might be handy)
Note: I recommed also checking the ”I have authorized NodeXL – ” box. It speeds things up and I have never had any problems with it

Exporting tweets
NodeXL has graph visualization properties but I let you explore them yourself
Choose ”Export to GraphML file...” and click yes on the dialog box
Open your Gephi (and update it from Tools -> Plugins -> Updates | Available plugins)

Using Gephi – quick overview
In Gephi you have basically 3 different tabs to analyze and manipulate your graphs
In ”Overview” you can manipulate and analyze the graph
In ”Data laboratory” you can sort and review your data
In ”Preview” you can fine tune your visualization

Using Gephi – importing networks
Select File –> Open -> file.graphml
The network is directed meaning that the direction of the mention, RT etc. matters. Facebook friend-relationship is an example of an undirected network
The boxes that should be unchecked are: Append graph* and Time frame**
* If you want to join networks together, use this one ** Creates a dynamic network, example: http://bit.ly/kGoyMP

Using Gephi – arranging your nodes
Select Layout tab on the Overview mode and click on the Force Atlas –layout
Set Repulsion at 20000, Attraction strength at 50, Maximum displacement 1, Uncheck Autostabilize function, set Gravity at 80, Check Adjust by sizes and set Speed at 5
* These settings provide a nice arrangement when using 10-1000 node networks. Feel free to try out different options

Using Gephi – filtering data 1/2
To speed things up (the previous settings might take a while to run) let’s filter out those nodes that didn’t mention anyone ore didn’t receive mentions or RT’s
Click Average degree is the Statistics tab (it counts the amount of mentions given/ recieved)
We will use this information to choose who to filter out

Using Gephi – filtering data 2/2
Choose the Filters tab
Click Attributes – Range and drag the Degree text to the Queries window below
Use the slider to remove all of those without any connections: set degree range to start with 1
Now use the Force Atlas again

Using Gephi – visualizing your data: communities
After the nodes have settled it’s time to make sense of it all
To detect communities, hit the modularity Statistics button
Then choose Nodes on the Partition tab and hit refresh
Choose Modularity class and assign color to the different communities

Using Gephi – visualizing your data: nodes
Choose nodes on the Ranking tab and select Indegree
We want to change the size of the nodes so select the diamond shape in the highlighted area
Set Min Size to 5 and Max Size to 100 and hit Apply
The size of the node now represents the amount of mentions
Outdegree would represent the times the Twitter user mentioned others
Add excel to the fun: rank and export the nodes in Data laboratory: who is the most active tweeter etc.

Using Gephi – visualizing your data: labels
Make the node labels visible from the ”T”-symbol
We want to make the label size to match the node size so choose Node size from the black ”A” symbol
To prevent the nodes from overlapping choose Label adjust from the Layout tab
You can drag the nodes with the Hand symbol

Using Gephi – final touches
Select the Preview window
In the Node subsection in the Preview settings -tab check the Show labels box
Export to PDF from bottom left corner
In the export window choose Options and change the Orientation to Landscape
Add an inch to the left and right Margin to prevent cutting out longer labels
You can also take a screenshot in the Overview window using the Camera symbol

Last step: impress your friends, co-workers and relatives

Olli Parviainen Verkostoanatomia twitter: jattipaa blog: verkostoanatomia.wordpress.com www.verkostoanatomia.fi [email_address]

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Visualize your Twitter network

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