Talk to dissertation students by Chris Phethean, 22nd April

1. Chris Phethean
cjp106@soton.ac.uk
@cpheth
Social Network Visualisation and Analysis with
NodeXL

2. OUTLINE
• Visualising Networks?
• What is NodeXL?
• How to import your own social network data
• How to analyse and visualise your network
• Things to consider when visualising networks

4. NETWORK ANALYSIS FROM VISUALISATIONS
• Examine online communities
• Observe how ideas and knowledge can spread
• Determine who are the key „nodes‟
• Determine what key „edges‟ exist

5. AN EXAMPLE APPLICATION: MARKETING
“a campaign manager can use the first few generations of a campaign as a
learning platform to decode the underlying network structure and estimate the
transmission behavior of the target audience, and then use this knowledge to
intervene or reshape the campaign strategy for the later generations.”
Bampo et al.
Bampo, M. et al., 2008. The effects of the social structure of digital networks on viral marketing performance. Information
systems research, 19(3), pp.273–290.

6. AN EXAMPLE APPLICATION: MARKETING
“a campaign manager can use the first few generations of a campaign as a
learning platform to decode the underlying network structure and estimate the
transmission behavior of the target audience, and then use this knowledge to
intervene or reshape the campaign strategy for the later generations.”
Bampo et al.
Bampo, M. et al., 2008. The effects of the social structure of digital networks on viral marketing performance. Information
systems research, 19(3), pp.273–290.

7. NodeXL
• Free, open source template for Microsoft Excel (2007 and 2010 only)
• Windows only
• Easily import data from social media services
• No programming required
• Perform network analysis calculations with Excel
• Visualise network using different statistics to modify the output
• http://nodexl.codeplex.com/

8. IMPORTING YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK
1. Download and Install NodeXL
• http://nodexl.codeplex.com/
2. Download Social Network Importer for NodeXL
• http://socialnetimporter.codeplex.com/
• Unzip and move .dll files into
Program FilesSocial Media Research FoundationNodeXL Excel TemplatePlugIns
folder of NodeXL
• Allows Facebook networks to be imported into NodeXL

9. Network Modelling and Visualisation
An Example

10. My Facebook Network
November 2012

11. My Facebook Network
November 2012
Importance by degree
(Connections to other friends)

12. My Facebook Network
November 2012
Importance by betweenness
(Importance of the node in
connecting any other 2 nodes)

13. My Facebook Network
November 2012
Importance by betweenness
Coloured by social group

14. HOW TO ACTUALLY DO STUFF…
Demo

16. THINGS TO CONSIDER
• Visualisations are visual
• Pictures for all nodes  Messy graph
• Labels for all nodes  Messy graph
• No labels or pictures  Confusing, possibly meaningless graph

17. Picture from: http://ichromatiq.blogspot.com/2010/07/visualizing-email-communications-using.html

18. Picture from: http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/hogan/2010/01/new-pinwheel-network-layout/#more-87

19. THINGS TO CONSIDER
• Remove „ego‟ from network visualisations
• So no node for yourself, or the topic you are analysing
• If every fan/follower/friend links to a central node then the network will
become distorted
• You should be more interested in the relationships around the
topic, rather than with it

20. SUMMARY
• Network analysis and visualisation makes finding important features of networks easier
• NodeXL is easy to use straight away – you don‟t need to worry about programming and
using APIs yourself
• Visualisations can look good!
• But consider what information you‟re trying to convey – you don‟t need to show
everything