1. The Influence Engine:
Why are social networks
like icebergs?
To get a proper grasp of social networks
it's helpful to know they're quite like
icebergs.
That’s because the vast bulk of
information about any social group is
invisible and lies far below the waterline.

2. The Influence Engine:
11 nodes
Why are social networks
like icebergs?
Here’s a diagram to explain what I mean.
Let's count some of the elements or bits
of information that we can see in this
network picture.
The first, and simplest, thing we can do is
count the nodes (imagine they are
people) - there are 11 in this network.
This means we can see in 11 bits of
information above the waterline - in the
real world this might mean there are 11
people in a particular social group.

3. The Influence Engine:
11 nodes
Why are social networks
like icebergs?
However, there are many other things we
can count in this picture and all of them
are associated with the topology that
connects people together.
Let's begin by counting the edges - there
are 12 in this picture. This means we have
already found 12 bits of information
below the waterline that we can add to
the 11 bits of information above the
waterline.
12 edges

4. The Influence Engine:
11 nodes
Why are social networks
like icebergs?
What else can we count? Well, things get
more interesting when we add what I call
'directionality' into the picture.
In other words, let's draw some arrows to
indicate the direction in which a link has
been established between individuals in
the network.
There are actually 14 arrows in this
picture, indicating 14 bits of information
relating to the direction in which a link
has been established.
We can add this number to the tally of
network information that is beginning to
proliferate below the waterline. 12 edges
14 arrows

5. The Influence Engine:
11 nodes
Why are social networks
like icebergs?
We can also count the number of edges
that each node has.
For instance, this node over here has five
edges, the nodes above and to its left
have two edges each and the nodes
below it have just one edge each.
We can do this for every node in the
network and add the data to our tally
below the waterline.
12 edges
14 arrows
5 edges
2 edges
2 edges
1 edge
1 edge

6. The Influence Engine:
11 nodes
Why are social networks
like icebergs?
But it doesn't stop there. If we look at
the node on the right with five edges, we
can see that five of those edges are
inbound links and one of them is an
outbound link (this is actually a bi-
directional link).
The node above it has one incoming and
one outgoing edge, and the node below
has only a single outgoing edge.
As you can see, information below the
waterline can really start to stack up.
12 edges
14 arrows
5 edges - 5 in / 1 out
2 edges - 1 in / 1 out
2 edges - etc.
1 edge - 0 in / 1 out
1 edge - etc.

7. The Influence Engine:
Why are social networks
like icebergs?
In fact, mathematicians have discovered
that in big networks of 1000 nodes or
more, something north of 96% of all the
data pertaining to a network will reside
within its topology rather than in its
nodes.
That really does represent a ‘lost
continent’ of consumer information that
marketers and communication
professionals can use the Influence
Engine to tap into.