This talk was given at the NSMNSS and Social Research Association (SRA) conference in London. It was attended by those working within the mainstream media, industry, government, and academia.

1. Introduction to NodeXL
Wasim Ahmed (wahmed1@Sheffield.ac.uk)
(Twitter: @was3210)
An Introduction to Tools for Social Media Research
11th October 2016, London.

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About me
• PhD student in the Health Informatics Research
Group, Information School, University of
Sheffield.
• Research Associate (Social Media Specialist),
Management School, University of Sheffield.
• Visibrain Blog Partner, Connected Action
Partner, Echosec Advisor, SMRF Member, and
NSMNSS member.

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PhD Background
• PhD project examines infectious disease
outbreaks on Twitter (Swine Flu and Ebola).
• PhD contains a chapter on tools, methods and
software of capturing and analysing Twitter data.
• Regular contributor to the LSE Impact blog on
social media

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• Network Overview, Discovery, and Exploration
for Excel (NodeXL) is a graph visualization tool.
• Allows the extraction of data from a number of
popular social media platforms including
Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
• Instagram capabilities in beta.
NodeXL

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• Once data is captured NodeXL can process data
to extract graph metrics
• Also enables the visualization of the extracted
graphs based on a number of graph layout
algorithms
• Intended for users with little or no programming
experience to perform Social Network Analysis
NodeXL

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• Social Network Analysis (SNA) is “the process of
investigating social structures through the use of
network and graph theories” (Otte, Evelien, Rousseau,
and Ronald, 2002)
• Key terminology:
• Node = ‘actor’ on which relationships act
• Edge = relationship which connects nodes
Social Network Analysis

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Social Network Analysis
Early social network diagram of relationships among workers in a factory. The diagram illustrates the positions different
workers occupy within the workgroup. Originally published in Roethlisberger, F., and Dickson, W. (1939). Management
and the worker. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Examples of Networks
• The World Wide Web is a big network where
pages are nodes and links are edges
• The Internet is a network where nodes are
computers and edges are physical connections
between devices

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Examples of Networks
Network of connections between devices within the Internet. Courtesy of Steve
Jurvetson. Used under a Creative Commons license.

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Network diagram of the #NSMNSS network community
The tweets in the network were tweeted over the 75-day, 18-hour, 10-minute period from Friday, 01 July 2016 at 00:52
UTC to Wednesday, 14 September 2016 at 19:02 UTC.

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NodeXL Ribbon in Excel

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Import drop down

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NodeXL Graph Gallery
• It is possible to upload network visualizations as
well as workbooks and GraphML files to the
NodeXL graph gallery
• The NodeXL graph gallery contains a number
existing events, topics, and communities which
have already been visualized

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NodeXL Graph Gallery

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Import settings
• The NodeXL workbook used to create a graph is
often linked to at the bottom of the page.
• It can be downloaded and opened in order to
create a similar looking graph.
• Graphs can be further customized e.g., adding
or removing group labels.

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NodeXL Graph Gallery

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6 types of network structures

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6 types of network structures

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#WorldMentalHealthDay

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• Most frequently shared URLs, Domains,
Hashtags, Words, Word Pairs, Replied-To,
Mentioned Users, and most frequent tweeters
• Produces metrics overall and by group of users
(users are grouped by tweet content)
• By looking at different metrics associated with
different groups (G1, G2, G3 etc) you can see
the different topics that users may be talking
about
Produces a number of metrics

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Produces a number of metrics

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Produces a number of metrics

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Produces a number of metrics

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Ethics
• In an academic context uploading to the graph
gallery may not be permitted as participants are
personally identifiable
• It is possible to use NodeXL to create offline
graphs and to report aggregately

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Questions?

28. To
Discover
And
Understand.