Page 329 - Social Media Marketing

and why” within a social network. If you could walk into a party and see this kind 307
of information in your augmented reality browser (neatly displayed behind your sun-
glasses), how much more effective could you be as a networker? The same principle ■ ╇ U se the S ocial G raph in B usiness
applies—in much more realistic terms—to your business or organizational use of social
graph analysis and visualization tools today.

As understanding of “who matters” is great information for a wide range of
social applications. However, there is one broad class of applications in particular
where this type of information is absolutely critical: support networks. In a support
network, participants depend on each other for solutions, and the consequences of bad
information can be much worse than, say, getting bad advice on a movie or a meal
out. In a support forums, spotting, elevating, and otherwise ensuring that the experts
remain engaged is essential to the long-term success of that support platform.

When the social graph is examined and compared to the reputation management
system outputs, the experts can be located, groomed, and specifically catered to, thus
ensuring that they a) have what they need to consistently deliver the best answers as
they support the community at large, and b) feel that their time is distinctly noted and
valued. On the former, when expert candidates are identified—for example, by high
centrality—having a relatively high number of followers, the managers of that com-
munity might invite those people to attend a special training event or to become a part
of an “insiders” program to ensure that they continue to have access to the information
needed to deliver quality solutions within the support community. Adjacency (who is
connected to whom) is equally important. Think about how LinkedIn adds value by
showing its members the direct or potential path(s) from the people they know to the
people they want to know. Indeed, a deeper study or observation of the social graph of
your customers and constituents can be very beneficial.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the video referenced in the “Mapping
Social Networks: LinkedIn and Gephi” sidebar. Consider the usefulness of understand-
ing—at a mass scale—the social graph detail that is exposed through the use of visual
mapping tools. Being able to see clusters of customers, for example, built around spe-
cific concerns or organized into specific subgroups within your larger social business
application is very useful when developing specific activation strategies for important
customer segments.

Spread Content Further

In addition to connecting people (members and participants) outright, the social graph
is also useful as a conduit in spreading content—thoughts, ideas, words, pictures, and
videos—across social networks. In the earlier Twitter example, I referenced Pat’s tweet
and showed how Chris picked it up and retweeted it, expanding Pat’s social graph and
spreading Pat’s content beyond Pat’s own immediate social graph in the process. Not
only was Pat’s social graph expanded in the process, Pat’s content was spread further