Social Network Analysis for Startups

Book excerpt: Does your startup rely on social network analysis? This concise guide provides a statistical framework to help you identify social processes hidden among the tons of data now available. Social network analysis (SNA) is a discipline that predates Facebook and Twitter by 30 years. Through expert SNA researchers, you'll learn concepts and techniques for recognizing patterns in social media, political groups, companies, cultural trends, and interpersonal networks. You'll also learn how to use Python and other open source tools—such as NetworkX, NumPy, and Matplotlib—to gather, analyze, and visualize social data. This book is the perfect marriage between social network theory and practice, and a valuable source of insight and ideas. Discover how internal social networks affect a company’s ability to perform Follow terrorists and revolutionaries through the 1998 Khobar Towers bombing, the 9/11 attacks, and the Egyptian uprising Learn how a single special-interest group can control the outcome of a national election Examine relationships between companies through investment networks and shared boards of directors Delve into the anatomy of cultural fads and trends—offline phenomena often mediated by Twitter and Facebook