What tools and products do you use to do Social Networks Analysis? [SNA]
Clarification added April 1, 2010:
Hi Elisabeth,
you are right on!
Here is some of potential applications of SNA:
http://scrmworld.com/who-are-they-%E2%80%93-those-%E2%80%9Canswer%E2%80%9D-people/
http://scrmworld.com/social-network-analysis-and-its-impact-on-your-company%E2%80%99s-bottom-line/
http://scrmworld.com/what-company-can-learn-from-their-twitter-map/
I was just wondering what other tools people are using for SNA - pros/cons/usage data.
Best regards,
Tatyana
@glfceo
Clarification added April 1, 2010:
Seems to me [based on all the responses so far] there is a confusion out there about the topic - SNA - Social Networks Analysis is different from Social Media Analytics.. Most of the tools that have been mentioned are in Social Media Analytics space. I posted links above to the tool I have been using for SNA: NodeXL - looking for other products in the same SNA space.
Thanks!
Answers (11)
Alex P.
Business developer at Perfect Plastic Cards - printing all kinds of plastic cards to help our clients increase profits
Could you please clarify, what analysis exactly?
Dawn B.
"CONNECTOR," http://DBoyerConsulting.com, Small Biz HR Consultant, Resume Coach, Social Media Trainer/Mgr.
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WOW - haven't heard of this one before - what is Social Networks Analysis (assume based on Social Media Networks?). Who is doing it? What does it entail? What are the choices for tools? What is the metrics to prove or disprove?
Dawn Boyer
Send invites to: Dawn.Boyer<at>me.com
Follow me on Twitter: #Dawn_Boyer
Links:
Elisabeth G.
RiverRhee Consulting: Enhancing Team Effectiveness through process improvement, knowledge management & change management
Best Answers in: Using LinkedIn (2)
Although I don't have a good answer to Tatyana's question, I can provide some clarification in response to the question asked by the 2 commentators above.
People often say that a picture paints a thousand words so you might want to take a look at the jpmorgan gif url which I've attached to this answer.
There is also a very nice overview of this topic in the attached orgnet url.
I think SNA can be particularly useful in the fields of knowledge management - to understand the recognised experts in a particular field from whom tacit knowledge could be obtained and shared; and in change management to identify potential opinion leaders / influencers who could be used to help facilitate change through an organisation.
Links:
Wallace J.
Multimedia Producer, i3D Programmer, Acrobat 3D PDF, Android App, Virtual World & iTV Design, Kindle, Nook & Sony eBooks
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Google Analytics.
Clint B.
Experienced Sales Leader, Business Development Manager, Social Sales & Marketing Automation Specialist
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Hubspot to track social media interactions and reach along with lead conversion. There are others out there and Google Analytics can provide all the data you need in terms of inbound traffic based on social media activity.
Christine H.
Do you have your copy of my FREE Report yet? Get "Top 10 Linked Profile Success Secrets" now at: goo.gl/beKnU
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Google Analytics, Optify and HubSpot.
Tatiana,
You are right all responses are about social media analytics and, if you didn't point that I wouldn't either try to answer (little tired of people that think that GA or similar products – excellent for their purpose – can do anything but eat – see link # 2).
You shall divide the problems in two parts: data collection and analysis. Collection is the hart part. Once you have the data there are many solutions to analyze it either quantitatively or visually (See Elizabeth answer).
But getting the data is hard: you do not have access to whole network structure (for example you only have access yo YOURS Linked-in connections). Even if you had, you do not know how that would actually impact on social media. Thus the only way is to provide dynamic URL/URI for your page and track their linking. Suppose that I get a link from Linked-in, that link will be labeled as '10', but I will see it as '11' and tweet it. Three different people will read it as '12', '13' and '14'. On your log you will see that 10 generated 11, and 11 generated 12, 13 and 14. Such information shall be also be enriched by usual tracking code (like Web Analytics).
Tracking code can also take care of knowing to specific groups to which visitor pertains. It is possible, for example to guess with good precision if a visitor pertains to Linked-in or Twitter … See technique in link # 1.
Keep in mind that all those practices can be considered more or less ethical in terms of privacy from different point of view.
The dynamic URL/URI can be assembled in different fashions depending on specific requirements. Each alternative has its vantages and disadvantages, for example from SEO point of view. I think this is not the place for further detail, please send me a private message if you need further help.
It is not something technically very difficult to build but is something you shall definitely build yourself (sorry!)
Good luck with your analysis!
Links:
- http://www.cbsolution.net/roller/ontarget/entry/measuring_online_competitor...
- http://www.cbsolution.net/roller/ontarget/entry/web_analytics_grain_matters
Clarification added April 2, 2010:
Please read "hard part" instead of "hart part" (sorry no preview to check).
If I think what you are looking for is correct, we use Radian6 for social media analysis. It does a pretty good job of compiling data from multiple streams for competitive analysis, and they are constantly making improvements.
Hubspot is a pretty interesting product as well.
Links:
Eckhardt K.
Independent IT Consultant
Best Answers in: Business Analytics (4), Auditing (2), Databases (1)
I have been playing with Gephi recently as NodeXL has certain limitations.
While Gephi can be used for other types of analysis it is quite strong in SNA analysis well. Have a look and let me know what you think of it.
Links:
John L. suggests this expert on this topic:
Stephen is an expert in social media who has been selected to speak at a number of conferences, I value is opinion when it comes to social media.
Google Analytics and Hubspot have amazing free tools.
Hubspot has Twitter.grader.com and websitegrader.com/
