(^297) ■
USE THE S
OCIAL G
RAPH IN B
USINESS
social graph in the process. The process by which tweets propagate and drive expansion
of the social graph within Twitter is shown in Figure 11.3. Pat’s tweet, “something nota-
ble,” is retweeted by Chris, one of whose followers sees it and decides to start following
Pat as a result. Driving Twitter’s success, among other factors, is the extreme ease with
which one can grow a large social graph. As a result, Twitter gets sticky, fast.
pat something notable
chris RT @pat something notable
Sees Pat’s tweet via Chris, follows Pat.
Figure 11.3 Growing the Social Graph
Beyond passing messages along, tools that enable searching, filtering, and aggre-
gating content and sharing it between members serve to expand and refine personal
social graphs. Facebook offers this capability through the combination of search and
suggested friends (recommendations). Twitter introduced lists of specific members—a
feature that built on and has since replaced Tweetdecks’s popular groups—that people
create and (optionally) share: Someone interested in horseback riding might build a list
of riding coaches or professional equestrians to simply keep track of the posts from
(just) these people. Twitter then provides the additional ability to share this entire list
with others, making it very easy for others to further build their own social graph by
following that entire list.
Use the Social Graph in Business
The social graph—and the navigation and investigation of it—are central to the use
of social technology in business. Contained within the social graph are the relation-
ships and structures that define influencers, the connections that that suggest shared
interests and the pathways over which content, ratings, reviews, and a lot more move
throughout a social network. So, the first step in creating a robust network or social
application is to ensure that relationships form as members connect with each other
and thereby enable social actions.
Make Sure People Connect
So how can you encourage participants in your social projects to connect? There are
a few basics to consider, and you can always take a tip or two from the best practices
used by other social networks in encouraging members’ development of their own
social graphs.