Social network analysis

How many degrees of separation are you from Kevin Bacon?

Social network analysis is a technique that was first used in the telecommunications industry, and then quickly adopted by sociologists to study interpersonal relationships. It is now being applied to analyze the relationships between people in many fields and commercial activities. Nodes represent individuals within a network, while ties represent the relationships between individuals.

Social network analysis is being used to:

• see how people from different populations form ties with outsiders

• find the importance or influence of a particular individual within a group

• find the minimum number of direct ties required to connect two individuals

• understand the social structure of a customer base

Whether your business wants to discover interesting correlations, categorize people into groups, optimally schedule resources, or set billing rates, a basic understanding of the seven techniques mentioned above can help Big Data work for you.