Identifying influencers with social network analysis

Pinning down who is influential isn’t straightforward. The data hardly ever exists to connect a social media message with the actions it may have inspired, such as products purchased or businesses boycotted. Instead what we can really assess is ‘potential to influence’: who’s reaching a big audience, who’s engaging that audience the most and getting a lot of interaction, and who’s demonstrating consistent expertise on a topic. In short, influence is complex: an outcome of a combination of properties about people, contexts and relationships. This paper explores how you can identify influencers with Social Network Analysis.