How to Map Social Networks

Social networks often refers to modern online communities and certainly that applies in this sense, but knowing how to map a social network will require a broader perspective on the term. For purposes of making a map of social networks, you will consider everyone you know. The idea behind social networks maps is that you can find out who knows who and why, like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Say you are applying a job. You may be able to refer to your map and see that your friend Gary’s niece, Betty is dating a guy named Bruce who works for that company. The map would ideally be able to go into enough depth to tell you that. The following article will tell you how to map social networks.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Create a simple list of everyone you know. Include a column for why you know them. For example, if you have a friend Bill, who introduced you to another friend named Frank, you want to make note of that. If Bill is a direct acquaintance, one degree away, Frank is then 2 degrees away.

2. Contact everyone on your list and ask them to do the same thing. TIP: This is an extensive process, so it may be easier to start small for purposes of this study. For instance, just map your friends from work and have them map their friends from work. Once you have done this once and have a better idea about how to map social networks, you can move forward and do more extensive lists.

3. Gather all the data from all of the people involved in the study. At this point, you can go different routes. If you have a small study, you can probably create a graphical map which shows how everyone is connected. On a larger scale, a database of some sort might be better. Then you can pull data on how far one person is from another and create graphical depictions of it.

4. Dream big. What if the whole world was charted out in one big database? It is theoretically possible to get enough people into a database to make practical use of the data as described in the into. It would probably have to be a web based application and offer some sort of incentive for people to sign up and do the foot work.

[xivyisazombiex]

on 10/5/2009 networking social websites is a useful task. nice article.

[2besure]

on 9/14/2009 Thanks for some help on mapping social network.

[Mindee94]

on 6/23/2009 Very interesting. Can see how this tool would be highly beneficial when looking into a new venture, career or other reasons. Thanks for the easy to follow explaination! ~Mindee