***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****

Just like volleyball... bump, set and spike! I'm glad you mentioned
that, Ed.

So many on-line networks are full of promiscuous linkers[PL] -- they'll
link with anyone! They end up with many "false ties" that they
believe are "weak ties". When it comes time to use these imagined weak
ties, they fail -- unlike a real weak tie which brings benefits.

People often hate to turn down a link request on FB, LI, & elsewhere,
even if they do not know the person. By accepting link requests from
strangers, they accumulate many false ties [i.e. noise] that totally
screw up the social graph for anyone trying to make sense of it. It
also gives the PL a false sense of their ego net.

So, those of you salivating for FB data, be careful... remember GIGO.

Valdis

On Feb 10, 2009, at 3:35 PM, Edward Vielmetti wrote:

> Note of course that every social network born that
> publicizes friend count has a population of people
> who play that network as a multiplayer game to
> collect the most friends.
>
> Some people do it to spam, some people do it for
> marketing, and some people truly have a lot of friends.
> It can be hard to tell from a simple count who is who.
>
> For a reference see Hefe in "Science Creative Quarterly" 3
> http://www.scq.ubc.ca/increase-the-n/
>
> thanks, and be my frend pleez,
>
> Ed
>
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 3:28 PM, Valdis Krebs <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
>>
>> Got this email today, thought SOCNET would be interested in how SNA is
>> currently applied in parts of the business world...
>>
>>> One of the most interesting metrics we find when we work with our
>>> customers is the Friend Count (number of friend links) for each of
>>> their
>>> consumers. We see a repeatable curve in a typical client's consumer
>>> list:
>>> there are many consumers with zero friends; many with low numbers of
>>> friends, and then a targeted percentage that have 100 friends or
>>> more.
>>>
>>> According to a Rapleaf study published in 2008*, about 80% of social
>>> media users have between 0-100 friends, and 20% have 100 or more
>>> friends:
>>> the 80-20 rule.
>>>
>>> In the world of social media, Friend Count is a key metric of the
>>> influence of each consumer. A consumer who loves your brand and has
>>> 100
>>> online friends is much more valuable than a consumer with just one
>>> friend.
>>> And, of course, a consumer that has a bad experience with your
>>> product and
>>> has 300 friends is a concern multiplied. Many of our clients are now
>>> flagging high Friend Count consumers in their database both for a
>>> higher
>>> level of marketing and customer service.
>>
>> More data in their press release...
>>
>> http://is.gd/b4H
>>
>> Valdis
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________
>> SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social
>> network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send
>> an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line
>> UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Edward Vielmetti
> Ann Arbor, MI
>
> +1 734 330 2465
>

_____________________________________________________________________
SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social
network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send
an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line
UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.