Watts-3 Ways to Use Social Network Analysis for

3 Ways to Use Social Network Analysis for Marketing 2011 OCTOBER 5 tags: Duncan Watts, James Fowler, Network Theory, Nicholas Christakis, Social Media, Social Network Analysis by Greg Share6 Social marketing is hot. What once was vaguely referred to as... More

3 Ways to Use Social Network Analysis for
Marketing
2011 OCTOBER 5
tags: Duncan Watts, James Fowler, Network Theory, Nicholas Christakis, Social Media, Social Network
Analysis
by Greg
Share6
Social marketing is hot. What once was vaguely referred to as “word of mouth” is now a
huge business. Facebook is worth nearly $100 billion and social listening and community
assignments have become lucrative sources of ad agency fees.
Strangely enough, social network analysis has largely been ignored. In an industry obsessed
with metrics, that seems like quite an oversight.
Since the late ‘90’s the science of social networks has been an intense field of study. It has
changed the way we combat terrorism, study ecologies, fight disease and even evaluate
organizations, but has yet to carry over to ad agencies and marketing organizations. Here
are three areas where insights from the scientific community can be directly applied.
1. Early Warning Social Listening
Epidemics are difficult to control becau Less