Twitter: Information flows, influencers, and organic communities

Abstract This chapter guides you from the early stages of data collection of Twitter topical conversations (i.e., search networks), through the analysis of the network structure at the vertex, cluster and network-levels, and key content characteristics of tweets, to visualization of the network. The process is illustrated by analyzing the #p2 (Progressives 2.0) twitter search network. The NodeXL Twitter importers include many Twitter metrics (e.g., Twitter Followers) and content (e.g., Tweet content). Network analysis of Twitter networks, created by individuals, such as activists or consumers, as they discussing brands, organizations or issues, can capture clusters—subgroups of interconnected users—their key information sources and distinctive content characteristics they post and share (i.e., via posted URLs). Furthermore, it allows researchers and brand managers to identify keys users in the network and consumers that allow the brand to reach out to other users that do not interact with it directly.