Popular social networking/hooking-up/friend-keeper-upper site Facebook has invaded Toronto and taken it by storm. How do I know this? – Let me elaborate.
While I don’t use the site excessively like many of my peers do (I like keeping my private life private), I was put on to a note by a friend, and fellow Toronto photoblogger Rannie Turingan. Rannie is a hub in Toronto. Not only does he connect Toronto-based photobloggers, but his reach spans to bloggers, others in the social space, and his other social networks in Toronto which I am not aware of. When I look at his profile he is listed as having 451 friends in Toronto, and over a hundred in his other networks – not only is he popular, but he is also a great photographer!
A post by another friend and fellow Toronto-based blogger, Eva Amsen profiled her Facebook friend network last month (with accompanying diagram above). In her article Eva analyzes her network, describing the importance of hubs and bridges within networks:
In any network, both the hubs and the bridges are important. Hubs obviously connect many different nodes, and are efficient spreaders of information. … But without bridges, information wouldn’t spread to the further outreaches of a network.
In social networks, bridges are the people who are able to provide you with new connections outside of your regular networks, and they don’t have to be that extensively connected to be able to do so.
Eva’s post is helpful when trying recognizing the best way to disseminate messages, or targeted advertising.
3 Comments