http://www.slideshare.net/faberNovel/social-network-websites-best-practices-from-leading-services?src=embed

A recent study by FaberNovel (the results of which are published in slideshow form), a management consulting firm, highlights aspects of prominent social networking websites and point out some broad principles for understanding them and concludes with case studies on online matchmaking websites and business networking websites. While we haven’t discussed all of these principles, I believe they offer valuable insight into how social networking sites function in real life.

One of the interesting things that the study discusses is the fact that many online social networks are “scale-free networks”, which means that they are 1) organized around some central nodes, and 2) they grow through preferential attachment, which means that the more connections a node has, the more likely it is to receive even more connections. In broader terms, a node with many edges coming out of it, connecting it to other nodes (i.e. high degree) can be compared to someone who is well-known in a community. Then, whenever new members are introduced into the community, they are more likely to “hear” or “know of” and thus become acquainted with the well-known people than the not-so-well-known (nodes with low degrees). This is similar to the concept of Strong Triadic Closure in that both show the expansion of a network. They are different in that while Triad Closure ensures that the entire network (of the 3 friends, for example) grows evenly (i.e. two edges coming out of each node), preferential attachment allows the more prominent members in a community to grow even more. In a sense, triadic closure allows others to grow while preferential attachment allow you to grow.