Measuring Prestige in Online Social Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method for measuring individual prestige in online social networks by deriving a global social capital metric from local measures, and explores the strategic implications of social connections.

Contribution

It presents a novel global prestige measure based on local social capital metrics and introduces a new expression for evaluating the desirability of social links.

Findings

Ideal neighbors satisfy a 'big fish in a small pond' criterion.

Neighbor desirability distribution is influenced by anti-homophily.

The global measure is derived via random walks over the network.

Abstract

We study the locally-defined social capital metric of Palasek (2013) for determining individuals' prestige within an online social network. From it we derive an equivalent global measure by considering random walks over the network itself. This result inspires a novel expression quantifying the strategic desirability of a potential social connection. We show in silico that ideal social neighbors tend to satisfy a "big fish in a small pond" criterion and that the distribution of neighbor-desirability throughout a network is governed by anti-homophily.