A comprehensive study of Twitter social networks

Abstract

As most approaches perform social network analysis from a static point of view, our paper is centered on the analysis of the Twitter network, emphasizing its dynamic aspects by using an analytics and visualization-centered application. Our aim is to model the activity and importance of individual users over time, as well as the connection between a recent activity of the entire network and on a given subject (for example, trending topics like an event or a celebrity). A user's influence is measured based on his/hers followers and retweets, enabling the possibility to classify members of a certain community. Therefore, we shift the perspective towards analyzing the Twitter network as a news-spreading platform by studying the behavior of users, the underlying timelines and relationships.