Social network analysis of information diffusion on Sina Weibo micro-blog system

Abstract

We have empirically investigated two social networks fetched from a most popular micro-blog system. Different from previous works, the link of the networks presents “post-repost” relationship between two bloggers. So, the constructed networks described how information (micro-blog) related with given topic was spread among bloggers, instead of general “followee-follower” relationship among bloggers. Through structural network analysis and social network analysis, it has been found that the two networks are very similar. Users from the two networks have similar personal characteristics and online behaviors. The distribution of out-degree of both the two networks presents power-law character, along with close power-law parameter y. Our findings provide a practical guideline for further analysis to recognize pattern of information diffusion on micro-blog platform.