Connect the dots: Social Graphs

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace have become the every day tools we use to keep in touch with virtually everyone we know. From people we went to kindergarten with to friends of friends we’ve only met once – these sites have developed into the place for both casual and meaningful communication. Moreover, they’ve become one of the most significant, central and direct ways to communicate with your customers both existing and potential.

One of the things that these websites demonstrate best is the way in which we are in fact all connected. The Six Degrees of Separation experiment (also known as ‘The Human Web’) bases its theory in the idea that we’re six steps away from any other person in the world. Facebook created an application around this concept a couple of years ago (sadly, it’s no longer available), and found that amongst it’s approximately 6 million users, members were connected to each other through an average of 6 steps, with a maximum of 12 steps in some cases. The way that Facebook visually represented this is through a Social Graph.

A pretty self-explanatory idea then: a social graph is nothing more than a visual representation of everyone you know on a site and how you are connected to them and them to each other. Facebook uses social graphing in several ways, for example to alert you that you haven’t spoken to one of your friends in a while (you know, those annoying notifications at the top right hand corner of your homepage).

My Facebook social graph

What’s particularly interesting is the way Google wants to use our information (if you have a Google account you can check your social circle here), or rather improve the way that we use the Internet. This process is called Social Portability and uses the Open Social Graph. There are so many social networking sites that do one thing particularly well. Flickr for instance is great for viewing photos, Mixcloud for listening to radio shows and podcasts, and Chictopia for showing off your daily outfit choices.

These sites are all great. What’s annoying though is the registration and contact-finding process; having to spend 10 to 15 minutes, in most cases even more, to tell these sights who you are, what you like, create a password and find your friends when there’s already public information on you on other sites in an existing social graph. Put simply, Google are trying to literally open the Internet up, and as a result make it more user friendly. The links that are created between you and your friends through social networks would then automatically appear in your newly joined social network – watch the video above to get more information on how this works.

When it comes to running a company acquiring a social graph can be an invaluable tool for not only sourcing new business but also seeing how your customers are connected to you and each other. By accessing your secondary connections, you can easily make contact with people who are more likely to have an interest in your product since they are somehow already connected to one of your existing customers.

Bridging, correlating or networking. Whatever you want to call it, at the end of the day communication lies at the heart of every business. A social graph can give you another, more visual way to make sense of your customers and therefore improve your business, linking you to endless possibilities.

Read more about social graphs on Brad Firzpatrick’s blog and Read Write Web.

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