Systems and Methods for Identifying Influencers and Their Communities in a Social Data Network

Abstract

A system and method performed by a server for determining at least one user account that is influential for a topic: obtaining the topic; determining a plurality of user accounts within a social data network that are related to the topic; representing each of the user accounts as a node in a connected graph and determining an existence of a relationship between each of the user accounts; computing a topic network graph using each of the user accounts as nodes and the corresponding relationships as edges between each of the nodes; ranking the user accounts within the topic network graph to filter outlier nodes within the topic network graph; identifying at least two distinct communities amongst the user accounts within the filtered topic network graph, each community associated with a subset of the user accounts; identifying attributes associated with each community; outputting each community associated with the corresponding attributes.

1 . A method performed by a server for determining at least one user account that is influential for a topic, the method comprising:
 obtaining the topic;   determining a plurality of user accounts within a social data network that are related to the topic;   representing each of the user accounts as a node in a connected graph and determining an existence of a relationship between each of the user accounts;   computing a topic network graph using each of the user accounts as nodes and the corresponding relationships as edges between each of the nodes;   identifying at least two distinct communities amongst the user accounts within the topic network graph, each community associated with a subset of the user accounts;   identifying attributes associated with each community; and   outputting in a graphical user interface each community associated with the corresponding attributes.   
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising: ranking the user accounts within each community and providing, for each community, a ranked listing of the user accounts mapped to the corresponding community. 
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising ranking the user accounts within the topic network graph to filter outlier nodes within the topic network graph; and wherein ranking the user accounts further comprises mapping each ranked user account to the respective community and outputting a ranked listing of the user accounts for the at least two communities. 
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the attributes are associated with each user account's interaction with the social data network. 
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein the attributes are displayed in association with a combined frequency of the attribute for the user accounts. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein the attributes are frequency of topics of conversation for the users within a particular community. 
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising displaying in the graphical user interface the at least two distinct communities comprising color coded nodes and edges, wherein at least a first portion of the color coded nodes and edges is a first color associated with a first community and a least a second portion of the color coded nodes and edges is a second color associated with a second community. 
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7  wherein a size of a given color coded node is associated with a degree of influence of a given user account represented by the given color coded node. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 7 , further comprising displaying words associated with a given community, the words corresponding to the attributes of the given community. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising detecting a user-controlled pointer interacting with a given community in the graphical user interface, and at least one of: displaying one or more top ranked user accounts in the given community; visually highlighting the given community; and displaying words associated with a given community, the words corresponding to the attributes of the given community. 
     
     
         11 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed, performs the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         12 . A computing system for determining at least one user account that is influential for a topic, the computing system comprising:
 a communication device;   a memory; and   a processor configured to at least:   obtain the topic;   determine a plurality of user accounts within a social data network that are related to the topic;   represent each of the user accounts as a node in a connected graph and determine an existence of a relationship between each of the user accounts;   compute a topic network graph using each of the user accounts as nodes and the corresponding relationships as edges between each of the nodes;   identify at least two distinct communities amongst the user accounts within the topic network graph, each community associated with a subset of the user accounts;   identify attributes associated with each community; and   output in a graphical user interface each community associated with the corresponding attributes.   
     
     
         13 . The computing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to: rank the user accounts within each community and providing, for each community, a ranked listing of the user accounts mapped to the corresponding community. 
     
     
         14 . The computing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to rank the user accounts within the topic network graph to filter outlier nodes within the topic network graph; and wherein ranking the user accounts further comprises mapping each ranked user account to the respective community and outputting a ranked listing of the user accounts for the at least two communities. 
     
     
         15 . The computing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the attributes are associated with each user account's interaction with the social data network. 
     
     
         16 . The computing system according to  claim 15 , further comprising a display and wherein the attributes are displayed in association with a combined frequency of the attribute for the user accounts. 
     
     
         17 . The computing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the attributes are frequency of topics of conversation for the users within a particular community. 
     
     
         18 . The computing system according to  claim 12 , further comprising a display, and the processor is further configured to display in the graphical user interface the at least two distinct communities comprising color coded nodes and edges, wherein at least a first portion of the color coded nodes and edges is a first color associated with a first community and a least a second portion of the color coded nodes and edges is a second color associated with a second community. 
     
     
         19 . The computing system according to  claim 18 , wherein a size of a given color coded node is associated with a degree of influence of a given user account represented by the given color coded node. 
     
     
         20 . The computing system according to  claim 18 , further comprising displaying words associated with a given community, the words corresponding to the attributes of the given community. 
     
     
         21 . The computing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to detect a user-controlled pointer interacting with a given community in the graphical user interface, and at least one of: output in the graphical user interface one or more top ranked user accounts in the given community; visually highlight, in the graphical user interface, the given community; and output, in the graphical user interface, words associated with a given community, the words corresponding to the attributes of the given community.