Strong and Weak Ties II

(Social Media Analytics)

Deepayan Chakrabarti (deepay@utexas.edu)

1 Strong and Weak Ties II

Finding a job
 Mark Granovetter, 1973, carried out a survey

me my contact my new employer

 Two conclusions
 The new employer was only one or two hops away from me
 But the contact was a weak connection
 “not a friend, an acquaintance”
 Puzzle:
 If my would-be employer is so “close”, why didn’t my close
friends help me?
2 Strong and Weak Ties II
Main idea
 Not all social links are created equal
 “Strong” ties with close friends
 “Weak” ties with far-off acquaintances

 New information comes from weak ties. Why?

 These ties are structurally different!

3 Strong and Weak Ties II

Strong ties have triadic closure
 Basic principle:
 If two people B and C have a common friend A, then
 B and C are likely to become friends themselves

 The B-C edge “closes the triangle”

A C

4 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring triadic closure
 Clustering coefficient of a node

Number of “closed” V shapes around A

 CC of A =
Number of V shapes around A

Number of edges between friends of A

=
(Number of friends of A) * (Number of friends of A - 1) / 2

E B

A C

5 Strong and Weak Ties II

 The Random Graph
 The Random Graph
?  For every pair of nodes
 Connect them with
probability p

Prob. 1-p Prob. p

?
?

Prob. 1-p Prob. 1-p Prob. p

Prob. p

6 Strong and Weak Ties I

 The Random Graph
1 12
 Let’s say we created such
2 11 a Random Graph with
prob. p for each edge
3 10

 What will be the clustering

4 9 coefficient?

5 8
6 7

7 Strong and Weak Ties I

The Random Graph
 Let’s look at one node
1
2 11
 What is the expected CC of
node 1?
10

 Look at the neighbors

 These give the V-shapes
5  2-1-5, 2-1-10, 5-1-11, etc.
7

8 Strong and Weak Ties I

The Random Graph
 Let’s look at one node
1
2 11
 What is the expected CC of
node 1?
10

 When is a V-shape closed?

5
 (say, 2-1-7)
7  only if 2 is linked to 7
 This happens with probability
p
 So we expect a fraction p of
9
the V-shapes to be closed
Strong and Weak Ties I
The Random Graph
 Let’s say we created such
a Random Graph with
? prob. p for each edge

 How many friends will

each person have?
 If there are N people total
 then (N-1) possible friends
 each with prob. p
 So each person has
around
friends
10 Strong and Weak Ties I
The Random Graph
 So, in a Random Graph with N people and probability p
 Each person has (roughly)
 number of friends = (N-1) * p
 clustering coefficient = p

 How well does this match the Facebook network?

 N = 1,000,000,000
 Each person has (roughly) 100 friends
 (N-1) * p = 100
 p = 1/10,000,000 (approx.)
 extremely small clustering coefficient

11 Strong and Weak Ties I

The Random Graph
 If FB followed the random graph model
 clustering coefficient must be extremely small
 But we know it ain’t so!
 Between 0.05 and 0.5 usually

Social networks are

not random!

“The Anatomy of the Facebook Social Graph” (

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1111.4503.pdf )
12 Strong and Weak Ties I
Measuring triadic closure
 Clustering coefficient of the whole network

Number of “closed” V shapes in the network

 CC of network =
Number of V shapes in the network

Number of V shapes with A in the middle +

E B Number of V shapes with B in the middle +
…+
Number of V shapes with E in the middle
A C

(Number of friends of A) * (Number of friends of A - 1) / 2 +

D (Number of friends of B) * (Number of friends of B - 1) / 2 +
…

13 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring triadic closure
 Clustering coefficient of the whole network

Number of “closed” V shapes in the network

 CC of network =
Number of V shapes in the network

(Number of friends of A) * (Number of friends of A - 1) / 2 +

E B (Number of friends of B) * (Number of friends of B - 1) / 2 +
…

A C

14 Strong and Weak Ties II

 Measuring triadic closure
 Clustering coefficient of the whole network

Number of “closed” V shapes in the network

 CC of network =
Number of V shapes in the network

E B
Closed V shapes are triangles

A C B B B B

D A C A C A C A C

One triangle = One closed V + One closed V + One closed V

around A around B around C

15 Strong and Weak Ties II

 Measuring triadic closure
 Clustering coefficient of the whole network

Number of “closed” V shapes in the network

 CC of network =
Number of V shapes in the network

E B
Closed V shapes are triangles
Each triangle counts as 3 V shapes
A C

D
3 x number of triangles = 3 x 4 = 12

16 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring triadic closure
 Clustering coefficient of the whole network

 CC of network = Number of “closed” V shapes in the network

Number of V shapes in the network
E B

A C

 The CC of the network lies between between CC of the nodes

 CC of B = 1.0
 CC of E = 0
17 Strong and Weak Ties II
Strong ties have triadic closure
 Measure via the clustering coefficient

 Identify “bad actors” such as spammers/bots

 Lots of “friends”
 but no connections among them

 Identify circles of close friends

 “High school” friends
 “College buddies”

 Identify “bridges” linking communities

 Hidden power centers
 Social capital

18 Strong and Weak Ties II

Triadic closure
 What does triadic closure tell us?
 High triadic closure
 My friends all know each other
 We are all close to each other
 So we probably have access to the same kinds of information…

 My close friends might not have new information

 The job openings they know of,
I already knew about them

 Then who can give me new information?

19 Strong and Weak Ties II

Outline
 Triadic closure
 Main idea
 Measuring via clustering coefficient

 Bridges
 Connection to Triadic Closure
 Measuring via neighborhood overlap

 Examples

20 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges
 Bridge:
 An edge that is part of every path between the green and red
nodes
 Removing the bridge would disconnect the groups

Close friends Close friends

Bridge between red & green

21 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges
 However such bridges are rare
 Networks are more robust
 Internet
 Power grid

Close friends Close friends

Bridge between red & green

22 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges
 Local bridge:
 Removing a local bridge
 doesn’t disconnect the network
 but increases path lengths

Local Bridge

23 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges
 Local bridge:
 Removing a local bridge increases path lengths
 but doesn’t disconnect the network

 Net effect remains the same:

 New information arrives via the bridge

Local Bridge

24 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges and tie strengths
 Bridges bring new information
 But Granovetter’s survey subjects didn’t say
“I got my new job from a bridge.”
 They said
“[I got the job] from an acquaintance, not a friend.”

 Why should a bridge be an acquaintance?

25 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges and tie strengths
 Why should a bridge be an acquaintance?

 Let’s think about triadic closure in terms of tie strengths

C
 Vanilla triadic closure: B
 “close the V shapes”
A

C
 Triadic closure with tie strengths B
 Preferentially close the V shapes
formed by strong ties A
26 Strong and Weak Ties II
Bridges and tie strengths
 An extreme version of this is…
 Strong triadic closure property
 If A has strong friendships with B and C, then
B and C must be connected

C C C
B B B
A A A
Closure via Closure via
strong tie weak tie Not possible!

27 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges and tie strengths
 Let’s say the Strong Triadic Closure property holds.
 Suppose A --- B is a bridge
 Can it be a strong tie?

 A has strong ties to both B and C

  by Strong Triadic Closure, B and C must be connected

C E
Bridge

A B
D F

28 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges and tie strengths
 Why should a bridge be an acquaintance?
 Suppose A --- B is a bridge
 If it is a strong tie, then
 Strong Triadic Closure
 lots of edges between A’s and B’s close friends
 A --- B isn’t bridging two communities any more!
 So a bridge must be a weak tie

C E
Bridge

A B
D F

29 Strong and Weak Ties II

Bridges and tie strengths
 Puzzle
 “[I got the job] from an acquaintance, not a friend.”

 Explanation
 Where do you hear about new job openings?
 From bridges
 Who are the bridges?
 From the Strong Triadic Closure property
(two close friends of mine are likely to know each other)
C E
 bridges must be weak ties (acquaintances) Bridge
A B
D F

30 Strong and Weak Ties II

Outline
 Triadic closure
 Main idea
 Measuring via clustering coefficient

 Bridges
 Connection to Triadic Closure
 Measuring via neighborhood overlap

 Examples

31 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring bridge-ness
 Our earlier intuition:
 Removing a bridge pushes communities farther apart
 In practice, this is too rigid
 A more robust measure is called neighborhood overlap

32 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring bridge-ness
 Neighborhood overlap
 How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of
B?
 In this case, 0

A Bridge B

33 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring bridge-ness
 Neighborhood overlap
 How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of B?
 Lesser overlap means:
 lesser exchange of information
 the communities of A and B are farther apart
 the A---B edge is more bridge-like

A B
34 Strong and Weak Ties II
Measuring bridge-ness
 Neighborhood overlap
 How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of B?

Number of friends of both A and B

 Jaccard coefficient = Number of friends of either A or B

A B
35 Strong and Weak Ties II
Measuring bridge-ness
 Neighborhood overlap
 How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of
B?
Number of friends of both A and B
 Jaccard coefficient =
Number of friends of either A or B

2
=

A Bridge B

36 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring bridge-ness
 Neighborhood overlap
 How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of
B?
Number of friends of both A and B
 Jaccard coefficient =
Number of friends of either A or B

2
= = 0.4
5

A Bridge B

37 Strong and Weak Ties II

Measuring bridge-ness
 Neighborhood overlap
 How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of
B?
Number of friends of both A and B
 Jaccard coefficient =
Number of friends of either A or B

 Jaccard coefficient between 0 and 1

 Smaller values  more bridge-like

Bridge
A B
38 Strong and Weak Ties II
Jaccard and Clustering coefficients
Number of friends of both A and B
 Jaccard coefficient =
Number of friends of either A or B

These form V shapes

A Bridge B

The bridge closes these V shapes

Number of “closed” V shapes
Number of V shapes

39 Strong and Weak Ties II

 Clustering coefficient =
Jaccard and Clustering coefficients

A Bridge B

 A bridge edge (with a small Jaccard coefficient)

 connects different communities
 so it has few common neighbors
 so it forms very few V shapes or triangles
40  so removal of a bridge doesn’t affect theWeak
Strong and clustering
Ties II coefficient much
Outline
 Triadic closure
 Main idea
 Measuring via clustering coefficient

 Bridges
 Connection to Triadic Closure
 Measuring via neighborhood overlap

 Examples

41 Strong and Weak Ties II

Relation of tie strength and bridge-ness
Increasing Jaccard

Why?
coefficient

Cell-phone call network

[Onnela+/07]

Increasing tie strength

Increased tie strength correlated with less bridge-ness

42 Strong and Weak Ties II
 Tie strengths on Facebook
Co-workers at
FB
Clicked on news-feed, or
visited friend’s profile at
Another set of least twice
friends

Commented or Comments
posted reciprocated

https://www.facebook.com/notes/face
book-data-team/maintened-relationshi
ps-on-facebook/55257228858
Network at different tie strengths
43 Strong and Weak Ties II
Tie strengths on Twitter
Number of close Twitter friends

Number of people followed

44 Strong and Weak Ties II

Summary
 Granovetter’s idea:

 People have both strong ties (close friends)

and weak ties (acquaintances)

 This is the “micro” idea

 It is about interpersonal relationships
45 Strong and Weak Ties II
Summary
 Granovetter’s idea:

 People have both strong ties (close friends)

and weak ties (acquaintances)
 People with strong ties are likely to have more friends in
common

 Triadic closure
 This is the “structural” property of the network
46 Strong and Weak Ties II
Summary
 Granovetter’s idea:

 People have both strong ties (close friends)

and weak ties (acquaintances)
 People with strong ties are likely to have more friends in
common
 New information must come from other parts of the network,
via bridges

 A bridge or a local bridge is a chokepoint for information

47 Strong and Weak Ties II

Summary
 Granovetter’s idea:

 People have both strong ties (close friends)

and weak ties (acquaintances)
 People with strong ties are likely to have more friends in
common
 New information must come from other parts of the network,
via bridges
 By Strong Triadic Closure, bridges must be weak ties

 Hence, job seekers say: “an acquaintance, not a friend”

48 Strong and Weak Ties II

Summary
 New and useful information often comes from superfluous
contacts

 Why?
 Close friends are tightly clustered together
(triadic closure of strong ties)

 The weak ties form the bridges

(and the new information)

 Dropping the weak ties would quickly disconnect the social

network
49 Strong and Weak Ties II
Bibliography
 “Growing closer on Facebook: Changes in tie strength
through site use”, by Burke and Kraut, 2014
 “Using Facebook after Losing a Job: Differential Benefits
of Strong and Weak Ties”, by Burke, Kraut, and Marlow,
2013.

50 Strong and Weak Ties II