Chien-leng Hsu (Post-doctoral research fellow)

Se Jung Park (PhD student)

Han Woo Park (Associate Professor)

Department of Media & Communication, WCU Webometrics Institute, Yeungnam University

hanpark@ynu.ac.kr http://www.hanpark.net

http://english-webometrics.yu.ac.kr

Presented at the 5th Complexity Conference, 27 Nov 2010, Seoul, Korea

Identifying influential Twitter usersThe case of Sejong City in South Korea

About this study

This research explores influential Twitter users and Tweets by:

Using Sejong City ( 세종시 ) as the case study

Using different measurement methods

Studying topics (keywords) mentioned in the Tweets

The 2-step flow of communication theory (Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1964)

(Online) opinion leaders:determinants of rapid & sustained behavior change of

members in a community (Valent & Davis, 1999)Park, Jeong & Han (2008)

practices (political) participation deligentlyaggressively expresses opinions

Key Users on Twitter Communities

The “network structure” approach: fails to identify influential Twitter users (Leavitt et al, 2009;

Haddadi et al, 2010) The “actor relation” approach:

content reachabilityFisher & Gilbert (2009) replies, retweets, mentions & attributions➭

The majority of users: silent & passivea user’s influence: information forwarding activity (Romero et al, in

submission)Trace influential user over time

Identifying Key Twitter Users

The Sejong City Project

The original plan (Moo-Hyun Roh in 2005):To allocate 2/3 of government offices to Sejong, Chungnam (

충남 )Necessary for regional developmentThe excessive centralization of Seoul & its vicinity

limited innovation potential (Shapiro, So & Park, 2010)➭

The revised plan (Myung-Bak Lee):A center for education, scientific research & high-tech industriesPartitioning the capital would weaken Korea’s competitiveness &

innovation capability

Research Questions

Who are the influential users who produce Tweets related to the Sejong City project?

What are activities of the influential users?

What is the relationship between the influential users?

What are the keywords frequently used by the influential users in the Sejong City issue network?

Data collection & analytical techniques

Data collection

Analytical techniques

Dates of collection: 15 March ~ 12 April 2010Twitter scraper: An automated computer program to retrieve Tweets

from Twtkr (twitterkr.com)Twitter API: Twitter user’s public data

Basic data:LocationNumber of TweetsLists of followingsLists of followers

Pearson correlation test

Four posting activities:Normal tweetsBeing retweeted by othersBeing replied by othersBeing mentioned by others

Krkwic (keywords analysis)

(I) Identification of influential users

(II) Twitter activities of the influential users

(III) Relationships between the influential users

(IV) Keywords in the issue network of Sejong City

Amendment of Sejong City law & politicians

Critical reviews on Sejong City law

Controversies & solutions

Agreement & social welfare

Other social & political issues

Conflicts between political partiesPolitical ideologies & concerns on national debtNational policies

Influential users include media outlets & ordinary users

Correlation tests:The occurrence of Tweets vs. the number of Tweets

significantly correlated (Pearson correlation=0.663, p<.01)➭ ➭ Influential users tended to address public issues

The number of followers vs. the number of followings significantly correlated (Pearson correlation=0.871, p<.01)➭ ➭ Influential users had mutual ties in the network

Discussions (I)

Having mutual relations with other influential users may allow an influetial user to make his/her own opinions available to a wider audience

Influential users are likely to act as news brokers & deliver their views in a single-issue community

Discussions (II)

Referral activities/relationshipsMedia outlets normal tweets messages were not circulated well ➭ ➭

among other usersOrdinary users

normal tweets, retweets, mentions & replies More likely to interact with the indirect presence of media outlets

Keyword networkPoliticians, government projects & social-political issues mentionedInfluential user

some keywords specific to his/her clustersimilar keywords used a sense of community ➭

Thank you.