Identifying Key Users in Online Social Networks:A PageRank Based Approach
Online social networks evolved into a global mainstream medium that generates an increasingsocial and economic impact. However, many online social networks face the question how toleverage on their fast growing popularity to achieve sustainable revenues. In that context,particularly more effective advertising strategies and sophisticated customer loyalty programs tofoster users’ retention are needed. Thereby, key users in terms of users’ connectivity andcommunication activity play a decisive role. However, quantitative approaches for theidentification of key users in online social networks merging concepts and findings from researchon users’ connectivity and communication activity are missing. Based on the design scienceresearch paradigm, we therefore propose a novel PageRank based approach bringing togetherboth research streams. To demonstrate its practical applicability, we use a publicly availabledataset of Facebook.com. Finally, we evaluate our novel PageRank based approach incomparison to existing approaches, which could alternatively be used...