Sunbelt XXXI International Network for Social Network ... - INSNA

Personal Influence Among Core Ties On Social Network SitesSessions Goulet, Lauren; Goulet, Lauren S.Innovation, Diffusion, and the Adoption of TechnologyHomophily, Influentials, Social Networks Sites, Core NetworkWED.PM1This paper examines social network sites’ capacity to host personal influence among core ties, asking to what extent users are “friends” with their core ties(persons who are especially influential in decision‐making processes), and additionally, the extent to which core tie dyads interacting on these sites arehomophilous. Findings suggest that connections between core ties are often absent from social network sites; however, certain categories of users (e.g. youngadults), have forged online connections with a significantly greater proportion of their core ties on these sites, potentially making these users susceptible toundue influence as a result of online marketing. Further, levels of homophily among core ties interacting on these sites vary. Females have a significantlygreater predominance of same‐sex contacts in these networks, while older users are more likely to have networks consisting of a higher proportion of kinrelations. These findings have implications for both the efficacy of marketing tactics targeting users' strong ties, and the areas of personal influence users aremost susceptible to as a result of interaction with core ties on social network sites.Personal Networks As A Way Of Understanding The Social Capital Of HouseholdsPortales, LuisEgocentric NetworksSocial Capital, Personal Networks, Poverty, HouseholdsFRI.AM2In recent decades the increased interest in social capital has resulted in a proliferation of definitions which at times are incommensurable amongst themselves.Generally, however, all have the common notion of an actor which is embedded in a particular social network which gives him or her access to some kind ofresource, or makes it act in a particular way. Furthermore, related to this conceptual ambiguity, there too has been a proliferation of ways to measure socialcapital, which is conceptually relevant when social capital is presumed to have a relationship with the quality of life of households, has some authors havesuggested. Within this context, the present work here looks at personal networks as a way of understanding and analyzing the social capital of 96 householdsin a low‐income community in the periphery of a large Mexican city. In the study households are considered as the ‘ego’s’ of the personal networks of theirmembers, and their aggregate quality of life is assessed as influenced by this network. The name generators are not restricted to a certain number of alters,since the context in which alters are mentioned by the interviewees’ is also relevant. Constructed in this way, personal network of the households can helpresearchers better understand the different contexts, and ways that the households use their social resources to improve their quality of life. Finally, it alsoallows to map the relationships between ‘alters’, which can be analyzed with the traditional network metrics, allowing a more comprehensive view of howhousehold social capital is used and formed.