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What is Social Network Analysis?

Network connectivity reflects how well relationships are forming across a network. As the effectiveness of any network depends on the strength of the connections between participants, network connectivity is a critical means of assessing progress — especially in the early days of a network’s formation. 

Social network analysis (SNA), also known as network mapping, is the most effective method currently available for visualizing and evaluating a network’s connectivity. SNA offers an empirical way to represent the patterns of connection and disconnection among participants at a given moment in time. This provides important clues about where clusters are forming, how information is flowing, and where to weave relationships. 

SNA can be used to capture the degree to which participants have formed a relationship with one another, are communicating (sharing information, ideas, or data), are coordinating (connecting their efforts closely but maintaining separate resources and responsibilities), and collaborating (working in partnership, sharing resources, and making shared decisions). We aim to gather this information before the first network convening to get baseline data, and then again after major convenings, or at regular intervals thereafter (i.e., every 6 months) to assess change over time. 

SNA results can support a network’s development in several ways, including:

  • Assessing the network’s growth over time,

  • Identifying key influencers and those who are least engaged, and

  • Highlighting opportunities for intervention and weaving.

Each of these applications are shown in the maps below. Following the examples are suggestions for getting started on conducting your own social network analysis.

Assessing the network's growth over time

SNA helps to assess the progress of a network during its formative stages. In particular, it can help leaders evaluate the effectiveness of network convenings in enabling participants to establish and deepen their relationships with one another. 

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Seeing this type of progress, particularly before more tangible outcomes have been reached, can help to show progress and inspire further engagement among funders and participants alike.

Identifying key influencers and those who are least engaged

Social network analyses can also identify the key influencers in a network—the people others commonly turn to for information, guidance, or support. The map below shows a 325-person network featuring leaders from across a region. Each person in the network was asked to identify the people who have most significantly influenced their work. The size of the node correlates with the number of times a given person was listed as an influencer. The people listed most often are indicated with the largest nodes—these are the key influencers in the network. Meanwhile, the people on the periphery of the network are the least engaged, and may need some additional attention or support to find ways to plug in.

Highlighting opportunities for intervention and weaving

Network maps can reveal vulnerabilities and areas that need attention. The following map, which illustrates the connections between staff members of a large school district and its network of parent volunteers, revealed that the school district’s connections with an important minority community, Hmong Americans, was limited to single staff member. While this staff member created an essential bridge with the community, it was a particularly “narrow bridge”. If this person were to leave their job or become unavailable, the district would be at risk of losing many critical relationships. 

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Upon seeing the map, the school district mobilized to increase the diversity of connections between staff members and Hmong parents—to create what’s known as a “wide bridge.” Creating redundancies in networks through wide bridges allows resources and information to continue flowing even when certain individuals are unresponsive or unavailable.

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SNA can also reveal how people are clustered together, and where there are opportunities to strategically weave those clusters together.

What data do we need?

The first step to conducting a social network analysis is collecting the data you need. This includes two components:

  • Individual data, and

  • Connectivity data.

Individual data is gathered to incorporate identifying and contact information like name, title, affiliation, email address. Individual data may also include information relevant to an asset map, including areas of expertise, functional skills, connections with other stakeholder groups, and geographic focus.

Connectivity data is gathered to indicate how people are connected to one another. This information can take multiple forms, including how strong of a relationship people have, how much they are communicating, how often people are considered a source of guidance or support, and the degree to which people are collaborating with one another. 

Asset maps consist of only individual data, and a social network analysis consists of only connectivity data. When combined together, however, we can create what’s known as a “social system map.”

Creating an SNA survey

Through an SNA survey, each network participant indicates their degree of connection with each other participant using a particular connectivity scale. You can offer multiple different connectivity scales (for example, one for relationships, and one for collaborations). 

Connectivity scales can be quite different depending on the network and what information is most relevant to you.

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