Social Network graph
The Social Network graph helps you to visualize the relationships between the selected entity and all entities that the selected entity is linked to. Using this unique graph, you get another way to see "who knows who".
- Entity-to-entity links: You see all the entities related to the main (hub) entity. However, the attributes that link the entities do not display on the graph but are accessible by using the Attribute Explorer in combination with the graph.
- Relationship clusters: The Social Network graph is unique in that it displays the related entities in groups or clusters. This graph can help you see all the relationship clusters a particular entity belongs to and look for patterns in among the clusters and relationships.
You can expand the graph to show all the related entities for any entity. Each time you show all entities related to a particular entity, that entity node becomes the hub entity in a new relationship cluster.
To maintain the integrity of each relationship cluster, an entity can be displayed on the graph multiple times in multiple relationship clusters. But each entity displays in each relationship cluster only once. To see every relationship cluster the entity is part of, select the entity by clicking on that node. The interior of the selected entity node changes to blue in each relationship cluster that the entity is part of.
When an entity is the hub entity, the Related Entities indicator does not display, because all entities related to the hub entity already display in the relationship cluster. When the entity is one of the related entities in the relationship cluster and has other relationships that are not displayed in the that cluster, a Related Entities indicator displays.
Tips for using the Social Network graph
- Use the Show remaining related Entities right-click option to expand the related entities for one or more entities on the graph. Each expansion creates another relationship cluster. Look for patterns between the clusters.
- If multiple relationship clusters are graphed, try zooming out to look for the bigger patterns and context in the clusters. For example, if a particular entity shows up in every cluster or many clusters, then that entity might be a big influencer within a particular sphere. Or that entity might be key to connecting multiple relationship clusters.
- Use the Attribute Explorer to see which attributes link the related entities. Select a particular attribute row to highlight every entity on the graph that shares that attribute. The value in the Entities column can show you which attributes are shared by the most entities.