Lab 3: Web Analytics and Social Media Analysis
Lab Overview
Scenario/Summary
Adventure Works Cycles is planning a grass roots marketing campaign for their new BMX-9000 product. In the world of BMX competition, the opinions of certain individuals who are regarded as experts and are highly active on social media can greatly affect the success of a product. The Adventure Works marketing team would like to identify these key influencers and reach out to them to promote the BMS-9000. In this lab, you will perform a network analysis of social media data from Twitter to identify these key influencers. The tasks for this lab are listed below.
· Practice analyzing a simple network using the NodeXL template for Excel.
· Perform a network analysis of a Twitter feed using graph metrics.
· Interpret the results and make recommendations to Adventure Works management.
Open-Source Software Citation Requirements
This lab assignment uses open-source software, and as the end users of this software, students are required to cite the software for any student work, such as assignments, labs, or projects, where the software has been utilized. Open-source software does have end-user license agreements, and all students should read the entire agreement for a software prior to installation or usage. In order to use the software in this course, software citations have been created for students and can be located on the Open Source Applications page. These software citations must be included in all student work submissions that have used the software.
Deliverables
You will submit three files for this lab.
· A NodeXL-based Excel workbook titled Lab3_yourlastname_Simple.xlsx for a simple six-vertex network.
· A NodeXL-based Excel workbook titled Lab3_yourlastname_Twitter.xlsx for a network based on a Twitter feed.
· A Word document titled Lab3_yourlastname_Paper.docx containing a one-page summary of your findings and recommendations for Adventure Works. This must include a list of 10 specific key influencers that you recommend for outreach and the reason why you selected each one.
When submitting the assignment, provide a comment explaining what you learned from completing this lab activity.
| Category | Points | % |
| Step 1: Analysis of Simple Six-vertex Network
Provide a NodeXL-based workbook that contains analysis of simple six-vertex network. Network vertices and edges entered correctly; directed network graph displayed with vertices labeled, color-coded by gender, and sized by in-degree. |
25 | 35.7% |
| Step 2: Capture and Analyze Twitter Feed
Provide a NodeXL-based workbook with analysis of BMX Twitter feed. NodeXL-based workbook contains data for at least 100 tweets. Directed graph displayed with vertices color-coded and sized using appropriate metrics. Data are sorted and filtered using appropriate criteria for identification of key influencers. |
25 | 35.7% |
| Step 3: Opinion Paper
Write a one-page paper explaining your findings and making recommendations. Paper is in APA format, free of typographical, spelling, and grammar errors, and clearly states appropriate findings and recommendations from the analysis. Paper includes a list of 10 specific key influencers with the reason why each was chosen. |
20 | 28.6% |
| Total | 70 | 100% |
Lab Resources
NodeXL
You must use this software from the Virtual Lab-Citrix environment to ensure that the user interface matches what is shown in the lab videos. The link is accessible from the Course Resources page in the Introduction and Resources module. View the Lab Resources section.
If you would like to have NodeXL Basic on your local PC for your personal use, a link to download a free open-source version is on the Course Resources Page under Web Links. However, this download is not compatible with some versions of Excel and some operating systems. Installation and use of NodeXL on your local PC is not covered in the lab instructions and is not supported by the DeVry University Help Desk.
Step 1: Analysis of Simple Six-vertex Network
In this section, you will become familiar with the NodeXL tool by manually entering the data for a simple network and analyzing this network.
a. Log into the Virtual Lab-Citrix environment and launch NodeXL. (When you do this, you are actually launching a copy of Microsoft Excel 2016 with the NodeXL Basic template already installed for you.)
b. On the edges sheet, manually enter the edge data for the following simple Twitter network. Alice follows Bob, Carol, Dan, and Frank. Bob follows Dan and Frank. Carol follows Frank. Dan follows Frank. Eve follows Frank.
c. Display the directed graph for this network in the graph pane.
d. On the vertices sheet, add a user-defined column with the heading gender. In the gender column, enter F (indicating female) for Alice, Carol, and Eve, and enter M (indicating male) for Bob, Dan, and Frank.
e. Calculate overall graph metrics, vertex in-degree, and vertex out-degree.
f. Use the autofill columns feature to label vertices on the graph, color-code the vertices based on gender, and set vertex size based on in-degree.
g. Save the workbook as Lab3_yourlastname_Simple.xlsx and close it.
NOTE: Do not forget to save your work before continuing on to Step 2.
Step 2: Capture and Analyze Twitter Feed
In this section, you will capture and analyze data from a Twitter feed to identify key influencers in the BMX community.
a. Launch NodeXL in the Virtual Lab-Citrix environment to open a fresh NodeXL-based workbook.
b. Obtain a data set of tweets containing the hashtag #BMX. You can do this in one of two ways.
1. If you have a Twitter account, or are willing to create one, use the NodeXL Import From Twitter Search Network feature to import at least 100 tweets containing the #BMX hashtag.
2. If you prefer not to import live data from Twitter, download and open the following data file captured earlier: Lab3 BMX Tweets.xlsx (Links to an external site.) . Use the NodeXL Import from Open Workbook feature to import the contents into NodeXL.
c. Display the directed graph for this network in the graph pane.
d. Calculate overall graph metrics, vertex in-degree, and vertex out-degree.
e. On your own: Color-code the vertices based on a metric or characteristic that you believe is meaningful to identifying key influencers for promoting the BMX-9000.
f. On your own: Set the vertex size based on a different metric or characteristic that you believe is meaningful to identifying key influencers for promoting the BMX-9000.
g. On your own: Explore the data set using sorting and filtering to explore the data set, and identify the Top 10 key influencers that Adventure Works should approach to promote the BMX-9000.
h. Save the workbook as Lab3_yourlastname_Twitter.xlsx.
NOTE: Do not forget to save your work before continuing on to Step 3.
Step 3: Write Opinion Paper and Submit
Review your analysis of the BMX Twitter feed performed for this lab activity, and write a one-page opinion paper summarizing the key findings and recommended actions for management. Include a list of the Top 10 key influencers you identified, and explain why each one was chosen. Your paper should be in APA format, professionally written, and should be free of grammatical errors, typos, and misspellings. Save your paper in a Microsoft Word file named Lab3_yourlastname_Paper.docx.
Submit your two NodeXL workbooks and the Word document containing your Opinion Paper.
