Opinion Leader Detection

Identifying opinion leaders and assessing their influence is highly relevant in several domains. This chapter presents a comprehensive analysis of state-of-the-art opinion leader detection strategies in social networks and the associated challenges. We classify the approaches into four categories, depending on the types of available and observable data: network topology, interaction, content mining, and content and interaction. For each category, we present relevant approaches, the metrics and algorithms employed, and evaluation remarks. A critical discussion of the advantages, limitations, and suitability of the approaches is also provided. The potential for generating added value by detection of opinion leaders is illustrated with different application scenarios.

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