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How to Find Influential Nodes

Identify the most important, influential, or central nodes in your graph.

Quick Answer​

# Best general-purpose method
grph centrality graph.gexf --type pagerank --top 10

Choose the Right Metric​

MetricUse WhenCommand
PageRankFinding influential nodes (social, web)--type pagerank
DegreeFinding most connected nodes--type degree
BetweennessFinding bridge/connector nodes--type betweenness
ClosenessFinding nodes that can reach others quickly--type closeness
EigenvectorFinding nodes connected to important nodes--type eigenvector

Examples​

Social Network Influencers​

# Who has the most influential followers?
grph centrality social.gexf --type pagerank --top 5

Network Hub Detection​

# Which servers handle the most traffic?
grph centrality network.gexf --type degree --top 10

Find Bottlenecks​

# Which nodes are critical for connectivity?
grph centrality network.gexf --type betweenness --top 5

For Directed Graphs​

Specify direction for degree centrality:

# Most followed (incoming edges)
grph degree social.gexf --direction in --top 10

# Most following (outgoing edges)
grph degree social.gexf --direction out --top 10