A Qualitative Method to Find Influencers Using Similarity-based Approach in the Blogosphere

Current blog systems rank `A-list´ bloggers, but they are not necessarily influential. To differentiate influential bloggers from popular bloggers, we present important groundwork for identifying influential bloggers by weighting readers based on homophily and vulnerability with bloggers. We develop the Quantifying Influence Model (QIM), which attempts to measure the influence score of bloggers. QIM is composed of two components: (1) interpersonal similarity presents the interaction among bloggers and like-minded readers, and (2) degree of information propagation represents how many readers a blogger has, where the readers diffuse the blog posts via scrapping engagements. Our study shows that weighting blog social ties can differentiate influential bloggers from popular bloggers, and what make bloggers influential or popular.