ABSTRACT
Online social networks (OSNs) have gained a lot of popularity on the Internet and become a hot research topic attracting many professionals from diverse areas. Since the advent of OSN sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, OSNs continue to influence and change every aspect of our lives. From politics to business marketing, from celebrities to newsmakers, everyone is hooked on the phenomenon. Facebook is used to connect with friends and share various personal and professional data, as well as photos and videos. LinkedIn is entirely a professional network that is used to connect to colleagues. Google+ is similar to Facebook, while Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that enables users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Each network has its own set of advantages, and the networks make money mainly through advertising since the services they provide are largely free of charge, unless of course one wants to get premium service in networks such as LinkedIn.
