A while back, I posted a graph on Tumblr illustrating the spread of my most popular post ever via reblogs (it's currently at almost 4500 notes, which is just weird. why, tumblr).

Several people have asked for instructions on how to do the reblog graph, so here they are. I realize this is a post that's all about tumblr but I'm posting on DW. That's because while Tumblr is *great* for virality, I still refuse to use it for long or complicated text posts, at which it is terrible.

This isn't necessarily the best way, but it's the way I can do it at work, with no expertise, without downloading any software. (If you want to play with really powerful network graphs, download the open source package Gephi - as a bonus its sample data set is a network chart of Les Miserables characters!) But Gephi is hard. Here's how to do it with just Notepad, Paint, and Google.

As my example, I decided to use a post from someone who is authentically popular on the internet, unlike me - friend and artist Kevin Bolk of Interrobang Studios. Specifically, his Sexy Astrophysicists Art Card Set (As of a mid-April 2014 when I started writing this post). I've made the Google Fusion link public if you want to play without starting from scratch: kbonetwork.

Here's how to start from scratch:

( Step I: Acquire and clean the data )

( Step II:Make a spreadsheet )

( Step III: Load the data into Fusion Tables )

( Step IV: Make the graph )

( Step V: Share )

Result:


If you try this and have issues, drop a comment to this post, and I'll do my best to answer.