Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining the social capital of a node in a social network, wherein the social capital is determined by the number of receiving nodes connecting and receiving posts from the node, and the social capital is determined by number of receiving nodes commenting on, sharing, and liking post from the node. The receiving nodes are categorized into “need,” “trust,” admire,” and opposition categories according to the number of “comments,” “shares,” and “likes” of each respective receiving node. The method and apparatus further include optimally allocating resources to influence the behavior of agents corresponding to the receiving nodes, wherein the allocation of resource is optimized using a cost-benefit function valuing the benefit of the node proportional to the calculated social capital of the node.