Targeted influence maximization under a multifactor-based information propagation model

Information propagation modeling and influence maximization are two important research problems in viral marketing. When marketing information is given, how can the seed nodes be efficiently identified to maximize the spread of the information through the network? To answer this question, we consider multiple factors in information propagation, such as information content, social influence and user authority, and propose a multifactor-based information propagation model (MFIP). Then, we utilize the first-order influence of the nodes to approximate their influence and propose an efficient heuristic algorithm named weighted degree decrease (WDD) to select the seed nodes under the MFIP model. Experimental evaluations with four real-world social network datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our algorithm. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.