Influence analysis in social networks: a survey

Complementary to the fancy applications of social networks, influence analysis is an indispensable technique supporting these practical applications. In recent years, this emerging research branch has obtained significant attention from both industry and academia. In this new territory, researchers are facing many unprecedented theoretical and practical challenges. Thus, in this survey, we aim to pave a comprehensive and solid starting ground for interested readers by soliciting the latest work in this area. Firstly, we provide an overview of social networks, including definition, and types of social networks. Secondly, we present the current understanding of social influence analysis from different levels, such as its definition, properties, architecture, applications, and diffusion models. Thirdly, we discuss the evaluation metrics for social influence. Fourthly, we summarize the existing evaluation models on social influence in social networks. We further provide an overview of the existing methods for influence maximization. Finally, we discuss the problems of current algorithms and future trends from various perspectives in this field. We hope this work will shed light for more and more forthcoming researchers to further explore the uncharted part of this promising research field.