Influence Maximization in Social Networks using Hurst exponent based Diffusion Model

Influence maximization (IM) in online social networks (OSNs) has been extensively studied in the past few years, owing to its potential of impacting online marketing. IM aims at solving the problem of selecting a small set of influential nodes, who can lead to maximum influence spread across a social network. An integral part of IM is the modelling of the underlying diffusion process, which has a substantial impact on the spread achieved by any seed set. In this paper, Hurst-based diffusion model for IM has been proposed, under which node’s activation depends upon the nature of self-similarity exhibited in its past activity pattern. Assessment of the self-similarity trend exhibited by a node’s activity pattern, has been done using Hurst exponent (H). On the basis of the results achieved, the proposed model has been found to perform significantly better than two widely popular diffusion models, Independent Cascade and Linear Threshold, which are often used for IM in OSNs.