Title: Modelling direct marketing campaign on social networks

Authors: Safique Ahmed Faruque; Mossa. Anisa Khatun; Md. Saidur Rahman

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh ' Department of Operations Management, Faculty of Business Administration, American International University Bangladesh (AIUB), Dhaka-1213, Bangladesh ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh

Abstract: Social networks are considered as a very effective marketing platform for marketers. Unlike viral marketing, direct marketing is not well established on this platform till now. By using the data of social networks direct marketing will be more effective as friends on social networks can influence buyer's purchasing decisions. Moreover, return on investment (ROI) and ratio of marketing to sales can be calculated properly on this platform by direct marketing rather than viral marketing. In this paper we develop a model of direct marketing campaign on a social network. We classify networks based on the suitability of campaigning according to this model. We also present some of the properties of a network to identify its class. Based on this model we formulate a minimisation problem. We develop a heuristic algorithm addressing the minimisation problem. We also compare the outcomes of this algorithm with optimum results.

Keywords: social networks; direct marketing campaigns; graph classes; graph modelling; minimisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2016.077836

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2016 Vol.22 No.4, pp.422 - 435

Received: 26 Apr 2014
Accepted: 27 Jan 2015
Published online: 17 Jul 2016 *

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