Strategies of Success for Social Networks: Mermaids and Temporal Evolution
by
Massimo Marchiori 1,2,* and Lino Possamai 2
Massimo Marchiori 1,2,* and Lino Possamai 2
1
European Institute for Science, Media and Democracy, 1040 Brussels, Belgium
2
Department of Mathematics, University of Padua, 35121 Padua, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Future Internet 2020, 12(2), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/fi12020025
Received: 20 December 2019 / Revised: 31 January 2020 / Accepted: 3 February 2020 / Published: 4 February 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Techno-Social Smart Systems)
The main goal of this article is to investigate techniques that can quickly lead to successful social systems by boosting network connectivity. This is especially useful when starting new online communities where the aim is to increase the system utilization as much as possible. This aspect is very important nowadays, given the existence of many online social networks available on the web, and the relatively high level of competition. In other words, attracting users’ attention is becoming a major concern, and time is an essential factor when investing money and resources into online social systems. Our study describes an effective technique that deals with this issue by introducing the notion of mermaids, special attractors that alter the normal evolutive behavior of a social system. We analyze how mermaids can boost social networks, and then provide estimations of fundamental parameters that business strategists can take into account in order to obtain successful systems within a constrained budget.
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Marchiori, M.; Possamai, L. Strategies of Success for Social Networks: Mermaids and Temporal Evolution. Future Internet 2020, 12, 25.
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