Modelling direct marketing campaign on social networks

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.