Viral marketing is a technique by which social networks are used to increase brand recognition. Content is described as “going viral” when it is disseminated in a cascading fashion. Generally, the viral growth, or “virality”, of content observations occurs when people convince or encourage others to observe (e.g., engage with) the content, and they in turn influence others to observe the content, and so on. For example, one person may have a particular level of influence over a group of people based on a variety of factors, such as personality, popularity, fame, and wealth. Once this relatively influential person observes some form of content, that person may influence others to observe the same content. In turn, those influenced may also influence others to observe the content based on their respective levels of influence, quickly escalating the number of times the content is observed.
Designing a campaign to propagate content virally is advantageous but exceptionally difficult. Thus, advertisers view viral marketing campaigns as risky ventures. An advertiser would find it appealing if it could design a “content spread strategy” that will likely maximize observances of the content. For example, if the advertiser could select a group of individuals to target for a commercial advertisement and determine who would propagate it to the largest number of people, the advertiser could assign a monetary value to the commercial advertisement. But, designing a system with such a large number of people can be complicated because of the varying levels of influence among the people observing the content. Selection algorithms exist but they are exceptionally complex and difficult to implement.