Fig. 1
From: The role of luck in the success of social media influencers
The network formation process is split into two phases: in the first phase, each seeker is recommended a content creator. The probability of recommending a given content creator is based on their current number of followers, as well as on the recommendation process, as shown in 2. In the second phase, the seeker decides whether or not to follow the recommended content creator. This decision process is based on the quality of the recommended content creator and on the quality of the seeker’s current followees: if the quality is greater (or equal) the seeker follows the newly recommended content creator. The two processes are coupled as the decision-making phase changes the status of the network by affecting the number of followers of each content creator. In turn, this changes the probability a given content creator will be recommended