  Researchers have attempted to model information diffusion and topic trends
and lifecycle on online social networks. They have investigated the role of
content, social connections and communities, familiarity and behavioral
similarity in this context. The current article presents a survey of
representative models that perform topic analysis, capture information
diffusion, and explore the properties of social connections in the context of
online social networks. The article concludes with a set of outlines of open
problems and possible directions of future research interest. This article is
intended for researchers to identify the current literature, and explore
possibilities to improve the art.
