Social networks are used on a daily basis by millions of individuals who post millions of messages on several topics. The data recorded by these networks provide useful information in order to predict or detect events in the real world. Some diffused messages are misinformation or false rumours, and so, can be the cause of panic or stress situations. In order to avoid and anticipate these critical situations and understand the diffusion phenomenon in general, it is necessary to study and model the propagation of the information. In this sense, several varieties of models have been proposed and some researchers have attempted to identify parameters involved in the information diffusion. In this paper, we introduce well-known diffusion models that generally simplify drastically the process and we present also a survey of more advanced works whether recent or not studying factors that influence the information diffusion. Finally, we give essential perspectives of research toward a more realistic coverage of information diffusion phenomena.