Automatically selecting addressees for receiving a content item

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9836543-B2
Application number	US-201514626006-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 19, 2015
Priority date	Mar 28, 2014
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

A system, method, and apparatus are provided for distributing a content item toward target recipients solely via first degree connections (e.g., in a professional network, in a social network). For a selected content item and identified target recipients of the item, when a user initiates a message to forward or otherwise convey the content item, one or more schemes are applied to select and automatically populate the message with suitable addressees. In one scheme, values are computed for each neighbor of the sender, to indicate the value of delivering the item to that neighbor; the message is automatically addressed to the highest-value neighbors. In another scheme, user communities that encompass the target recipients are identified and the message is automatically addressed to neighbors that are best able to disseminate the item throughout a community. In another scheme a minimal set of neighbors having connections to all target recipients is identified.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
(a) identifying multiple target recipients of a first content item to be distributed via automatically addressed messages;
(b) upon notification of generation of a message comprising the first content item by a message initiator, operating one or more processors to:
(b1) identify, within a network comprising the message initiator, a sub-network comprising first degree connections of the message initiator;
(b2) select as addressees one or more of the first degree connections that have not previously received the first content item; and
(b3) automatically address the message to the selected addressees;

(c) determining whether conditions in a set of threshold conditions are satisfied;
(d) repeating (b) and (c) as long as all conditions in the set of threshold conditions are satisfied; and
(e) transmitting the message toward the selected addressees.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein (c) comprises:
(c1) comparing a current performance of the first content item to a benchmark performance of a first category of content items that encompasses the first content item;
wherein at least one threshold condition in the set of threshold conditions includes the current performance of the first content item exceeding a threshold percentage of the benchmark performance of the first category of content items.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the current performance of the first content item corresponds to a current period of time the message initiator has possessed the first content item;
the current performance of the first content item comprises a percentage of recipients of the first content item that generated messages comprising the first content item only after having possessed the first content item for the period of time; and
the benchmark performance of the first category of content items represents a probability that a recipient of a content item of the first category will generate a message comprising the received content item only after having possessed the received content item for the period of time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein (c) comprises:
(c1) determining a current portion of the target recipients that have received the first content item; and
(c2) comparing the current portion to a threshold portion;
wherein at least one threshold condition in the set of threshold conditions includes the current portion being less than the threshold portion.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein (c) comprises:
(c1) determining a current number of messages comprising the first content item that have been automatically addressed; and
(c2) comparing the current number of messages to a threshold number of messages;
wherein at least one threshold condition in the set of threshold conditions includes the current number of messages being less than the threshold number of messages.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein (c) comprises:
(c1) determining a current maximum number of network hops between an originator of the first content item and an automatically addressed addressee of a message comprising the first content item; and
(c2) comparing the current maximum number of network hops to a threshold maximum number of network hops;
wherein at least one threshold condition in the set of threshold conditions includes the current maximum number of network hops being less than the threshold maximum number of network hops.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting one or more of the first degree connections comprises:
for each first degree connection, calculating an associated value of delivering the content item to the first degree connection; and
ranking the first degree connections by said calculated values.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein calculating a value associated with a given first degree connection comprises:
obtaining a weight corresponding to the given first degree connection, wherein the weight is proportional to similarities between characteristics of the content item and corresponding attributes of the first degree connection;
identifying first degree connections of the given first degree connection;
for each first degree connection of the given first degree connection, calculating a value of delivering the content item to the corresponding first degree connection;
summing the values of delivering the content item to the corresponding first degree connections of the given first degree connection;
multiplying the sum by a probability that the given first degree connection will initiate a message to transmit the content item, to yield a probable value; and
combining the probable value and the weight corresponding to the given first degree connection to yield the value associated with the given first degree connection.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein (c) comprises:
(c1) determining a current total value of the calculated values of recipients of the first content item; and
(c2) comparing the current total value to a target total value;
wherein at least one threshold condition in the set of threshold conditions includes the current total value being less than the target total value.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying one or more communities comprising the target recipients;
wherein selecting one or more of the first degree connections comprises:
if the message initiator is a member of an identified community, ranking the first degree connections by their connectedness within the identified communities.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
if the message initiator is not a member of at least one identified community, rank the first degree connections by their proximities to the identified communities.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein (c) comprises:
(c1) determining whether all members of a first identified community have received the first content item;
wherein at least one threshold condition in the set of threshold conditions includes less than all members of the first identified community having received the first content item.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting as addressees one or more of the first degree connections comprises:
identifying a minimal set of the first degree connections through which the message initiator is connected to the target recipients.

14. An apparatus, comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
(a) identify multiple target recipients of a first content item to be distributed via automatically addressed messages;
(b) upon notification of generation of a message comprising the first content item by a message initiator:
(b1) identify, within a network comprising the message initiator, a sub-network comprising first degree connections of the message initiator;
(b2) select as addressees one or more of the first degree connections that have not previously received the first content item; and
(b3) automatically address the message to the selected addressees;

(c) determine whether conditions in a set of threshold conditions are satisfied;
(d) repeat (b) and (c) as long as all conditions in the set of threshold conditions are satisfied; and
(e) transmit the message toward the selected addressees.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein (c) comprises:
(c1) comparing a current performance of the first content item to a benchmark performance of a first category of content items that encompasses the first content item;
wherein at least one threshold condition in the set of threshold conditions includes the current performan

Assignees

• Linkedin Corp

Inventors

• Andrews June H
• Schissel Jason R

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/908 Primary

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• H04L51/28

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L45/20

  Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL · CPC title