Measuring page viewership in a social network

• US 10,142,379 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Liyanage, Janaka, Zhao, Wenrui, Eisenberg, Louis, de Sa Resende, Danilo Torres, Giovanola, Eric Michel, Gross-Baser, David, Vora, Ami, Ayyar, Srikant Ramakrishna, Frank, Ajoy Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Dhairya A
• Application Number:
  US14/137,676
• Publication Number:
  US 20140108964A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,803 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A social networking system includes pages created by users for providing content related to topics of interest. An interaction engine captures data and maintains analytical information about how users interact with pages and posts. When a user takes an action such as liking a page or a post, the interaction engine updates the page'"'"'s activity history to reflect the activity and information about the user who took the action. The interaction engine also measures the reach of pages and posts, by determining how and from where each user viewed the page and its contents. The interaction engine further tracks the community'"'"'s interest in pages and posts by determining how many unique users create stories that include a page or its content. An insights module uses the data obtained by the interaction engine to synthesize graphical reports about page interactions and present the reports to page administrators.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a page including a plurality of posts and having at least one administrator;

receiving, by the social networking system, at least a first request from a first user of the social networking system, a second request from a second user, and a third request from a third user to view a particular post of the plurality of posts;

classifying by the social networking system, the first request as one of a tracked count of organic requests responsive to detecting that the first user encountered the particular post from a page on the social networking system associated with the first user;

classifying, by the social networking system, the second request as one of a tracked count of paid channel requests responsive to detecting that the second user was directed to the particular post from sponsored content on the social networking system;

classifying, by the social networking system, the third request as one of a tracked count of viral requests responsive to detecting that the third user was directed to the particular post from a story published by a friend of the third user connected to the third user on the social networking system;

receiving, by the social networking system, requests from one or more users of the social networking system to interact with one or more of the plurality of posts;

receiving, by the social networking system, a request from the at least one administrator of the page for analytical information about the page; and

sending, by the social networking system, information associated with the page maintained by the social networking system to display to the at least one administrator in a user interface, the user interface not accessible by a user of the social networking system unless the user is designated as an administrator of the page maintained by the social networking system, the sent information including for each of the plurality of posts;

a number of times users of the social networking system requested to view the post, and

a number of times users of the social networking system requested to interact with the post;

receiving, by the social networking system, a request for more data relating to the number of times users of the social networking system requested to view the post;

responsive to the request, providing for presentation, the tracked count of the organic views, the tracked count of the paid channel views, and the tracked count of the viral views.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein requesting to interact with one or more of the plurality of posts comprises requesting to express affinity for the one or more posts.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the plurality of posts, the user interface includes a number of times users of the social networking system requested to create an addition post about the post.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the plurality of posts, the user interface includes a percentage calculated based on the number of times users of the social networking system requested to view the post and a number of times users of the social networking system requested to create an addition post about the post.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein for each of the plurality of posts, the user interface includes a number of unique users of the social networking system that have viewed the post.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising

responsive to receiving a request for an additional user interface from the at least one administrator, sending additional information to display the additional user interface to the at least one administrator, the additional user interface including for each of a plurality of channels, a number of users that viewed one of the plurality of posts through the channel.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein one of the plurality of channels includes paid advertisements.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein one of the plurality of channels includes the page.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein one of the plurality of channels includes posts by users.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a page including a plurality of content items and having at least one administrator;

receiving, by the social networking system, at least a first request from a first user of the social networking system, a second request from a second user, and a third request from a third user to view a particular content item of the plurality of content items;

classifying by the social networking system, the first request as one of a tracked count of organic requests responsive to detecting that the first user encountered the particular content item from a page on the social networking system associated with the first user;

classifying, by the social networking system, the second request as one of a tracked count of paid channel requests responsive to detecting that the second user was directed to the particular content item from sponsored content on the social networking system;

classifying, by the social networking system, the third request as one of a tracked count of viral requests responsive to detecting that the third user was directed to the particular content item from a story published by a friend of the third user connected to the third user on the social networking system;

receiving, by the social networking system, requests from one or more users of the social networking system to interact with one or more of the plurality of content items;

receiving, by the social networking system, a request from the at least one administrator of the page for analytical information about the page; and

sending, by the social networking system, information associated with the page maintained by the social networking system to display to the at least one administrator in a user interface, the user interface not accessible by a user of the social networking system unless the user is designated as an administrator of the page maintained by the social networking system, the sent information including for each of the plurality of content items;

a number of times users of the social networking system requested to view the content item; and

a number of times users of the social networking system requested to interact with the content item;

receiving, by the social networking system, a request for more data relating to the number of times users of the social networking system requested to view the post

responsive to the request, providing for presentation, the tracked count of the organic views, the tracked count of the paid channel views, and the tracked count of the viral views.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein requesting to interact with one or more of the plurality of content items comprises requesting to express affinity for the one or more content items.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein for each of the plurality of content items, the user interface includes a number of times users of the social networking system requested to create an addition content item about the content item.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein for each of the plurality of content items, the user interface includes a percentage calculated based on the number of times users of the social networking system requested to view the content item and a number of times users of the social networking system requested to create an addition content item about the content item.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein for each of the plurality of content items, the user interface includes a number of unique users of the social networking system that have viewed the content items.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising

responsive to receiving a request for an additional user interface from the at least one administrator, sending additional information to display the additional user interface to the at least one administrator, the additional user interface including for each of a plurality of channels, a number of users that viewed one of the plurality of content items through the channel.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein one of the plurality of channels includes paid advertisements.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein one of the plurality of channels includes the page.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein one of the plurality of channels includes content items shared by users.

19. A computer-implemented method comprising:

maintaining, by a social networking system, a page including a plurality of posts and having at least one administrator;

receiving, by the social networking system, requests from one or more users of the social networking system to view one or more of the plurality of posts;

receiving, by the social networking system, at least a first request from a first user of the social networking system, a second request from a second user, and a third request from a third user to view a particular post of the plurality of posts;

classifying by the social networking system, the first request as one of a tracked count of organic requests responsive to detecting that the first user encountered the particular post from a page on the social networking system associated with the first user;

classifying, by the social networking system, the second request as one of a tracked count of paid channel requests responsive to detecting that the second user was directed to the particular post from sponsored content on the social networking system;

classifying, by the social networking system, the third request as one of a tracked count of viral requests responsive to detecting that the third user was directed to the particular post from a story published by a friend of the third user connected to the third user on the social networking system;

receiving, by the social networking system, a request from the at least one administrator of the page for analytical information about the page; and

sending, by the social networking system, information associated with the page maintained by the social networking system to display to the at least one administrator in a user interface, the user interface not accessible by a user of the social networking system unless the user is designated as an administrator of the page maintained by the social networking system, the sent information including for each of the plurality of posts;

a number of users of the social networking system that requested to view the post;

receiving, by the social networking system, a request for more data relating to the number of times users of the social networking system requested to view the post

responsive to the request, providing for presentation, the tracked count of the organic views, the tracked count of the paid channel views, and the tracked count of the viral views.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein for each of the plurality of posts, the user interface includes a number of times users of the social networking system requested to interact with the post.