Social Network Expansion via Cross-Channel Contact Association
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Solution Overview
Problem
Social networks that track members via one communication channel often lose contact when users migrate to another channel, leading to inefficiencies in inviting new members and potential irritation or waste of invitations.
Innovation Solution
A system that retrieves contact lists, generates associations between different types of identifiers (e.g., email and mobile phone numbers), filters out non-members, and invites remaining contacts to join the social network, thereby efficiently expanding the social graph across communication channels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If invitations are sent to all contacts in the social network, then more potential new members may be reached, but existing members may be irritated and resources are wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by retrieving contact lists, generating associations between identifiers, and filtering out existing members before sending invitations. This advance preparation ensures that only potential new members receive invitations, eliminating the harm of irritating existing users while maintaining high expansion efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback mechanisms by comparing contact identifiers against the existing social graph to identify and exclude current members. This feedback loop ensures that invitation lists are dynamically updated and accurate, preventing wasted resources on existing members while maximizing reach to potential new members
2Device complexity
If the social network tracks members via one communication channel, then member management is simplified, but contact is lost when users migrate to another channel
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements multi-functionality by supporting multiple communication channels (email, mobile phone numbers, and other identifiers) within a single social network infrastructure. This allows the system to maintain simplified internal management while reliably tracking members across different communication channels they use
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary layer of identifier associations that map different communication channel identifiers to the same social graph nodes. This intermediary mechanism enables seamless tracking of members across channels without requiring complex changes to the core member management system
3Quantity of substance
If contact lists are expanded to include all possible identifiers, then more potential members are identified, but the likelihood of inviting existing members increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs feedback by continuously comparing identifiers in contact lists against the existing social graph membership data. This real-time verification ensures that even as contact lists expand to include more potential members, the system maintains high precision in identifying only true new members for invitation
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary filtering and association generation before final invitation selection. By pre-processing contact lists to generate and validate identifier associations, the system ensures that the expanded contact list is thoroughly vetted, maintaining high identification accuracy while maximizing the pool of potential new members
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for expanding a social network. A method includes retrieving contact lists from a plurality of devices, generating a list of associations between identifiers in a first communication channel and identifiers in a second communication channel, removing, from the list of associations, one or more associations that include identifiers that do not represent contacts that are not members of the online social networking service, and transmitting an invitation to join the online social networking service to the second identifiers on the second communication channel for associations that remain in the list of associations.