Sponsored Story Units with Related Posts and Input Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Advertisers in social networking systems have not effectively leveraged user connections to increase engagement with advertisements, as existing ad targeting methods fail to exploit relationships and interactions among users.
Innovation Solution
Generating sponsored story units that include a sponsored story describing interactions between users and social networking objects, accompanied by related posts and optional input elements, allowing users to interact and share content, which can be used to virally distribute the sponsored story units.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional ad targeting methods are used, then ads can be delivered to users based on basic profile attributes, but user engagement with advertisements remains limited because relationships and connections among users are not exploited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the advertising system into multiple components: sponsored story units, related posts, and input elements. Each component serves a specific function - the sponsored story presents the ad, related posts provide social context, and input elements enable interaction. This segmentation allows the system to leverage user connections while maintaining manageable complexity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements nesting by embedding related posts within sponsored story units, and embedding input elements within the story units. The related posts are nested to provide contextual background, while input elements are nested to enable direct user interaction. This nested structure allows the system to incorporate multiple layers of engagement without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
2Productivity
If sponsored story units include related posts and input elements, then user engagement and interest improve, but the complexity of the advertising system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-selecting and organizing related posts before presenting them to users. The system identifies relevant posts from user connections in advance, curates them based on relevance criteria, and prepares them for inclusion in sponsored story units. This preliminary processing reduces real-time computational complexity while maintaining high ad effectiveness through carefully selected content.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses related posts as intermediaries between the sponsored story and the user. Instead of directly presenting the advertisement, the system introduces related posts that provide social context and credibility. These intermediary posts bridge the gap between the ad content and user interest, enhancing effectiveness without requiring direct complex interactions with the core advertisement.
3Productivity
If users are provided with interaction opportunities through input elements, then viral distribution is enabled, but the system must handle and process additional user-generated information
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where user interactions with input elements generate responses that are processed and utilized by the system. User inputs provide feedback about engagement levels, preferences, and viral propagation effectiveness. This feedback loop allows the system to manage interaction data efficiently by using it to optimize future sponsored story units and targeting strategies, rather than simply accumulating raw data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables self-service by allowing users to automatically generate and share sponsored story units with their connections. When users interact with input elements, the system automatically creates personalized versions of the sponsored story for their network, leveraging their existing connections for viral distribution. This self-service approach reduces the burden on the system to manually manage viral propagation while efficiently handling interaction data through automated processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A viewing user is provided with sponsored story units when accessing content associated with a social networking system. The sponsored story units include a sponsored story describing an interaction and one or more related posts. The sponsored story may describe an action of another user connected to the viewing user who has interacted with a social networking object. The one or more related posts may include content associated with the social networking object involved in the interaction described by the sponsored story. The sponsored story unit can optionally include an input element with which the viewing user can interact. The information received from the viewing user via the input element can be used to generate additional sponsored story units to the viewing user's friends.