Engagement-based selection of content for member segments of social networks

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
• calculate one or more quantiles from a distribution of historic user engagement with content within a member segment of a social network;
• perform a comparison of the one or more quantiles with a current measurement of user engagement with a content item within the member segment;
• and
• when the comparison indicates that the current measurement of user engagement exceeds a threshold:
• select one or more members for presentation of the content item based on a lack of prior exposure to the content item;
• modify an appearance of the content item to emphasize the content item;
• and
• present the content item with the modified appearance to the one or more members;
• wherein calculating the one or more quantiles from the distribution of historic user engagement with content within the member segment comprises:
• calculating the one or more quantiles from a set of historic measurements of user engagement with content within the member segment;
• and
• omitting one or more historic measurements from the set of historic measurements when an exposure of the member segment to one or more content items associated with the one or more historic measurements does not meet a minimum exposure level.

A system, comprising:

• a content-selection module comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the system to:
• calculate one or more quantiles from a distribution of historic user engagement with content within a member segment of a social network;
• and
• perform a comparison of the one or more quantiles with a current measurement of user engagement with a content item within the member segment;
• and
• a presentation module comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the system to, when the comparison indicates that the current measurement of user engagement exceeds a threshold:
• select one or more members in the member segment for presentation of the content item, based on a lack of prior exposure to the content item;
• modify an appearance of the content item to emphasize the content item;
• and
• present the content item with the modified appearance to the one or more members;
• wherein calculating the one or more quantiles from the distribution of historic user engagement with content within the member segment comprises:
• calculating the one or more quantiles from a set of historic measurements of user engagement with content within the member segment;
• and
• omitting one or more historic measurements from the set of historic measurements when an exposure of the member segment to one or more content items associated with the one or more historic measurements does not meet a minimum exposure level.