Selecting content for presentation to a user of a social networking system based on a topic associated with a group of which the user is a member

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• retrieve information describing a plurality of objects maintained in a social networking system, the plurality of objects comprising a group having a plurality of members, each member being a user of the social networking system, wherein the group is created by an administrator member of the plurality of members, and wherein the group comprises a group page dedicated to the group;
• identify a set of objects of the plurality of objects having at least a threshold measure of similarity to the group based at least in part on the information describing the plurality of objects maintained in the social networking system;
• extract a set of data associated with one or more of the group and the set of objects having at least the threshold measure of similarity to the group, the set of data extracted from the information maintained in the social networking system;
• access a hierarchical classification system comprising a plurality of levels arranged in order of increasing specificity, the plurality of levels arranged based at least in part on a set of topics corresponding to each of the plurality of levels, the set of topics associated with one or more of the plurality of objects;
• compare the set of data with the set of topics corresponding to each of the plurality of levels comprising the hierarchical classification system;
• determine one or more topics associated with the group based at least in part on the compare;
• receive a request to present content to a viewing user of the social networking system, the viewing user being a member of the group;
• compute a similarity score for each of a set of candidate content items eligible for presentation to the viewing user, the similarity score computed based at least in part on a measure of similarity between a topic associated with each of the set of candidate content items and the one or more topics associated with the group;
• rank the set of candidate content items based at least in part on the similarity score computed for each of the set of candidate content items;
• select a content item from the set of candidate content items based at least in part on the ranking;
• and
• send the content item for display to the viewing user on the group page.

A method comprising:

• retrieving information maintained in a social networking system describing a group, the group having a plurality of members, each member being a user of the social networking system, wherein the group is created by an administrator member of the plurality of members, and wherein the group comprises a group page dedicated to the group;
• extracting a set of data associated with the group from the information maintained in the social networking system;
• accessing a hierarchical classification system comprising a plurality of levels arranged in order of increasing specificity, the plurality of levels arranged based at least in part on a set of topics corresponding to each of the plurality of levels, the set of topics associated with one or more objects maintained in the social networking system;
• comparing the set of data with the set of topics corresponding to each of the plurality of levels comprising the hierarchical classification system;
• determining one or more topics associated with the group based at least in part on the comparing;
• receiving a request to present content to a viewing user of the social networking system, the viewing user being a member of the group;
• identifying a set of candidate content items eligible for presentation to the viewing user;
• computing a similarity score for each of the set of candidate content items based at least in part on a measure of similarity between the topic associated with the candidate content item and the one or more topics associated with the group;
• ranking the set of candidate content items based at least in part on the similarity score computed for each of the set of candidate content items;
• and
• selecting a content item from the set of candidate content items based at least in part on the ranking.