Increasing content circulation in a social networking service

A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

• accessing a content item for a user;
• computing a utility value for a viral action on the content item by the user, the utility value being computed based on user characteristics of the user, content item characteristics of the content item, and information about first degree connections of the user;
• adjusting, based on the computed utility value for the viral action, a position of the content item in a feed for presentation to the user;
• and
• providing for presentation of the feed, including the content item, to the user.

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• accessing a content item for a user;
• computing a utility value for a viral action on the content item by the user, the utility value being computed based on user characteristics of the user, content item characteristics of the content item, and information about first degree connections of the user;
• adjusting, based on the computed utility value for the viral action, a position of the content item in a feed for presentation to the user;
• and
• providing for presentation of the feed, including the content item, to the user.