Time-based tracking of social lift

A system for determining advertising campaign effectiveness, the system comprising:

• a processor operable to execute instructions stored in a memory;
• and
• the memory, which includes a library of digital media content and specific instructions regarding how to determine effectiveness of an advertising campaign for a particular piece of content, wherein the specific instructions are configured to:
• allow an initial viewer to access the particular piece of content;
• enable the initial viewer to share the particular piece of content by distributing a link to at least one potential viewer;
• determine that the initial viewer elected to share the particular piece of content;
• create a time tracking code that allows sharing activities involving the particular piece of content to be examined,
• wherein the time tracking code includes a time value and a generation value;
• append the time tracking code to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) embedded within a shareable link to the particular piece of content;
• set the time value of the time tracking code so that the time value represents a time at which the initial viewer shared the particular piece of content;
• and
• sort viewers of the particular piece of content into generations based on the generation value included in the shareable link used by each viewer to access the particular piece of content,
• wherein the generation value specifies how many times the particular piece of content has been shared before being viewed by a specified viewer.

A computer-implemented method, each step performed by a processor of a computing device, comprising:

• allowing a first viewer to access a piece of digital content;
• enabling the first viewer to share the piece of digital content by distributing a first link to a second viewer;
• determining that the first viewer elected to share the piece of digital content;
• creating a time tracking code that includes a time value and a generation value;
• appending the time tracking code to a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) embedded within the first link to the piece of digital content;
• setting the time value of the time tracking code to a first time that represents a time at which the first viewer shared the piece of digital content with the second viewer;
• setting the generation value of the time tracking code to a first value that represents how many times the piece of digital content has been shared before being viewed by the second viewer;
• causing the first link to be transmitted to the second viewer;
• enabling the second viewer to share the piece of digital content by distributing a second link to a third viewer;
• determining that the second viewer elected to share the piece of digital content;
• appending the time tracking code to a second URL embedded within the second link to the piece of digital content;
• setting the time value of the time tracking code to a second time that represents a time at which the second viewer shared the piece of digital content with the third viewer;
• setting the generation value of the time tracking code to a second value that represents how many times the piece of digital content has been shared before being viewed by the third viewer;
• and
• sorting viewers of the piece of digital content into generations based on the generation value included in the link used by each viewer to access the piece of digital content.