Systems and methods for enabling users of a social networking system to assist each other in making connections with other users

Abstract

A disclosed computer-implemented method may include (1) receiving, from a participant of a discovery service of a social networking system, a request for a friend of the participant to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service, (2) identifying at least one set of information that is associated with the discovery service and that is designated as private to the participant, and (3) providing the friend of the participant with access to at least a portion of the set of information via a recommendation interface that enables the friend of the participant to make recommendations to the participant regarding the set of information to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 receiving, from a participant in a discovery service provided by a social networking system, a request for a friend of the participant to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service;   providing the friend of the participant with access to at least a portion of a set of information designated as private to the participant via a recommendation interface that enables the friend of the participant to make recommendations to the participant regarding the portion of the set of information; and   including, in the recommendation interface, an interface affordance that visually distinguishes a social media post made by a user of the social networking system who is participating in the discovery service from an additional social media post made by an additional user of the social networking system who is not participating in the discovery service.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving a recommendation regarding the set of information from the friend via the recommendation interface. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the discovery service of the social networking system comprises a dating service of the social networking system. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the set of information comprises at least one of:
 a dating profile of the participant; or   a representation of at least one additional participant in the dating service of the social networking system.   
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein:
 the set of information comprises a dating profile of the participant; and   the recommendation interface comprises at least one interface element that enables the friend of the participant to recommend at least one change to the dating profile to the participant.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein the interface element comprises an editing interface that enables the friend to edit the dating profile of the participant. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein:
 the set of information comprises a representation of at least one additional participant in the dating service of the social networking system;   providing the friend with access to at least a portion of the set of information via the recommendation interface comprises presenting the representation of the additional participant to the friend via the recommendation interface; and   the recommendation interface comprises an interface element that enables the friend to recommend the additional participant to the participant as a potential connection.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the recommendation interface comprises an interface element that enables the friend to recommend the additional user to the participant as a potential connection when the interface affordance visually indicates that the additional user is also participating in the dating service of the social networking system. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the computer-implemented method further comprises:
 presenting the request for the friend of the participant to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service to the friend of the participant; and 
 acquiring, from the friend of the participant, an approval of the request; and 
   providing the friend with access to the portion of the set of information via the recommendation interface comprises providing the friend with access to the portion of the set of information via the recommendation interface in response to acquiring the approval of the request.   
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying the set of information comprises excluding, from the set of information, information regarding users of the social networking system who are at least one of:
 friends of the participant; or   friends of the friend.   
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising preventing the friend from making more than a predetermined amount of recommendations during a predefined period of time. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the friend is a relative of the participant. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising recommending at least one user of the social networking system to the participant as a potential source of recommendations. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 13 , wherein recommending the at least one user of the social networking system to the participant is based on at least one of:
 previous experience of the user in making recommendations to assist participants of the discovery service in making connections with other participants of the discovery service; or   a relationship of the user to the participant.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, from the participant in the discovery service of the social networking system, an additional request for at least one additional friend of the participant to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service; and   while providing the friend of the participant with access to the set of information via the recommendation interface, providing the additional friend of the participant with access to the set of information via an additional recommendation interface that enables the additional friend of the participant to make recommendations to the participant regarding the set of information.   
     
     
         16 . A system comprising:
 a receiving module, stored in memory, that receives, from a participant in a discovery service provided by a social networking system, a request for a friend of the participant to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service;   a providing module, stored in memory, that:
 provides the friend of the participant with access to at least a portion of a set of information designated as private to the participant via a recommendation interface that enables the friend of the participant to make recommendations to the participant regarding the portion of the set of information; and 
 includes, in the recommendation interface, an interface affordance that visually distinguishes a social media post made by a user of the social networking system who is participating in the discovery service from an additional social media post made by an additional user of the social networking system who is not participating in the discovery service, and 
   at least one physical processor that executes the receiving module and the providing module.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the receiving module further receives a recommendation regarding the set of information from the friend via the recommendation interface. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , further comprising an identifying module, stored in memory, that identifies the set of information by excluding, from the set of information, information regarding users of the social networking system who are at least one of:
 friends of the participant; or   friends of the friend.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein:
 the receiving module further:
 presents the request for the friend of the participant to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service to the friend of the participant; and 
 acquires, from the friend of the participant, an approval of the request; and 
   the providing module provides the friend with access to the portion of the set of information via the recommendation interface by providing the friend with access to the portion of the set of information via the recommendation interface in response to acquiring the approval of the request.   
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system, cause the computing system to:
 receive, from a participant in a discovery service provided by a social networking system, a request for a friend of the participant to assist the participant in making connections with other participants of the discovery service;   provide the friend of the participant with access to at least a portion of a set of information designated as private to the participant via a recommendation interface that enables the friend of the participant to make recommendations to the participant regarding the portion of the set of information; and   include, in the recommendation interface, an interface affordance that visually distinguishes a social media post made by a user of the social networking system who is participating in the discovery service from an additional social media post made by an additional user of the social networking system who is not participating in the discovery service.