Accounting for user interaction with a social networking system when notifying the user of content provided to a group maintained by the social networking system including that user

1. A method comprising:

storing information in a social networking system describing one or more groups, each group including one or more users of the social networking system;

receiving content items provided by users to one or more of the groups;

maintaining information at the social networking system describing interactions with the social networking system by a user, the information identifying times when the user performed one or more interactions with the social networking system;

determining a time period when the user most frequently interacts with the social networking system based on the maintained information identifying times when the user performed one or more interactions with the social networking system;

identifying content items provided by users to one or more groups that include the user;

determining amounts of interaction by users of the social networking system with the identified content items;

selecting a set of the identified content items having at least a threshold amount of interaction by users of the social networking system;

presenting information identifying the set of the identified content items to the user at a time within the determined time period;

increasing a frequency with which information identifying additional content items provided to the one or more groups including the user is presented to the user during a time interval following the determined time period, if the user interacted with the presented information at greater than a threshold frequency; and

decreasing the frequency with which the information identifying additional content items provided to the one or more groups including the user is presented to the user during the time interval following the determined time period, if the user interacted with the presented information at less than an additional threshold frequency.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining amounts of interaction by users of the social networking system with the identified content items comprises:

determining scores for each identified content item, the score for each identified content item based at least in part on a number of one or more specific interactions with the identified content item by users of the social networking system.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more specific interactions with the identified content item are selected from a group consisting of: indicating a preference for the identified content item, commenting on the identified content item, sharing the identified content item with another user of the social networking system, and any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining scores for each identified content item comprises:

associating a weight with each of the one or more specific interactions with each identified content item by users of the social networking system; and

determining scores for each identified content item based at least in part on the weights associated with each of the one or more specific interactions.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the score for each identified content item is further based on a time since the identified content item was provided to the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the score for each identified content item is further based on a type of content included in the identified content item.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the type of content included in the identified content item is selected from a group consisting of: text data, image data, video data, audio data, and any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

ranking the identified content items based at least in part on their scores; and

selecting the set of the identified content items based at least in part on the ranking.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein selecting the set of the identified content items based at least in part on the ranking comprises:

selecting the set of the identified content items as content items having at least a threshold position in the ranking.

10. The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting the set of the identified content items having at least the threshold amount of interaction by users of the social networking system comprises:

selecting the set of the identified content items as identified content items having at least a threshold score.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein presenting information identifying the set of the identified content items to the user at the time within the determined time period comprises:

communicating a notification to one or more client devices associated with the user at the time within the determined time period.

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

store information in a social networking system describing one or more groups, each group including one or more users of the social networking system;

receive content items provided by users to one or more of the groups;

maintain information at the social networking system describing interactions with the social networking system by a user, the information identifying times when the user performed one or more interactions with the social networking system;

determine a time period when the user most frequently interacts with the social networking system based on the maintained information identifying times when the user performed one or more interactions with the social networking system;

identify content items provided by users to one or more groups that include the user;

determine amounts of interaction by users of the social networking system with the identified content items;

select a set of the identified content items having at least a threshold amount of interaction by users of the social networking system;

present information identifying the set of the identified content items to the user at a time within the determined time period;

increase a frequency with which information identifying additional content items provided to the one or more groups including the user is presented to the user during a time interval following the determined time period, if the user interacted with the presented information at greater than a threshold frequency; and

decrease the frequency with which the information identifying additional content items provided to the one or more groups including the user is presented to the user during the time interval following the determined time period, if the user interacted with the presented information at less than an additional threshold frequency.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

determine scores for each identified content item, the score for each identified content item based at least in part on a number of one or more specific interactions with the identified content item by users of the online system.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the one or more specific interactions with the identified content item are selected from a group consisting of: indicating a preference for the identified content item, commenting on the identified content item, sharing the identified content item with another user of the online system, and any combination thereof.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

associate a weight with each of the one or more specific interactions with each identified content item by users of the online system; and

determine scores for each identified content item based at least in part on the weights associated with each of the one or more specific interactions.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the score for each identified content item is further based on a time since the identified content item was provided to the social networking system.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

rank the identified content items based at least in part on their scores; and

select the set of the identified content items based at least in part on the ranking.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

select the set of the identified content items as content items having at least a threshold position in the ranking.

19. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

communicate a notification to one or more client devices associated with the user at the time within the determined time period.