User selected affiliation with brands in a social networking system

• US 10,325,273 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bosworth, Andrew G., Chandlee, William Blakeley, Buxani, Ravi Mahesh Daswani
• Primary Examiner(s): Chacko, Joe
• Application Number:
  US13/614,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20140074926A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,469 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A social networking system allows users that are people to partner with users that are non-person entities. A partnership allows the entity participating in the partnership to personalize an associated page with content from the person participating in the partnership and similarly allows the person to include certain content from the entity, made available because of the partnership, in the person'"'"'s user profile. The entity may provide additional benefits, such as enrollment in a rewards program or access to new products, to a user participating in a partnership. The partnership is bidirectional, and is separate from other unidirectional connection mechanisms provided by the social networking system such as indications of affinity (e.g., “likes”), friendships, and subscriptions.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing, in a social networking system, a user profile for a person, the user profile associated with one or more user objects stored by the social networking system;

storing, in the social networking system, an entity page associated with a non-person entity user, the entity page associated with one or more entity objects stored by the social networking system;

receiving, by the social networking system, a partnership request to establish a partnership between the person and the entity user;

receiving, from the entity user, a confirmation to establish the partnership between the person and the entity user; and

responsive to receiving the confirmation to establish the partnership and throughout the duration of the partnership;

automatically modifying the user profile page to display an item of media content associated with the entity user;

displaying the modified user profile page including the item of media content associated with the entity user to one or more users of the social networking system;

automatically modifying the entity page to include a user object of the one or more user objects associated with the user profile, the user object at least in part related to the entity user; and

displaying the modified entity page to one or more users of the social networking system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, to the entity user, information about the partnership between the person and the entity user, wherein the entity user provides a reward to the person based on the information about the partnership.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the reward comprises granting the person access to a loyalty program associated with the entity user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the loyalty program grants the person access to a private website external to the social networking system.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the loyalty program grants the person one or more discounts on goods and services.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the reward from the entity user comprises providing products or services associated with the entity user to the person at a reduced price.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a request to connect another person associated with another user profile and the entity user in the social networking system; and

responsive to receiving the request, storing a unilateral connection between the entity page and the other user profile for the other person without modifying the other user profile associated with the other person to display the item of media content associated with the entity user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile includes:

a representation of the user profile, the representation including visual representations of one or more objects associated with the user profile; and

wherein modifying the user profile comprises;

modifying the displayed representation of the user profile to include the item of media content associated with the entity user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the confirmation to establish the partnership between the person and the entity user comprises:

receiving a fee from the entity user.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the entity is notified of the partnership request responsive to the person meeting one or more partnership criteria associated with the entity user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the partnership request is received responsive to the social networking system transmitting a suggestion to establish the partnership with the entity user to the person.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the suggestion to establish the partnership with the entity user is based on one or more actions of the person stored by the social networking system.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the suggestion to establish the partnership with the entity user is based on characteristics of the person stored in the user profile.

14. A method comprising:

storing, in a social networking system, a user profile for a person, the user profile associated with one or more user objects stored by the social networking system;

storing, in the social networking system, a plurality of entity pages each associated with a non-person entity user;

for each of the entity users, determining the person'"'"'s affinity for the entity user;

selecting a suggested entity user based on the affinities;

sending to the person a suggestion to establish a partnership with the suggested entity user;

based on the suggestion, receiving, from the person, a request to establish the partnership between the person and the suggested entity user;

receiving, from the suggested entity user, a confirmation to establish the partnership between the person and the suggested entity user; and

responsive to receiving the confirmation to establish the partnership and throughout the duration of the partnership;

providing information about the partnership to the suggested entity user, wherein the suggested entity user provides a reward to the person based on the information about the partnership;

automatically modifying the entity page associated with the suggested entity user to include a user object of the one or more user objects associated with the user profile of the person, the user object at least in part related to the entity user; and

displaying the modified entity page to one or more users of the social networking system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting a suggested entity user based on the affinities comprises:

ranking the entity users based on the determined affinities; and

selecting the suggested entity user based on the ranking.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

responsive to receiving the confirmation to establish the partnership;

providing, to the person, an item of media content associated with the suggested entity user the item of media content not accessible to persons not having a partnership with the suggested entity user.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

responsive to receiving a request from the person, modifying the user profile of the person to include the item of media content associated with the suggested entity user.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting the suggested entity user based on the affinities comprises:

ranking the entity users based on the affinities;

determining whether the person satisfies criteria provided by the entity users; and

selecting the suggested entity user based on the ranking and whether the person satisfies criteria provided by the entity users.

19. A method comprising:

storing, in a social networking system, a user profile for a person, the user profile associated with one or more user objects stored by the social networking system;

storing, in the social networking system, an entity page associated with a non-person entity user, the entity page displayed to one or more users of the social networking system not connected to the entity user;

receiving, from the person, a request to establish a partnership between the person and the entity user; and

responsive to receiving the request to establish the partnership and throughout the duration of the partnership;

automatically modifying the entity page to include a user object of the one or more user objects associated with the user profile of the person, the user object at least in part related to the entity user; and

displaying the modified entity page to one or more users of the social networking system.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

requesting approval of the partnership from the entity user; and

responsive to the entity user approving the partnership;

modifying the entity page to include a user object of the one or more user objects associated with the user profile of the person; and

displaying the modified entity page to one or more users of the social networking system.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein requesting approval of the partnership from the entity user comprises:

determining a number of existing partnerships between the person and other entity users; and

responsive to the number of existing partnerships not exceeding a threshold number, requesting approval of the partnership from the entity user.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein requesting approval of the partnership from the entity user comprises:

determining whether the user profile includes data satisfying one or more partnership criteria specified by the entity user; and

responsive to the user profile including data satisfying the one or more partnership criteria, requesting approval of the partnership from the entity user.