SOCIAL NETWORK REFERRAL COUPONS

• US 20100125490A1
• Filed: 11/14/2008
• Published: 05/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kirovski, Darko, Kiciman, Emre Mehmet
• Application Number:
  US12/270,974
• Publication Number:
  US 20100125490A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates enhancing coupon distribution in a non-evasive manner based upon a referral. A social network can include two or more users with at least one actively acknowledged connection that indicates a relationship between a first user and a second user. An interface can receive a referral from the first user associated with the social network, wherein the referral describes an experience related to at least one of a business or a service. A viral coupon component can implement a non-evasive delivery of a coupon to the second user based upon leveraging the relationship between the first user and the second user, wherein the coupon is incorporated within at least one of an advertisement or a listing. The vial coupon component delivery of the coupon can be triggered based upon the second user actively investigating at least one of the business or the service.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates enhancing coupon distribution in a non-evasive manner based upon a referral, comprising:

a social network that includes two or more users with at least one actively acknowledged connection that indicates a relationship between a first user and a second user;

the two or more users are at least one of an entity, the entity is at least one of a web entity, a recommendation engine, a disparate user, a business, a group of users, a corporation, an enterprise, a machine, a website, or a partnership;

an interface that receives a referral from the first user associated with the social network, the referral describes an experience related to at least one of a business, a product, or a service;

a viral coupon component that implements a non-evasive delivery of a coupon to the second user based upon leveraging the relationship between the first user and the second user, the coupon is incorporated within at least one of an advertisement or a listing; and

the viral coupon component delivery of the coupon is triggered based upon the second user actively investigating at least one of the business or the service.

2. The system of claim 1, the experience is at least one of a posting, a review, a portion of audio, a portion of text, a portion of video, a portion of blog, a critique, or a portion of a graphic.

3. The system of claim 1, the second user actively investigates at least one of the business or the service with at least one of a search engine, a search site, a web site, the Internet, a local search engine, a review site, an aggregation site, a product search site, a shopping website that includes a vendor, a shopping website that includes a product, an article, a newspaper, a book, a magazine, a customized portion of print, a customized portion of media, an on-demand book printing, a portion of embedded user-specific advertisement, or a product price finder engine.

4. The system of claim 1, the social network is at least one of a social networking site, a social networking web page, a communication application, a messaging application, an address book, a forum, an instant messaging application, or an online community.

5. The system of claim 1, the business provides for purchase at least one of a good, a product, a consumable item, a portion of software, a portion of an application, or a portion of data.

6. The system of claim 1, the viral coupon component distributes a referral reward from at least one of the business or the service to the first user based upon an exposure of the coupon to the second user.

7. The system of claim 1, the viral coupon component distributes a referral reward from at least one of the business or the service to the first user based upon a use of the coupon in a purchase between the second user and at least one of the business or the service.

8. The system of claim 1, the viral coupon component distributes a referral reward from at least one of the business or the service to the first user based upon submission of feedback.

9. The system of claim 1, the coupon is at least one of a printable coupon that is at least one of the following:

redeemable within a physical store;

an electronic coupon that is redeemable within an online store on the Internet;

or

an electronic coupon distributed to a mobile device for redemption within the physical store.

10. The system of claim 9, the coupon bridges an online advertisement with offline services to enable a charge-per-action model of advertisement to be extended from an online transaction to an offline transaction in the real world.

11. The system of claim 1, the viral coupon component enables the second user to access to the referral from within the social network.

12. The system of claim 11, the viral coupon component aggregates the referral within information associated with a respective user'"'"'s social network information.

13. The system of claim 1, the viral coupon component communicates the coupon to a device.

14. The system of claim 13, the device is at least one of a machine, a computer, a smartphone, a cellular device, a portable digital assistant (PDA), a gaming device, a mobile gaming device, a media player, a portable media device, a mobile device;

a non-electronic device, a credit card, an identification card, a gift card, a card including a chip, or a card having a magnetic strip.

15. The system of claim 1, the coupon includes at least one of a human identifier, a machine-readable identifier, a portion of data related to cryptography, a portion of data related to elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), a portion of data related to public key, or a portion of data related to a digital signature.

16. The system of claim 15, the coupon is employed to resolve a dispute associated with a purchase with at least one of the business or the service, the dispute is associated with at least one of a purchase or a referral award due to a purchase.

17. A computer-implemented method that facilitates leveraging relationships within a social network to provide referrals, coupons, and referral rewards between users, comprising:

actively establishing a connection between a first user and a second user within a social network;

receiving a referral for at least one of a business, a product, or a service from the first user;

identifying a search from the second user associated with at least one of the business, the product, or the service;

incorporating a coupon with a result from the search for the second user based at least in part upon the connection between the first user and the second user; and

delivering a referral bonus to the first user upon employment of the coupon by the second user.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

aggregating the referral from the first user for at least one of the business, the product, or the service;

emphasizing the result to indicate existence of the coupon triggered by the referral from the first user;

enabling the coupon to be utilized in at least one of an online environment or an offline environment; and

communicating the coupon to a device.

19. The method of claim 17, the coupon bridges an online advertisement with offline services to enable a charge-per-action model of advertisement to be extended from an online transaction to an offline transaction in the real world.

20. A computer-implemented system that facilitates distributing a coupon in a non-evasive manner, comprising:

means for interacting between two or more users in a social network, the two or more users include an actively acknowledged connection indicating a relationship between a first user and a second user;

means for receiving a referral from the first user associated with the social network, the referral describes an experience related to at least one of a business or a service;

means for implementing a non-evasive delivery of a coupon to the second user based upon leveraging the relationship between the first user and the second user;

means for incorporating the coupon within at least one of an advertisement or a listing;

means for delivering the coupon triggered by the second user actively investigating at least one of the business or the service;

means for redeeming the coupon within at least one of a physical store in the real world or an online store on the Internet;

means for bridging an online advertisement with offline services with the coupon to enable a charge-per-action model of advertisement to be extended from an online transaction to an offline transaction in the real world; and

means for communicating the coupon to a device.