SOCIAL MEDIA IDENTITY DISCOVERY AND MAPPING

• US 20120303659A1
• Filed: 05/24/2012
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Erhart, George, Matula, Valentine C., Skiba, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,092,492 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

A server executing a social media identity and discovery application and method are provided that scan social networking sites for communications. The target content is found with content indicators when communications are put on a social networking site. The content is recorded and evaluated. If the identified content is contextually significant, the alias and the private user data are correlated based on events, and a notification of the correlation is sent to an agent or a contact center system. The agent may verify that the identity of a poster has been accurately correlated with a customer record in the database. The agent or the system has the opportunity to respond to the communication, despite the anonymity of the poster on the social networking site.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, the computer executable instructions causing a processor to execute a method for analyzing an interaction between a social media networking site and a contact center, the computer executable instructions comprising:

instructions to receive a communication from the social networking site, the communication including an alias;

instructions to receive private user data from a private user data source, the private user data including an identity for a user;

instructions to correlate the communication with the private user data; and

based on a correlation, instructions to match the alias to the identity of the user.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to receive the communication comprise at least one of instructions to crawl communications associated with the social networking site or receive the communication from the social networking site.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to receive the private user data comprises one of instructions to query a database for the private user data or receive the private user data from a private user data system.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to correlate the communication with the private user data comprise:

instructions to identify a content indicator in the communication;

instructions to identify a date, an event type, or a similarity to the content indicator in the private user data; and

determine that the communication is related to the private user data.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to delete the communication if no correlation is made.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, further comprising in response to the correlation, instructions to validate the correlation based on a comparison with at least one other communication.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein a validated correlation between the user identity and the alias is stored in a user profile database.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein a response to the validated correlation is sent, wherein the response includes personal data about the user.

9. A communication system comprising:

an identity discovery and mapping application executed by a server in a contact center, the identity discovery and mapping application operable to receive a communication from a social networking site, wherein the identity discovery and mapping application comprises;

a communication receipt module operable to receive the communication from the social media networking site;

a customer data receipt module operable to receive user data from a private user data source;

an evaluation module in communication with the communication receipt module and the customer data receipt module that determines a correlation between the communication and private user data;

a data matching module in communication with the evaluation module that matches a user identity from the private user data with an alias associated with the communication; and

a validation and forwarding module that checks the validity of correlations determined by the data matching module.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the contact center is in communication with at least one of the social networking site, the private user data source, a private database, and a user profile database.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the social networking site can be one or more of a resource on the Internet or a distributed network resource.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the communication can be one or more of information from the resource on the Internet or the distributed network resource, a tweet, a blog, an instant message, and an RSS feed.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein private user data can be one or more of a user name, a user account number, a date of event, a name of event, or an event type.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a communication receipt module performing communication filtering when a content indicator has been detected, wherein a special handling is invoked.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising sending a notification of a correlation for taking action in response.

16. A method for matching an alias with a user in a database, the method comprising:

receiving by a processor a communication from a social networking site;

receiving by the processor private user data from a private user data source;

identifying by the processor at least one of a content indicator in the communication and a content indicator associated with the private user data;

in response to the identifying step, correlating by the processor an alias in the communication to a user associated with the private user data;

validating by the processor the correlation by comparing the private user data with at least one other communication having the alias;

storing by the processor a validated alias in a user profile database;

comparing the validated alias to a stored alias;

correlating the validated alias to the stored alias; and

responding by the processor to a third communication associated with the alias, wherein the response includes the private user data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the social networking site can be one or more of a resource on the Internet or a distributed network resource.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the communication can be one or more of information from the resource on the Internet or the distributed network resource, a tweet, a blog, an instant message, or an RSS feed.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the correlation is based on one or more of the content indicator in the communication, correlated to a date or an event type or similarity to the content indicator in the private data.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising validating and acting on the communication by a system or an agent in response to the correlation.