Integration of gift card services for mobile devices and social networking services

• US 7,953,654 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2008
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: First Data Resources LLC (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Transaction Wireless, Inc. (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Inventors: Abifaker, Basil Munir
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell; James P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Tien C
• Application Number:
  US12/022,127
• Publication Number:
  US 20090192928A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,218 Days
• Field of Search: 463/42, 700/26, 705/14.27, 705/319, 705 30- 45, 715/738, 717/177
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for social networking services integrated with gift card services. In general, a profile of a member of a social networking service may be presented with one or more merchant credit services for prepaid merchant account credit, data characterizing a request to provide a credit service from the merchant credit services and a mobile phone number associated with an intended recipient of the first credit service may be received, and a message may be caused to be sent to the mobile phone number, where the message characterizes provision of the first credit service to the intended recipient. Interest in the credit service may be tracked and associated with a loyalty indicator associated with the member.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

presenting, by a social networking service to a purchaser, at least one website page including a profile of a selected member of the social networking service, the profile including one or more merchant credit services for prepaid merchant account credit, the social networking service providing at least one website in which a plurality of users interact with profiles of members of the social networking service via a graphical user interface, at least some of the users being members of the social networking service, the profiles being generated by each of the respective members, the at least one website page including a graphical user interface element associated with each of the one or more merchant credit services, the purchaser being different than the selected member, the at least one website page providing at least one graphical user interface element allowing the purchaser to add or modify content displayed on the at least one website page;

receiving, by the social networking service from the purchaser via the graphical user interface, a selection of one of the graphical user interface elements associated with a corresponding merchant credit service;

associating, by the social networking service, the selected member having the presented profile with a member phone number using the profile of the member; and

causing, by the social networking service, a message to be sent to the mobile phone number, the message characterizing provision of the first credit service to the selected member.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising increasing a loyalty indicator associated with the selected member in response to the receiving the request to provide the first credit service, the loyalty indicator being associated with an account of the selected member with the first credit service for loyalty-based services, the loyalty indicator being displayed on the at least one website page including the profile of the member.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising increasing a loyalty indicator associated with the selected member in response to receiving data characterizing further interest in the first credit service, the loyalty indicator being associated with an account of the selected member with the first credit service for loyalty-based services.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising adding, on the at least one website page, the first credit service to a list of merchant credit services associated with the profile of the selected member.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving data generated by the purchaser to personalize the message and wherein the causing the message to be sent comprises personalizing the message in accordance with the data to personalize the message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the causing the message to be sent further comprises causing the message to be sent to an electronic mail message address of the selected member.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the causing the message to be sent further comprises causing the message to be sent to a social network message address of the selected member.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is a Short Message Service message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a request to activate the first credit service.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first credit service is for a gift card in accordance with an amount specified in the request to provide the first credit service.

11. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product being operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

presenting, in a graphical user interface to a purchaser, at least one website page including a profile of a selected member of a social networking service with one or more merchant credit services for prepaid merchant account credit, the social networking service providing at least one website in which a plurality of users interact with profiles of members of the social networking service via a graphical user interface, the profiles being generated by each of the respective members and including interests of such members, each merchant credit service having an associated graphical user interface element displayed within the graphical user interface, at least some of the users being members of the social networking service, the purchaser being different than the selected member, the at least one website page providing at least one graphical user interface element allowing the purchaser to add or modify content displayed on the at least one website page;

receiving data generated by the purchaser obtained via the graphical user interface characterizing a request to provide a first credit service from the merchant credit services and a mobile phone number associated with an intended recipient of the first credit service, the intended recipient being different than the selected member, the request being initiated by activation of one of the graphical user interface element in the graphical user interface; and

causing a message to be sent to the mobile phone number, the message characterizing provision of the first credit service to the intended recipient;

wherein the presented one or more merchant credit services for prepaid merchant account credit are selected based on the interests or location of the member and dynamically generated each time the profile is presented to the purchaser.

12. The product of claim 11 further comprising increasing a loyalty indicator associated with the intended recipient in response to receiving data characterizing further interest in the first credit service, the loyalty indicator being associated with an account of the intended recipient with the first credit service for loyalty-based services.

13. The product of claim 11 further comprising adding the first credit service to a list of merchant credit services associated with a profile of the intended recipient.

14. The product of claim 11 further comprising receiving data generated by the purchaser to personalize the message and wherein the causing the message to be sent comprises personalizing the message in accordance with the data to personalize the message.

15. The product of claim 11, wherein the causing the message to be sent further comprises causing the message to be sent to an electronic mail message address of the intended recipient.

16. The product of claim 11, wherein the causing the message to be sent further comprises causing the message to be sent to a social network message address of the intended recipient.

17. The product of claim 11, wherein the message is a Short Message Service message.

18. The product of claim 11, wherein the message comprises a request to activate the first credit service.

19. A method for implementation by one or more data processors comprising:

presenting, by at least one data processor to a first user, a profile of a selected member of a social networking service with a list of a plurality of merchant credit services for prepaid merchant account credit, the credit services to associate credit with a mobile phone number of an intended recipient of the credit services and provide information related to the credit to a mobile device having the mobile phone number through messages to the mobile phone number, the social networking service providing at least one website in which a plurality of users interact with profiles of members of the social networking service via a graphical user interface, at least some of the users being members of the social networking service, the profiles being generated by each of the respective members, the at least one website page providing at least one graphical user interface element allowing a user to add or modify content displayed on the at least one website page;

receiving, by at least one data processor, data generated by the first characterizing a request for further information regarding a first credit service from the list of the merchant credit services, the data characterizing the request received through an interface presenting the profile of the member with the list of one or more merchant credit services; and

increasing, by at least one data processor, a loyalty indicator associated with the selected member in response to the receiving the data characterizing further information regarding the first credit service, the loyalty indicator being associated with an account of the selected member with the first credit service for loyalty-based services and being redeemable for rewards associated with the account.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein increasing the loyalty indicator comprises:

sending a message to a loyalty processor containing tracking information associated with the merchant credit service in response to which the loyalty processor increases the loyalty indicator.

21. A computer-implemented method comprising:

associating, by a wireless gift card server, a first user with a plurality of social networking services,

associating, by the wireless gift card server, the first user with a plurality of wireless gift card providers, the first user having a loyalty account associated with each wireless gift card provider;

rendering, on a client computing system remotely coupled to the wireless gift card server, for each of the plurality of social networking services associated with the first user using the user associations, at least one website page including a profile of the first user at such social networking service, the profile including graphical user interface elements corresponding to each of the plurality of wireless gift card providers, the social networking service providing at least one website in which a plurality of users interact with profiles of members of the social networking service via a graphical user interface, at least some of the users other than the first user being members of the social networking service, the profiles being generated by each of the respective members, the at least one website page including a graphical user interface element associated with each of wireless gift providers, the at least one website page providing at least one graphical user interface element allowing a user to add or modify content displayed on the at least one website page;

monitoring, by the corresponding social networking service, a number of clicks associated with each of the wireless gift card providers on each of the social networking service website pages; and

sending, by the wireless gift card server, data characterizing the number of monitored clicks for a particular wireless gift card provider account to a loyalty processor corresponding to such wireless gift card provider, the loyalty processor increasing a loyalty indicator associated with the corresponding account of the first user, the loyalty indicator being redeemable for rewards associated with the account.