Method and apparatus for social network marketing with brand referral

• US 8,560,390 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2008
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Higgins, Christopher William, Davis, Marc, O'Sullivan, Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Khattar, Rajesh
• Application Number:
  US12/041,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20090222303A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,052 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/14.49
• 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 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A service provider facilitates consumption of goods, brands, or services on an interactive network using characterizations of consumers, behavior, brands, consumable goods, advertisers, and advocates to determine a three-way match between a consumable good, a consumer, and an advocate. The matching method determines one or more goods likely to be benefit from the marketing scheme by maximizing the estimated contextual value of personalized advocacy. Further, the service provider captures the value of the personalized advocacy in each match, and distributes that value in the form of various marketing incentives.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing, using a computing device, a datastore to obtain a plurality of attributes of a network user, a plurality of attributes of an advocate of consumption of objects on the network, and attributes of a plurality of objects of potential interest to the network user;

for each of the plurality of objects;

determining, by the computing device, utilizing the plurality of attributes of the network user, the plurality of attributes of the advocate, and the attributes of the plurality of objects;

a respective first score reflecting social knowledge the network user and the advocate have of one another and social connections between the network user and the advocate,

a respective second score reflecting knowledge the network user has of the respective object and the network user'"'"'s purchasing behavior with respect to the respective object,

a respective third score reflecting knowledge the advocate has of the respective object and a connection between the advocate and the respective object,

a respective net value of marketing advocacy reflecting a combination of the first score, the second score and the third score, wherein each of the respective scores is weighted by a respective weighting factor;

sorting, using the computing device, the plurality of objects using the respective net value of marketing advocacy of each of the plurality of objects; and

facilitating, using the computing device, communication between the advocate and the network user concerning one of the plurality of objects with a largest net marketing value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said facilitating communication between the advocate and the network user further comprises providing instrumentation of a marketing message to the network user to establish a two-way communication link between the advocate and a network user instantiated by a single network user interface action.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said two-way communication link further comprises one or more of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a telephone call, a cellular phone call, a smart phone call, an instant messaging session, an e-mail communication, a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol message, a text message, or a mail message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining the first score, the second score, and the third score further comprises:

dividing, using the computing device, the plurality of attributes of a network user, the plurality of attributes of an advocate of consumption of objects on the network, and the attributes of a plurality of objects of potential interest to the network user into groups, one group relevant to knowledge, and one group relevant to connection,

quantizing, using the computing device, the attributes in each group;

determining, using the computing device, the value of each attribute in each group;

combining, using the computing device, the determined values for the group relevant to knowledge to compute a combined knowledge measurement; and

combining, using the computing device, the determined values for the group relevant to connection to compute a combined connection measurement.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said determining the value of each attribute in the group characterizing a relationship between a party A, a network user, and a party B, an advocate of consumption, further comprises one or more of (a) correlating the quantized value of the attribute for the party A with the quantized value of the corresponding attribute for the party B, (b) determining the difference between the quantized value of the attribute for the party A and the quantized value of the corresponding attribute for the party B, (c) determining the Euclidean distance between the quantized value of the attribute for the party A and the quantized value of the corresponding attribute for the party B, (d) determining the magnitude of the quantized value of the attribute for party A, and (e) determining the magnitude of the quantized value of the attribute for party B.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein said combining the determined values for the group relevant to an attribute further comprises one or more of (a) computing a weighted linear combination of each of the determined values for attributes in the group relevant to the attribute (b) computing a weighted sum of each of the determined values for attributes in the group relevant to the attribute, and (c) computing a weighted sum of the squares of each of the determining values for attributes in the group relevant to the attribute.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising;

data store accessing logic executed by the processor for accessing a datastore to obtain a plurality of attributes of a network user, a plurality of attributes of an advocate of consumption of objects on the network, and attributes of a plurality of objects of potential interest to the network user;

advocacy value determining logic executed by the processor that,

for each of the plurality of objects, determines, utilizing the plurality of attributes of the network user, the plurality of attributes of the advocate, and the attributes of the plurality of objects,

a respective first score reflecting social knowledge the network user and the advocate have of one another and social connections between the network user and the advocate,

a respective second score reflecting knowledge the network user has of the respective object and the network user'"'"'s purchasing behavior with respect to the respective object,

a respective third score reflecting knowledge the advocate has of the respective object and a connection between the advocate and the respective object,

a respective net value of marketing advocacy reflecting a combination of the first score, the second score and the third score, wherein each of the respective scores is weighted by a respective weighting factor;

sorting logic executed by the processor for sorting the plurality of objects using the respective net value of marketing advocacy of each of the plurality of objects; and

communication logic executed by the processor for facilitating communication between the advocate and the network user concerning one of the plurality of objects with a largest net marketing value.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein to facilitate communication between the advocate and the network user further comprises to provide instrumentation for a marketing message to a network user to establish a two-way communication link between the advocate and the network user instantiated by a single network user interface action.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said two-way communication link further comprises one or more of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call, a telephone call, a cellular phone call, a smart phone call, an instant messaging session, an e-mail communication, a Short Message Service (SMS) protocol message, a text message, or a mail message.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein advocacy value determining logic additionally comprises logic for:

dividing the plurality of attributes of the network user, the plurality of attributes of an advocate of consumption of objects on the network, and the attributes of the plurality of objects into groups, one group relevant to knowledge, and one group relevant to connection,

quantizing the attributes in each group;

determining the value of each attribute in each group;

combining the determined values for the group relevant to knowledge to compute a combined knowledge measurement; and

combining the determined values for the group relevant to connection to compute a combined connection measurement.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein to determine the value of each attribute in the group characterizing a relationship between a party A, a network user, and a party B, an advocate of consumption, further comprises one or more of (a) correlating the quantized value of the attribute for the party A with the quantized value of the corresponding attribute for the party B, (b) determining the difference between the quantized value of the attribute for the party A and the quantized value of the corresponding attribute for the party B, (c) determining the Euclidean distance between the quantized value of the attribute for the party A and the quantized value of the corresponding attribute for the party B, (d) determining the magnitude of the quantized value of the attribute for party A, and (e) determining the magnitude of the quantized value of the attribute for party B.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein to combine the determined values for the group relevant to an attribute further comprises one or more of (a) computing a weighted linear combination of each of the determined values for attributes in the group relevant to the attribute (b) computing a weighted sum of each of the determined values for attributes in the group relevant to the attribute, and (c) computing a weighted sum of the squares of each of the determining values for attributes in the group relevant to the attribute.