Methods and systems for processing social media data

• US 8,949,270 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2012
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Newton, Christopher Daniel, Hatchard, Derek Brian, Beatty, Timothy Frederic, Picot, Gregory Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALLEN, NICHOLAS E
• Application Number:
  US13/415,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20120233212A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• Field of Search: 705/319, 707/600, 707/774
• US Class Current: 707/774
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for processing social media data. The method includes receiving a request from a user for social media analytics of social media data; sending the social media data to a first analytics provider and a second analytics provider; receiving first analytics data from the first data analytics provider and second analytics data from the second analytics provider; storing the first analytics data and the second analytics data in a database; and presenting the first analytics data and the second analytics data to the user.

Claims

1. A method for processing social media data, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a first user of a plurality of users for social media analytics of a first set of social media data;

receiving a first communication from a first analytics provider to initiate sending the first set of social media data to the first analytics provider and receiving a second communication from a second analytics provider to initiate sending the first set of social media data to the second analytics provider, wherein the first analytics provider and the second analytics provider are third party analytics providers;

receiving first analytics data from the first data analytics provider and second analytics data from the second analytics provider;

storing the first analytics data and the second analytics data in a database; and

presenting the first analytics data and the second analytics data to the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a subscription from the user associated with the first analytics provider and the second analytics provider, wherein the subscription includes a topic selection from the first user of a topic profile from a list of available topic profiles and a provider selection from the first user of both of the first analytics provider and the second analytics provider from a list of available analytics providers.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of retrieving the social media data from social media sources.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step comprises storing the first analytics data and the second analytics data in a document-based, non-hierarchical database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending step comprises

gathering social media documents associated with the social media data;

and

placing a first set of the social media documents in a first queue associated with the first analytics provider and a second set of social media documents in a second queue associated with the second analytics provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving step includes receiving formatted first analytics data from the first analytics provider via an API module and receiving formatted second analytics data from the second analytics provider via the API module.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting step comprises

generating an analytics request with a query submodule;

and

retrieving the first analytics data and the second analytics data based on the analytics request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the retrieving step comprises retrieving the first analytics data and the second analytics data with a plurality of minion units and a plurality of cache units.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the retrieving step further comprises

determining if the first analytics data and the second analytics data are in the plurality of cache units;

and

retrieving, if the first analytics data and the second analytics data are not in the plurality of cache units, the first analytics data and the second analytics data from the database and storing the first analytics data and the second analytics data in the plurality of cache units.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the retrieving step further comprises aggregating the first analytics data and the second analytics data from the plurality of cache units.

7. A method for processing social media data, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a first user of a plurality of users for social media analytics of a first set of social media data;

sending the first set of social media data to a first analytics provider and a second analytics provider, wherein the first analytics provider and the second analytics provider are third party analytics providers, wherein sending step further comprises

gathering social media documents associated with the social media data;

placing a first set of the social media documents in a first queue associated with the first analytics provider and a second set of social media documents in a second queue associated with the second analytics provider;

fetching the first set of social media documents from the first queue and sending the first set of documents to a first adapter for transfer to the first analytics provider; and

fetching the second set of social media documents from the second queue and sending the second set of documents to a second adapter for transfer to the second analytics provider, wherein the first adapter is different from the second adapter;

storing the first analytics data and the second analytics data in a database; and

presenting the first analytics data and the second analytics data to the first user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the receiving step comprises

receiving the first analytics data from the first analytics provider at the first adapter;

and

receiving the second analytics data from the second analytics provider at the second adapter.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the storing step comprises storing the first analytics data and the second analytics data in a multi-tenant database system, wherein the multi-tenant database system includes a common database configured to store first tenant data and second tenant data such that access to the first tenant data is securely isolated from second tenant data.

14. A system for processing social media data, comprising:

a computer, having a processor and a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions for execution by the processor, to form the following modules;

a subscription module configured to receive a request from a first user of a plurality of users for social media analytics of a first set of social media data;

an analytics acquisition module configured to send the first set of social media data to a first analytics provider and a second analytics provider, to receive first analytics data from the first data analytics provider and second analytics data from the second analytics provider, and to store the first analytics data and the second analytics data in a database, wherein the first analytics provider and the second analytics provider are third party analytics providers,

wherein the analytics acquisition module is further configured to

gather social media documents associated with the social media data; and

place a first set of the social media documents in a first queue associated with the first analytics provider and a second set of social media documents in a second queue associated with the second analytics provider,

fetch the first set of social media documents from the first queue and send the first set of documents to a first adapter for transfer to the first analytics provider; and

fetch the second set of social media documents from the second queue and send the second set of documents to a second adapter for transfer to the second analytics provider; and

a data presentation module configured to present the first analytics data and the second analytics data to the first user.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the subscription module is configured to receive a subscription from the user associated with the first analytics provider and the second analytics provider, wherein the subscription includes a topic selection from the user of a topic profile from a list of available topic profiles and a provider selection from the user of both of the first analytics provider and the second analytics provider from a list of available analytics providers.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the modules further comprise a social media acquisition module configured to retrieve the social media data from social media sources.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising a document-based, non-hierarchical database configured to store the first analytics data and the second analytics data.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the database is a multi-tenant database system, wherein the multi-tenant database system is configured to store first tenant data and second tenant data such that access to the first tenant data is securely isolated from second tenant data.