Notifications based on social network service activity and profile triggers

• US 9,628,430 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2013
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LinkedIn Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Shapero, Dan, Zhang, Ximeng, Raybould, James, Li, Yue, Sutherland-Wong, Christian
• Primary Examiner(s): Tiv, Backhean
• Application Number:
  US13/756,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20140214943A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,538 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

An embodiment searches a social network for at least one trigger event, detects one or more trigger events, and communicates the detected one or more trigger events as an alert. Searching the social network comprises searching member profiles and searching member activities. Detected one or more trigger events are centralized into a sortable list and prioritized based on business entities and the importance of the trigger events to persons related to the business entities. The centralized sortable list is fed into a customer relations management system which presents the alerts on a user interface. A plurality of types of triggers includes people updates, company updates, product purchases, and product usage.

Claims

1. A method of providing alerts that relate to a prospective customer, the method comprising:

ranking, by at least one computer processor, prospective customers of a sales organization by analysis of social network profile data of employees of prospective customers, the ranking based on an estimate of amounts of funds that individual ones of the prospective customers could spend on a given matter in a first time period;

displaying on a first user interface a ranked list of prospective customers of the sales organization;

identifying employees of the ranked prospective customers who are likely transaction influencers at the prospective customers, the identifying based on the analysis of social network profile data of the employees of the prioritized prospective customers;

displaying, on one of the first user interface or a second user interface, a list of likely transaction influencers at the prospective customers;

ranking employees of the sales organization by social proximity to the displayed transaction influencers, the ranking based on the analysis of social network profile data of the likely transaction influencers and social network profile data of employees of the sales organization;

displaying at one of the first user interface, the second user interface, or a third user interface, a list of employees of the sales organization by social proximity to the displayed transaction influencers;

continuously searching the social network profile data of the employees of the prospective customers, by at least one computer processor, to detect a plurality of trigger events, the trigger events comprising events that relate to updates about the transaction influencers, updates about product purchases at the prospective customers, or updates about an increase or a decrease in social network usage at the prospective customers, and placing the detected plurality of trigger events into a sortable list that is prioritized based on business entities and the likelihood of the trigger events to lead to making sales to the business entities;

displaying the sortable list on one of the first user interface, the second user interface, the third user interface, or a fourth user interface;

automatically and dynamically detecting changes to ones of the plurality of trigger events;

automatically and dynamically updating the sortable list based on the dynamically detected changes to ones of the plurality of trigger events; and

feeding the sortable list into a customer relations management system to assign respective employees of the sales organization as a representative to ones of the prospective customers based on at least one of the rank of the prospective customer, the social proximity of employees of the sales organization to the likely transaction influencers, or the dynamically updated sortable list of trigger events.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein searching the social network profile data comprises searching member profiles to detect member activities.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer relations management system presents the trigger events on a user interface.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more of the plurality of trigger events comprise elements of a plurality of types of triggers.

5. A system comprising:

at least one computer processor and computer storage configured to;

rank, by the at least one computer processor, prospective customers of a sales organization by analysis of social network profile data of employees of prospective customers, the rank based on an estimate of amounts of funds that individual ones of the prospective customers could spend on a given matter in a first time period;

display on a first user interface a ranked list of prospective customers of the sales organization;

identify employees of the ranked prospective customers who are transaction influencers at the prospective customer, the identification based on the analysis of social network profile data of the employees of the prioritized prospective customers;

display, on one of the first user interface or a second user interface, a list of likely transaction influencers at the prospective customers;

rank employees of the sales organization by social proximity to the displayed transaction influencers, the rank based on the analysis of social network profile data of the likely transaction influencers and social network profile data of employees of the sales organization;

display at one of the first user interface, the second user interface, or a third user interface, a list of employees of the sales organization by social proximity to the displayed transaction influencers;

continuously search the profile data for a plurality of trigger events, the trigger events comprising events that relate to updates about the transaction influencers, updates about product purchases at the prospective client, or updates about an increase or a decrease in social network usage at the prospective customer, and place the detected plurality of trigger events into a sortable list that is prioritized based on business entities and the likelihood of the trigger events to lead to making sales to the business entities;

display the sortable list on one of the first user interface, the second user interface, the third user interface, or a fourth user interface;

automatically and dynamically detect changes to ones of the plurality of trigger events;

automatically and dynamically update the sortable list based on the dynamically detected changes to ones of the plurality of trigger events; and

feed the sortable list into a customer relations management system to assign respective employees of the sales organization as a representative to ones of the prospective customers based on at least one of the rank of the prospective customer, the social proximity of employees of the sales organization to the likely transaction influencers and the dynamically updated sortable list of trigger events.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein search of the profile data comprises search of member profiles and search of member activities.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the customer relations management system presents the alerts on a user interface.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein one or more of the plurality of trigger events are elements of a plurality of types of triggers.

9. A machine-readable storage device having embedded therein a set of instructions which, when executed by a machine, causes execution of operations comprising:

ranking prospective customers of a sales organization by analysis of social network profile data of employees of prospective customers, the ranking based on an estimate of amounts of funds that individual ones of the prospective customers could spend on a given matter in a first time period;

displaying on a first user interface a ranked list of prospective customers of the sales organization;

identifying employees of the ranked prospective customers who are likely transaction influencers at the prospective customers, the identifying based on the analysis of social network profile data of the employees of the prioritized prospective customers;

displaying, on one of the first user interface or a second user interface, a list of likely transaction influencers at the prospective customers;

ranking employees of the sales organization by social proximity to the displayed transaction influencers, the ranking based on the analysis of social network profile data of the likely transaction influencers and social network profile data of employees of the sales organization;

displaying at one of the first user interface, the second user interface, or a third user interface, a list of employees of the sales organization by social proximity to the displayed transaction influencers;

continuously searching the social network profile data of the employees of the prospective customers, by the at least one computer processor, to detect a plurality of trigger events, the trigger events comprising events that relate to updates about the transaction influencers, updates about product purchases at the prospective customers, or updates about an increase, or a decrease in social network usage at the prospective customers, and placing the detected plurality of trigger events into a sortable list that is prioritized based on business entities and the likelihood of the trigger events to lead to making sales to the business entities;

displaying the sortable list on one of the first user interface, the second user interface, the third user interface, or a fourth user interface;

automatically and dynamically detecting changes to ones of the plurality of trigger events;

automatically and dynamically updating the sortable list based on the dynamically detected changes to ones of the plurality of trigger events; and

feeding the sortable list into a customer relations management system to assign respective employees of the sales organization as a representative to ones of the prospective customers based on at least one of the rank of the prospective customer;

the social proximity of employees of the sales organization to the likely transaction influencers and the dynamically updated sortable list of trigger events.

10. The machine-readable storage device of claim 9 wherein searching the profile data comprises searching member profiles and searching member activities.

11. The machine-readable storage device of claim 9 wherein the customer relations management system presents the alerts on a user interface.

12. The machine-readable storage device of claim 9 wherein one or more of the plurality of trigger events comprise elements of a plurality of types of triggers.