Providing online promotions through social network platforms

• US 9,947,057 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Issued: 04/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ransom, Victoria, Chuard, Alain
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong, Eric T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bradley, Joshua D.
• Application Number:
  US14/148,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20140122250A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,562 Days
• Field of Search: 705 14, 705319
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing online promotions integrated with social network-based platforms are disclosed. Promotion details such as rules, offered prizes, incentives and descriptions, survey questions, display banners, terms and conditions, privacy policy, and social networks to integrate the promotion with, are provided by the sponsoring organization to a server. The server generates a custom promotion application or widget for integrating with the organization'"'"'s social network webpage external to social networks. A participant enters the promotion through these webpages or other links and lists friends in the social network to receive an invitation to enter the promotion. Viral features such as friend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds, other features that display online activities of users and people in the users'"'"' social network, notifications, requests, and other social media-based platform features to deliver messages to members of the one or more social networks further spread the word about the organization'"'"'s promotion.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

integrating an online promotion into an application integrated with a social media platform via an application programming interface (API), wherein the application is configured to enable retrieving of profile information from the social media platform for the online promotion, with at least a portion of the retrieved profile information comprising a social network identification that is unique to a participant;

each time the participant accesses the online promotion via the application, recording, in a data repository, an entry with the social network identification, with recorded entries tracking a number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant, wherein the tracking with the recorded entries provides a higher level of security for providing verified access to the online promotion, relative to a level of security provided by tracking access to the online promotion with cookies;

receiving an indication of interest in the online promotion from the participant through an entry point;

retrieving, from the application integrated with the social media platform, the social network identification from the profile information of the participant;

retrieving, from the data repository, the recorded entries with the social network identification retrieved;

based on retrieval of the recorded entries, determining that the number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant is less than a pre-set number of promotion entries;

responsive to determining that the number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant is less than the pre-set number of promotion entries, generating a personalized version of the online promotion that is integrated with the application, with the personalized version of the online promotion containing at least some of the participant'"'"'s social network identification including a verifiable portion of the participant'"'"'s social network identification; and

distributing the personalized version of the online promotion to the participant, wherein the verifiable portion of the participant'"'"'s social network identification on the personalized version provides verifiable portions of the social network identification, without requiring the participant to migrate away from the application.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting the participant to provide a list of online social network contacts who can also interact with the online promotion;

receiving, from the participant, the list of online social network contacts; and

automatically sending personalized invitations to enter the online promotion to the list of online social network contacts provided by the participant.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving interest in the online promotion from a contact in the list of online social network contacts and inviting the contact to provide a further list of social network contacts to interact with the online promotion.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the personalized invitations are sent to a network inbox of each contact in the list of online social network contacts.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving design work for the online promotion.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically displaying banners within viral features of the social media platform when the participant enters the online promotion.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the entry point includes one or more of:

an organization'"'"'s website;

a widget, banner, or link within the social media platform;

a widget, banner, or link on a webpage external to the social media platform;

or

a link generated by a viral feature of the social media platform.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the social media platform is configured to transmit user activity information through the viral features within the social media platform.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising directing the participant to download a promotion application to the profile of the participant.

10. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer storage media encoded with instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

integrating an online promotion into an application integrated with a social media platform via an application programming interface (API), wherein the application is configured to enable retrieving of profile information from the social media platform for the online promotion, with at least a portion of the retrieved profile information comprising a social network identification that is unique to a participant;

each time the participant accesses the online promotion via the application, recording, in a data repository, an entry with the social network identification, with recorded entries tracking a number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant, wherein the tracking with the recorded entries provides a higher level of security for providing verified access to the online promotion, relative to a level of security provided by tracking access to the online promotion with cookies;

receiving an indication of interest in the online promotion from the participant through an entry point;

retrieving, from the application integrated with the social media platform, the social network identification from the profile information of the participant;

retrieving, from the data repository, the recorded entries with the social network identification retrieved;

based on retrieval of the recorded entries, determining that the number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant is less than a pre-set number of promotion entries;

responsive to determining that the number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant is less than the pre-set number of promotion entries, generating a personalized version of the online promotion that is integrated with the application, with the personalized version of the online promotion containing at least some of the participant'"'"'s social network identification including a verifiable portion of the participant'"'"'s social network identification; and

distributing the personalized version of the online promotion to the participant, wherein the verifiable portion of the participant'"'"'s social network identification on the personalized version provides verifiable portions of the social network identification, without requiring the participant to migrate away from the application.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

prompting the participant to provide a list of online social network contacts who can also interact with the online promotion;

receiving, from the participant, the list of online social network contacts; and

automatically sending personalized invitations to enter the online promotion to the list of online social network contacts provided by the participant.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise receiving interest in the online promotion from a contact in the list of online social network contacts and inviting the contact to provide a further list of social network contacts to interact with the online promotion.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the personalized invitations are sent to a network inbox of each contact in the list of online social network contacts.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise receiving design work for the online promotion.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise automatically displaying banners within viral features of the social media platform when the participant enters the online promotion.

16. One or more non-transitory computer storage media encoded with instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

integrating an online promotion into an application integrated with a social media platform via an application programming interface (API), wherein the application is configured to enable retrieving of profile information from the social media platform for the online promotion, with at least a portion of the retrieved profile information comprising a social network identification that is unique to a participant;

each time the participant accesses the online promotion via the application, recording, in a data repository, an entry with the social network identification, with recorded entries tracking a number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant, wherein the tracking with the recorded entries provides a higher level of security for providing verified access to the online promotion, relative to a level of security provided by tracking access to the online promotion with cookies;

receiving an indication of interest in the online promotion from the participant through an entry point;

retrieving, from the application integrated with the social media platform, the social network identification from the profile information of the participant;

retrieving, from the data repository, the recorded entries with the social network identification retrieved;

based on retrieval of the recorded entries, determining that the number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant is less than a pre-set number of promotion entries;

responsive to determining that the number of times the online promotion is accessed by the participant is less than the pre-set number of promotion entries, generating a personalized version of the online promotion that is integrated with the application, with the personalized version of the online promotion containing at least some of the participant'"'"'s social network identification including a verifiable portion of the participant'"'"'s social network identification; and

distributing the personalized version of the online promotion to the participant, wherein the verifiable portion of the participant'"'"'s social network identification on the personalized version provides verifiable portions of the social network identification, without requiring the participant to migrate away from the application.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

prompting the participant to provide a list of online social network contacts who can also interact with the online promotion;

receiving, from the participant, the list of online social network contacts; and

automatically sending personalized invitations to enter the online promotion to the list of online social network contacts provided by the participant.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise receiving interest in the online promotion from a contact in the list of online social network contacts and inviting the contact to provide a further list of social network contacts to interact with the online promotion.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the personalized invitations are sent to a network inbox of each contact in the list of online social network contacts.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer storage media of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise receiving design work for the online promotion.