Presenting deals to a user of social networking system

• US 10,540,692 B2
• Filed: 07/12/2011
• Issued: 01/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hu, Bo, Winters, Kelly, White, Emily Clark, Sharp, Evan
• Primary Examiner(s): Duran, Arthur
• Application Number:
  US13/181,307
• Publication Number:
  US 20130179268A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,115 Days
• Field of Search: 705 14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A social networking system suggests deals relevant to a user. The deals are selected for suggestion based on social information associated with the user. Social information used for selecting candidate deals for a user includes information describing other users connected to the user and their associations with the candidate deals or with related deals, for example, deals from the same provider. Associations of connections of the user with the candidate deals may be determined based on actions associated with the candidate deals performed by the connections. The actions performed by the connections may be weighted based on types of the actions to determine a measure of relevance of the candidate deal for the user. Candidate deals are selected from a set of deals by applying deal targeting criteria received from deal providers. The deal targeting criteria specify attributes describing users to be targeted for a particular deal.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing, by a social networking system, information describing users and relations between users, wherein a user related to another user is identified as a connection of the other user;

identifying a user of the social networking system;

identifying a plurality of candidate deals received from providers;

determining, by a processor, a plurality of circles of connections of the user, each circle of connections comprising users with whom the user has established a connection in the social networking system, each circle of connections determined based on affinities among the users in the circle of connections;

selecting a circle of connections from the plurality of circles of connections;

selecting, by the processor, a set of candidate deals comprising a first deal and a second deal from the plurality of candidate deals received from the providers, wherein the first deal is associated with a first connection and the second deal is associated with a second connection and the first and the second deal are selected responsive to determining that the first connection and the second connection are in a same circle of connections;

sending information describing the selected set of candidate deals for presentation to the user with instructions to present the first deal and the second deal together via a user interface, wherein sending information describing the selected set of candidate deals for presentation to the user further comprises sending information describing one or more users of the selected circle of connections associated with the selected set of candidate deals for presentation to the user along with the selected set of candidate deals, and the user interface includes the first deal and the second deal together along with the information describing the one or more users of the selected circle of connections associated with the selected set of candidate deals;

sending information describing criteria for activation of a first deal of the selected set of candidate deals for presentation to the user, wherein the user interface includes the information describing the criteria for activation of the first deal and the criteria includes at least one condition based on an interaction of the user with the user interface associated with the first deal or a location of the user; and

activating the first deal responsive to the criteria being satisfied for the first deal, wherein the user interface includes an indication that the first deal is activated.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the instructions to present the selected set of candidate deals comprise instructions to present information describing interactions between the one or more users of the selected circle of connections and the selected set of candidate deals.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more users of the selected circle of connections are selected based on a measure of affinity between the user and the one or more users.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information describing the association between the selected set of candidate deals and the one or more users of the selected circle of connections is based on actions performed by the one or more users, the actions related to the selected set of candidate deals.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the actions performed by the one or more users related to a deal comprise one or more of purchasing the deal, commenting on the deal, liking the deal, checking-in to a location associated with the deal, or recommending the deal.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selected circle of connections is determined such that users belonging to the selected circle of connections have more interactions with each other compared to their interactions with users of another circle of connections from the plurality of circles of connections of the user.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selected circle of connections is determined based on users that are members of a social group of the social networking system.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selected circle of connections is determined based on users that graduated from a same school as a school of the user.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the selected circle of connections is determined based on users that are determined to be members of a family.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a candidate deal is selected from the selected set of candidate deals if the information describing the candidate deal matches actions of the one or more users of the selected circle of connections using the social networking system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a candidate deal is selected from the selected set of candidate deals if the information describing the candidate deal matches interests of the one or more users of the selected circle of connections.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a candidate deal from the selected set of candidate deals is selected for presentation to the user if information describing the candidate deal matches actions of the user performed using the social networking system.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable code, the code comprising instructions causing a processor to:

identify a user of a social networking system;

store by a social networking system, information associated with connections of the user comprising of information describing a connection of the user and information describing past actions of the connection, and information describing connections of the connection;

identify a plurality of candidate deals received from providers;

determine a plurality of circles of connections of the user, each circle of connections comprising users with whom the user has established a connection in the social networking system, each circle of connections determined based on affinities among the users in the circle of connections;

select a circle of connections from the plurality of circle of connections;

select a set of candidate deals comprising of a first deal and a second deal from the plurality of candidate deals received from the providers, wherein the first deal is associated with a first connection and the second deal is associated with a second connection and the first and the second deal are selected responsive to determining that the first connection and the second connection are in a same circle of connections;

send information describing the set of deals for presentation to the user with instructions to present the first deal and the second deal together via a user interface, wherein to send information describing the selected set of candidate deals for presentation to the user further comprises to send information describing one or more users of the selected circle of connections associated with the selected set of candidate deals for presentation to the user along with the selected set of candidate deals, and the user interface includes the first deal and the second deal together along with the information describing the one or more users of the selected circle of connections associated with the selected set of candidate deals;

send information describing criteria for activation of a first deal of the selected set of candidate deals for presentation to the user, wherein the user interface includes the information describing the criteria for activation of the first deal and the criteria includes at least one condition based on an interaction of the user with the user interface associated with the first deal or a location of the user; and

activate the first deal responsive to the criteria being satisfied for the first deal, wherein the user interface includes an indication that the first deal is activated.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions to present the selected set of candidate deals comprises instructions to present information describing interactions between the user and the one or more users of the selected circle of connections, the interactions associated with the selected set of candidate deals.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the information describing the association between the selected set of candidate deals and the one or more users of the selected circle of connections is selected based on a measure of affinity between the user and the one or more users of the circle of connections.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the information describing the association between the selected set of candidate deals and one or more users of the selected circle of connections is selected based on actions performed by the one or more users of the circle of connections.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein actions performed by the one or more users related to a deal comprise one or more of purchasing the deal, commenting on the deal, liking the deal, checking-in to a location associated with the deal, or recommending the deal.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein a candidate deal is selected from the selected set of candidate deals if the information describing the candidate deal matches interests of the one or more users of the selected circle of connections.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein a candidate deal from the selected set of candidate deals is selected for presentation to the user if information describing the candidate deal matches actions of the user performed using the social networking system.