SYSTEM AND METHOD OF STORING DATA RELATED TO SOCIAL PUBLISHERS AND ASSOCIATING THE DATA WITH ELECTRONIC BRAND DATA

• US 20080033776A1
• Filed: 05/22/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Truex Media Inc.
• Original Assignee: TrueX, Inc. (PaeDae, Inc.)
• Inventors: Marchese, Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,856,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/384 using social networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0249 based upon budgets or funds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A system and method of storing data related to social publishers and associating the data with electronic brand data is disclosed. The system includes an online persona definition module configured to receive information about a social publisher and, based on the received information, associate personality traits with the social publisher. A social influence measurement module receives social network metrics and social network activities related to social publishers and determine a level of social influence for the social publishers. A brand promoter management module is configured to receive data from the brand promoter, the including targeting elements for an advertising campaign, including a specified a level of social influence and a set of personality traits. The brand promoter may also upload brand art to display within the social network. An association is configured to determine if social publishers meet the targeting elements. An offer selection module allows selected social publishers to accept sponsorship offers and display the brand art within their social content.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of associating a brand promoter having a brand with a plurality of social publishers who produce social content, the method comprising:

receiving, from the brand promoter, desired social characteristics of social publishers to be associated with the brand;

selecting certain ones of the social publishers having the desired social characteristics; and

sending, to the selected social publishers, an offer of an opportunity to display information indicative of the brand within their respective social content.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the brand promoter to assign a value for displaying by the social publishers the information indicative of the brand within social content generated by the social publishers.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the assigned value is an amount per impression.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the assigned value is a unit of influence.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving input from the selected social publishers indicating an acceptance of the offer.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising aggregating information about the social publishers.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the information about the social publishers includes personality traits of the social publishers.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the personality traits of the social publishers are defined at least in part by an assessment of the social publishers.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the assessment is a community assessment.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the assessment is a self-assessment.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the information about the social publishers includes personality preferences of the social publishers.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the self-assessment of the social publishers comprises:

presenting a graphical interface configured to receive information from the social publishers, the information being related to age, sex, social affiliations, and preferences of the social publisher.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the graphical data comprises a personality model.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the personality model is a Myers Briggs like model.

15. The computer-implemented model of claim 1, wherein the desired social characteristics further include a level of social influence of the social publishers.

16. The computer-implemented model of claim 15, wherein the level of social influence of the social publishers is based at least in part on measured activity and traffic to the social publishers in the social network.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the measured activity includes updates by the social publisher of social content.

18. The computer-implemented model of claim 16, wherein the level of social influence of the social publisher is based further in part on a level of social influence of other social publishers with whom the social publisher interacts.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the level of social influence of the social publisher is based further in part on a number of other social publishers with whom the social publisher interacts.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein offering the selected social publishers an opportunity to display the brand within their social content further comprises compensating the social network for displaying the brand within the social content of the social publishers.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the compensation is based at least in part on a number of pages served having impressions of the brand.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the compensation is based at least in part on a social influence measurement of pages served having impressions of the brand.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein offering the selected social publishers an opportunity to display the brand within their social content further comprises compensating the social publishers for displaying the brand within their social content.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the amount of compensation is based on a value created for the brand by the social publishers displaying information associated with the brand within their social content.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the compensation distributed to the social publisher is calculated as a percentage of the compensation received by the social network.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the compensation distributed to the social publisher is calculated as a percentage of an amount paid by the brand promoters.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 25, wherein the compensation to the social publishers further includes non-monetary perks delivered to the social publishers.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein the non-monetary perks are brand specific perks.

29. A computer-implemented method of building an online brand campaign, the method comprising:

storing brand art suitable for displaying in a network environment;

receiving an input indicative of a budget for the online brand campaign;

presenting user selectable options for selecting target attributes for brand association;

receiving an input selecting one or more of the target attributes; and

sending, in response to said receiving, an estimated campaign fulfillment metric.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 29, wherein the campaign fulfillment metric comprises an estimated reach and burn rate of the online brand campaign, the estimated reach and burn rate being based in part on the budget and the target attributes.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 29, wherein the budget includes a bid amount for each page served having impressions of the brand.

32. The computer-implemented method of claim 31, further comprising:

modifying the campaign fulfillment metric by changing the budget for the online brand campaign.

33. The computer-implemented method of claim 32, wherein the campaign fulfillment metric is defined at least in part by a number of social publishers suitable for displaying the brand art and an estimate of sponsorship acceptance.

34. The computer-implemented method of claim 33, wherein the estimate of sponsorship acceptance is measured at least in part by a competitiveness of the bid amount.

35. The computer-implemented method of claim 33, wherein the estimated campaign fulfillment metric is further defined at least in part by a social influence level of the social publishers suitable for displaying the brand art.

36. The computer-implemented method of claim 29, further comprising:

receiving an indication of an expiration of time or exhaustion of budget for the online brand campaign; and

modifying, in response to the indication, at least one of the budget or the expiration date for the online brand campaign.

37. The computer-implemented method of claim 29, wherein target attributes of social publishers suitable for displaying the brand art comprise a minimum social influence measurement of a social publisher suitable for displaying the brand art.

38. The computer-implemented method of claim 29, further comprising providing an indication of activating the online brand campaign, wherein the social publishers suitable for displaying the brand art receive a sponsorship offer to display the brand art.

39. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, further comprising receiving, from one or more of the social publishers suitable for displaying the brand art, an indication of an acceptance of the sponsorship offer.

40. The computer-implemented method of claim 39, further comprising receiving authorization from a social network to display the brand art within the content of the one or more suitable social publishers.

41. The computer-implemented method of claim 40, wherein the sponsorship offer includes an offer of compensation to the social publishers suitable for displaying the brand art.

42. The computer implemented method of claim 41, wherein the offer of compensation includes information indicative of a specific non-monetary compensation.

43. A system for enabling a brand promoter using a computer network to create a brand advertising campaign, the system comprising:

an online persona definition module configured to receive information about a social publisher and, based on the received information, associate personality traits and preferences with the social publisher;

a social influence measurement module configured to measure social network metrics and social network activities related to the social publisher, and based at least in part on the social network metrics and social network activities, determine a level of social influence for the social publisher;

a brand promoter management module configured to receive data from the brand promoter, the data comprising;

targeting elements for the advertising campaign, the targeting elements including at least one of a level of social influence and a set of personality and preference traits,

brand art to display within the social network, and

a sponsorship offer, the sponsorship offer including a bid amount per page view on social content meeting the targeting elements;

an association module configured to determine if the social publisher meets the targeting elements; and

a offer selection module configured to display, if the social publisher meets the targeting elements, the sponsorship offer to the social publisher for selection.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein the offer selection module is further configured to allow the social publisher to select the sponsorship offer.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein if the social publisher selects the sponsorship offer, the brand art is displayed among social content of the social publisher.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the social publisher receives compensation based on the bid amount for each page view of the brand art displayed among the social content.

47. The system of claim 46, wherein the bid amount is a money amount.

48. The system of claim 46, wherein the compensation comprises reward points.

49. The system of claim 44, wherein the brand promoter management module is further configured to allow the brand promoter to establish an account and deposit funds into the account.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the deposited funds in the account are transferred to the social publisher when the brand art has received a predetermined number of impressions.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the deposited funds are transferred to the social publisher by a third party.

52. The system of claim 49, wherein the association module is further configured to periodically determine whether the social publisher still meets the targeting elements.

53. The system of claim 52, wherein the association module is further configured to, if the social publisher no longer meets the targeting elements, withdraw the sponsorship offer from the social publisher.

54. The system of claim 43, wherein the offer selection module is further configured to alert the social publisher when a new sponsorship offer is received.

55. The system of claim 54, wherein the offer selection module is further configured to allow the social publisher to select a preferred sponsorship offer.

56. The system of claim 54, wherein the offer selection module is further configured to automatically selected the sponsorship offer having the highest bid amount.

57. A system of associating a brand promoter having a brand with a plurality of social publishers who produce social content, the system comprising:

means for receiving, from the brand promoter, desired social characteristics of social publishers to be associated with the brand;

means for selecting certain ones of the social publishers having the desired social characteristics; and

means for sending, to the selected social publishers, an offer of an opportunity to display information indicative of the brand within their respective social content.

58. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method of associating a brand promoter having a brand with a plurality of social publishers who produce social content, the method comprising:

receiving, from the brand promoter, desired social characteristics of social publishers to be associated with the brand;

selecting certain ones of the social publishers having the desired social characteristics; and

sending, to the selected social publishers, an offer of an opportunity to display information indicative of the brand within their respective social content.