Crowdsourced Advertisements Sponsored By Advertisers In A Social Networking Environment

• US 20120123858A1
• Filed: 11/15/2010
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rosenthal, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,344 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.49
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation

Abstract

Users of a social networking system are provided with advertisements when accessing content associated with the social networking system. The content of such advertisement may be generated by other users of the social networking system. An advertiser may provide an advertising template containing an advertised message and fields wherein a user can input an endorsement. The social networking system generates a user interface responsive to the template and provides the user interface to an endorsing user to receive the user'"'"'s endorsement for the advertised product or event. The social networking system generates an advertisement responsive to the advertisement content provided by the advertiser and the endorsement content provided by the endorsing user. The social networking user can provide the generated advertisements to viewing users who meet the advertisement'"'"'s targeting criteria and display criteria provided by the endorsing user.

Claims

1. A method for advertising to users of a social networking system, the method comprising:

receiving an advertisement template from an advertiser, the advertisement template comprising advertising content and one or more fields for a user endorsement;

receiving targeting criteria associated with the advertisement template;

providing a user interface for receiving a user endorsement in connection with the advertisement template;

receiving a user endorsement for the advertisement template from an endorsing user of a social networking system;

generating an advertisement by combining the user endorsement and the advertisement template;

selecting a viewing user to view the generated advertisement, the selecting based on the targeting criteria and based on a relationship between the viewing user and the endorsing user in the social networking system; and

sending the generated advertisement for display to the viewing user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement template is received from an advertiser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the fields of the advertisement template comprise at least one of a title field and a message field.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user endorsement comprises at least one of text endorsing the advertised product.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interfaces for receiving social endorsements comprise liking an object, becoming a fan of an object, updating profile information associated with an advertised product or commenting on an item associated with the advertised product within the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the endorsing user a definition of a set of possible viewing users in the social networking system who can view the advertisement, wherein the viewing user is selected subject to the definition.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

verifying the user endorsement, the verification performed to determine if the endorsement is consistent with one or more advertising criteria.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the verifying comprises:

receiving from the advertiser verification criteria for accepting a user endorsement; and

applying the verification criteria to the user endorsement.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the verification criteria rejects a user endorsement if it contains negative content about a subject of the advertisement.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an advertisement is displayed to the viewing user as a banner ad, an interactive ad, a wall post, a newsfeed story, or an email message within the social networking system.

11. A method for advertising to users of a social networking system, the method comprising:

receiving an advertisement template from an advertiser, the advertisement template comprising advertising content and one or more fields for a user endorsement;

receiving targeting criteria associated with the advertisement template;

receiving a user endorsement for the advertisement template from each of a plurality of endorsing users of a social networking system;

matching the targeting criteria to a viewing user of the social networking system;

selecting a user endorsement for the viewing user based at least in part on relationship between the viewing user and one or more of the endorsing users in the social networking system;

generating an advertisement by combining the selected user endorsement and the advertisement template; and

sending the generated advertisement for display to the viewing user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the advertisement template is received from an advertiser.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the fields of the advertisement template comprise at least one of a title field and a message field.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the user endorsement comprises at least one of text endorsing the advertised product.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the user interfaces for receiving social endorsements comprise liking an object, becoming a fan of an object, updating profile information associated with an advertised product or commenting on an item associated with the advertised product within the social networking system.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving from the endorsing user a definition of a set of possible viewing users in the social networking system who can view the advertisement, wherein the generated advertisement is selected if it matches the endorsing user'"'"'s definition and the received advertisement targeting criteria.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

verifying the user endorsement, the verification performed to determine if the endorsement is consistent with one or more advertising criteria.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the verifying comprises:

receiving from the advertiser verification criteria for accepting a user endorsement; and

applying the verification criteria to the user endorsement.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the verification criteria rejects a user endorsement if it contains negative content about a subject of the advertisement.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein an advertisement is displayed to the viewing user as a banner ad, an interactive ad, a wall post, a newsfeed story, or an email message within the social networking system.