PROVIDING ONLINE PROMOTIONS THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORK PLATFORMS

• US 20140122250A1
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ransom, Victoria, Chuard, Alain
• Granted Patent: US 9,947,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.67
• 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:

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

retrieving identification information from a profile of the participant;

generating a personalized promotion for the participant containing at least some of the participant'"'"'s identification information including a verifiable portion of the participant'"'"'s identification information; and

distributing the personalized promotion to the participant, wherein the identification information on the personalized promotion provides a higher level of security and authenticity than promotions that do not contain such identification information.

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; and

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

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving interest in the online promotion from a contact in the list of 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 1, wherein the invitations are sent to a network inbox of the 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 a 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 participant'"'"'s social network profile.