AU2012101320A4

AU2012101320A4 - System and Method for Advertising to Users of a Social Network on Mobile Devices

Info

Publication number: AU2012101320A4
Application number: AU2012101320A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Ian Mcardle
Original assignee: McArdle, Ian Mr
Current assignee: McArdle, Ian Mr
Priority date: 2012-08-30
Filing date: 2012-08-30
Publication date: 2012-10-11
Anticipated expiration: 2020-08-30
Also published as: WO2014032073A1

Abstract

System and Method for Advertising to Users of a Social Network on Mobile Devices By Ian McArdle SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0005] A method for displaying a relevant advertisement in a social network environment on a mobile device is described. In some embodiments, the method includes generating advertisements that interact with news items, comments, and so forth regarding keywords associated with these items in a social network environment and allowing a post by an advertiser associated with at least one of the keywords, to the relevant social feed. The method further includes limiting advertising on a social feed by advertisers who have assigned a predetermined set of keywords potentially relevant to the social feeds. The method further includes displaying the relevant advertisement to the users who are currently interacting with this social feed, where a matching keyword has been detected and will be shown to the set of viewers relevant to that social feed.

Description

1 System and Method for Advertising to Users of a Social Network on Mobile Devices By Ian McArdle BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates generally to advertising on mobile devices in a social network, and more particularly to systems and methods for providing relevant advertisements to users in a social network on mobile devices about a particular keyword. [0002] Conventionally, a user of a networking website or application is exposed to advertisements that may or may not be relevant to the user in the hope that it is relevant and the user will interact with this advertisement and potentially go on to purchase something from the company that the advertisement relates to. For example, a user may see a text or image based advertisement selling a suite of software or a special deal on a new car, and so forth. Clicking on this advertisement will forward the user through to the relevant page containing further information on how the user is able to purchase these products. [0003] Recently, social networking websites or applications have developed systems for tailoring advertisements to specific user criteria, geographical locations, interests, hobbies and so forth. Social networking offers advertisers the opportunity for relevant targeting of users based on specific criteria who may be more likely to be interested in their products and monitor the activity around these advertisements to assist in further targeting or filtering of criteria. [0004] There are existing mechanisms that allow a sponsored advertisement to a user of a mobile device be it full screen or a window based display mode. Some mechanisms may allow an advertiser to display a sponsored story to a user within the user's news feed. Typically, however, these forms of advertising are overly large for the size of the mobile device display, are disparate, irrelevant and disorganized. In other words, it is highly likely that the user will not be interested in the advertisement if one is being displayed, or will not see the advertisement at all. Often, many of the current mobile advertisements are intrusive and annoying to the user.

2 [0004a] Just as often, the user remains unaware of the existence of mobile advertising within a social networking website or application. What is needed is a generated advertisement that contains information directly relevant to a user or group of users within a social network on a mobile device and does not intrude significantly on the users' social experience. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0006] Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary environment for generating mobile adverts into relevant user social feeds in a social network environment; [0007] Figure 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary Advertising Engine with Mobile Capability; [0008] Figure 3 is an exemplary flowchart demonstrating a mobile advert being inserted into a single relevant user social feed; and [0009] Figure 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for generating and displaying a mobile advertisement into a user's social feed in a social network environment.

3 DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0010] A system and method for dynamically presenting an advertisement into a user feed on mobile devices for viewing by relevant users on a social network is provided. An advertiser (the advertising user) within a social network may choose to create a mobile relevant advertisement indicating certain keywords which relate to the advert. A user of a social network may create content within a user feed whether it be a new content feed or adding to an already existing one which may subsequently enable this feed as a match for an existing mobile advert. The advertising engine can then insert a new feed entry into this feed with the relevant advert and mark this feed as having been the successful recipient of a mobile advert thus avoiding the possibility of the feed receiving multiple mobile advertisements which could potentially disrupt the participants of the feed from their interactions. [0011] The dynamic insertion of the mobile advert guarantees that the advertiser will never see the actual user feed to which it was entered, though it would be possible for the advertising engine to offer some statistical feedback. This could be in the form of the number of users who viewed this advert and potentially the number of users who interacted with this advert in the form of sharing, clicking a link or using a social tool to recommend the advert in some way, further promoting the advert within the network by the users themselves. [0012] The advertising engine inserts the advert into the feed at the earliest opportunity once a keyword match has been made further promoting the variety of advertisements within the social network. If the advert is matched on a keyword within the initial creation of a new feed, only the user who created the feed will be informed of the advertisement insertion and be able to view and interact with it, although it will then be visible to all subsequent connected users who choose to view or interact with this users feed. A user feed where there has been no mobile advert keyword match even after many posts by connected users within the feed until towards the end of the feed will, when matched and inserted, then inform numerous users relevant to this feed of the advert insertion but will be less visible to new readers of the feed who commence reading from the start of the user feed. This flexibility will both promote the dynamic nature of the mobile adverts and seek to lessen the disruption by the insertion of mobile adverts into user feeds.

4 [0013] Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary environment for generating mobile adverts into relevant user social feeds in a social network environment. One or more users, such as user 101 at mobile device 102, are interacting with user feeds at 106 via a social network 103. The social network provider 104 may comprise of any user or entity that provides social networking services, company intranets, and so forth. For example, the social network provider 104 may host a website that allows one or more users 101, at one or more user mobile devices 102, to communicate with one another via the website. The Advertising Engine with mobile capabilities 105 monitors the feeds throughout the entire social network 103 looking for keywords within the user feeds at 106 which haven't yet had a mobile advertisement inserted. [0014] Figure 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the advertising engine with mobile capability 105. The advertisers 203 setup and store their campaigns and keywords for their adverts into the Advertising Strategy for Mobile Users 202. The Social network provider 104 is then able to match the keywords from 202 to the keywords through the user feeds which are available for mobile advert insertion 201. [0015] Referring now to Figure 3, a system overview diagram of an exemplary process for generating and displaying mobile adverts within a user's feed 106 on a social network 103. A user has created a new user feed at 106. There is some user interaction within this new feed in the form of posts, comments and usual social interaction between connected users within this feed. A user interacts with the feed at 301 using the keyword "Suzuki". This feed 106 has not yet had a mobile advert inserted into the feed at this point in time. The social network provider 104 at this time performs a check through the social network 103 looking for matches of user feeds which have not yet had a mobile advert inserted but have a matching keyword to an advertising strategy 303. [00 15a] In the meantime, there may have been several further interactions within the feed but a match has been made to an advertising strategy using the keyword "Suzuki" in this example and a mobile advert relevant to the "Suzuki" keyword strategy is inserted into the feed at 302. As this inserted advert appears within the feed in much the same way as any other user interaction, though it may be coloured differently or inform the users in some way it is an advert, it can optionally be interacted with in the same way as any other user interaction 304. This aids the advertiser as users of this feed can then comment or interact with this advert, further promoting it to that users' own network. At the time of insertion at 302, and depending on the notice settings used by related users of this feed, users previous to the insertion may be sent a notice that the advert has been inserted.

5 [0016] Figure 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for generating and displaying the mobile advert within a user feed on a social network. At step 401, the user feed within the social network is generated by a user through a post, comment, entry or any other means of insertion of a feed into the social network. [0017] At step 402, the users' feed entry 401 is analysed for matching keywords to mobile advert keywords which are active under an advertisers campaign. This may nor may not happen in real-time depending on the load of the system but upon finding a match, the relevant mobile advert is inserted in the users feed at step 403. [0018] At step 404, the users' feed is marked as having had a mobile advert inserted into it and can then be disabled from having further mobile adverts inserted into the same feed upon further matching keywords. This is of course an optional setting depending on the inner workings of the social network but is a good option to avoid excessive mobile advertising into a feed potentially causing a negative experience for the users interacting with this feed. The feed then continues as per normal with users interacting with all entries within the feed including the mobile advert itself at 405. [0019] Various embodiments of the invention include logic stored on computer readable media, the logic configured to perform methods of the invention. The examples provided herein are exemplary and are not meant to be exclusive. The embodiments discussed herein are illustrative of the present invention. As these embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to illustrations, various modifications or adaptations of the methods and or specific structures described may become apparent to those skill led in the art. All such modifications, adaptations, or variations that rely upon the teachings of the present invention, and through which these teachings have advanced the art, are considered to be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Hence, these descriptions and drawings should not be considered in a limiting sense, as it is understood that the present invention is in no way limited to only the embodiments illustrated.

Claims

1. A method for inserting and displaying a mobile advert into a user's feed in a social network environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the advert is selected according to an affinity determined by matching keyword to an entry within a user's feed.

3. A system for displaying a mobile advert within a user feed comprising: a social network environment; a module to manage mobile advertising strategies allowing advertisers to setup adverts and keywords for their mobile advertising campaigns; a module configured to match adverts to relevant user feeds by corresponding keywords; a module to insert relevant mobile adverts into a user's feed and mark the feed as having been advertised to avoid further adverts.