System, program product, and methods for social network advertising and incentives for same

Abstract

Program product, systems, and methods of providing to social network websites advertising and incentives from an electronic retailer, are provided. A system can include a social network website displaying social network content and also displaying a link that reroutes the consumer to an electronic retailer website when the consumer clicks on the link. The system can also include program product for tracking purchase and other information about the consumer by the electronic retailer, and generating a commission for the provider of the social network website based on the tracked information about the consumer. The link can be embedded within the social network content or the link can be part of an advertisement and displayed adjacent the social network content. Also, a product featured in the advertisement can be affiliated with one main subject of the social network content.

Description

BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electronic commerce through communication networks, and more particularly, to systems, program products, and methods for managing advertisement development and placement on social network website. 2. Description of the Related Art Electronic retailers, like their brick and mortar counterparts, like to attract consumers to their storefronts. In addition, electronic retailers like to encourage consumers to linger at their storefronts and to entice the consumer to make purchases. It is recognized that the conversational and participatory nature of social media promotes lingering and follow-up visits, as illustrated by the recent success of sites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. Furthermore, such social media can offer unique opportunities for consumers to interact with products and demonstrate the use of products in creative, humorous, fantastic, and interesting ways bys publishing consumer-produce...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a method for advertising on social network websites by an electronic retailer tracking the behavior of consumers and generating commissions based on their purchases. This approach incentivizes the provider of the social network website to publish relevant content and attract additional advertisements. The method includes displaying social network content on a website, rerouting the consumer to the electronic retailer website when they click on a link, and tracking the consumer's behavior to generate commissions. The invention also allows for the advertisement to contain a link to the electronic retailer website, providing a model for advertising on a social network website by an electronic retailer that generates commissions based on actual consumer behavior. Overall, the invention provides a cost-effective and efficient way for electronic retailers to advertise on social network websites and incentivize content providers to publish relevant content.

Problems solved by technology

Overall, however, such driving force is not done so proportionally.

Although such social network websites, such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr, and numerous individual blogs, are very popular in terms of overall internet traffic, inherent in social networks, however, is the challenge of motivating authors and content providers to create and offer content.

The inventor has recognized that many advertisers can be uncomfortable assigning a value to an impression of or a click-through from an individual blog or other social network website and that the conventional models for advertising on social network websites, therefore, underperform.

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