Systems and methods to facilitate real time communications and commerce via a social network
View Patent ↗Methods and systems to facilitate real time communications and commerce via a social network. In one embodiment, a social network is used to provide information about an advertiser to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the advertiser to potential customers. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request from a customer for a document; and providing the customer with an advertisement embedded in the document, the advertisement including information to identify an advertiser of the advertisement based on a social network. In one embodiment, the presentation of the advertisement or the advertiser is at least partially based on the social network. In one embodiment, communication references are provided to facilitate the requests for real time communications with a member of the social network via a connection provider, which performs scheduling, filtering, payment processing, etc. for the member of the social network.
1. A method, comprising:
receiving, via a computing device, a request from a customer for a document selected from the group consisting of a blog, a news article, an email, a profile of a member of a social network, a question asked by a member of the social network, an answer provided by at least one member of the social network, an electronic book, an electronic magazine and a search result;
embedding, via the computing device, an advertisement in the document, the advertisement including information identifying an advertiser of the advertisement based on the social network; and
providing the customer with the document with the advertisement embedded in the document;
wherein the information to identify the advertiser comprises information about the advertiser provided by at least one member of the social network who has a direct social connection with the advertiser in the social network;
tracking calls, via a communication device, to connect the advertiser for real time communication using a communication reference; and
charging the advertiser based on any call tracked using the communication reference, wherein the advertiser is charged a commission fee for a purchase made by the customer using a connection established to the advertiser using the communication reference.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication reference is used to request a connection to the advertiser for real time communication with the advertiser.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the communication reference includes one of a telephone number without an extension, a telephone number with an extension, a voice over Internet protocol user identifier, and a session initiation protocol uniform resource identifier.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the connection comprises a telephone connection; and the method further comprises:
establishing, via a connection server, a first voice over Internet protocol connection to connect to the customer using the communication reference;
identifying a telephonic reference of the advertiser based on the communication reference used to establish the first voice over Internet protocol connection;
establishing a second voice over Internet protocol connection to connect to the advertiser via the telephonic reference of the advertiser; and
bridging the first voice over Internet protocol connection and second voice over Internet protocol connection to connect the customer and the advertiser.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein bridging the first voice over Internet protocol connection and second voice over Internet protocol connection comprises establishing a media connection that does not go through the connection server to connect the customer and the advertiser for telephone communication.
6. The method of claim 2 , wherein when the communication reference is used in a communication system, a request for the connection to the advertiser is sent to a connection provider via a connection for real time communication between the customer and the connection provider established using the communication reference.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the advertiser is charged an advertisement fee for any connection to the advertiser using the communication reference provided in the advertisement.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the customer purchases a service delivered by the advertiser using the connection established using the communication reference; and the method further comprises:
charging, via the computing device, the customer on behalf of the advertiser for the service delivered using real time communication between the advertiser and the customer using the connection established using the communication reference.
9. The method of claim 2 , wherein the advertisement further includes an indicator of availability of the advertiser to communicate in real time with the customer at a time the advertisement is provided.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the document includes one of a blog, a news article, an email, a profile of a member of the social network, an answer provided by a member of the social network, a question asked by a member of the social network, an electronic book, an electronic magazine, and a search result.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, via the computing device, an entity of the customer in the social network; and
determining a social distance between the customer and the advertiser in the social network;
wherein the information to identify the advertiser includes an indicator of social distance between the advertiser and the customer.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, via the computing device, an entity of the customer in the social network; and
identifying a social connection between the customer and the advertiser in the social network;
wherein the information to identify the advertiser includes information revealing the social connection between the advertiser and the customer, including at least one member of the social network in the social connection between the advertiser and the customer.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information about the advertiser provided by the at least one member of the social network is sorted according to social distance to the customer in the social network.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, via the computing device, an entity of the customer in the social network; and
determining a trustworthiness indicator of the advertiser based on a social connection between the advertiser and the customer in the social network;
wherein the information to identify the advertiser includes the trustworthiness indicator.
15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
selecting the advertisement based at least in part on the trustworthiness indicator.
16. A tangible machine readable media storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
receiving a request from a customer for a document selected from the group consisting of a blog, a news article, an email, a profile of a member of a social network, a question asked by a member of the social network, an answer provided by at least one member of the social network, an electronic book, an electronic magazine and a search result;
embedding, via the computing device, an advertisement in the document, the advertisement including information identifying an advertiser of the advertisement based on the social network; and
providing the customer with the document with the advertisement embedded in the document;
wherein the information to identify the advertiser comprises information about the advertiser provided by at least one member of the social network who has a direct social connection with the advertiser in the social network;
wherein the advertisement further includes a communication reference used to request a connection to the advertiser for real time communication with the advertiser;
tracking calls, via a communication device, to connect the advertiser for real time communication using the communication reference; and
charging the advertiser based on any call tracked using the communication reference, wherein the advertiser is charged a commission fee for a purchase made by the customer using a connection established to the advertiser using the communication reference.
17. A system, comprising:
a computing device configured to receive a request from a customer for a document selected from the group consisting of a blog, a news article, an email, a profile of a member of a social network, a question asked by a member of the social network, an answer provided by at least one member of the social network, an electronic book, an electronic magazine and a search result;
wherein the computing device is configured to embed an advertisement in the document, the advertisement including information identifying an advertiser of the advertisement based on the social network; and
wherein the computing device is configured to provide the customer with the document with the advertisement embedded in the document;
wherein the information to identify the advertiser comprises information about the advertiser provided by at least one-member of the social network who has a direct social connection with the advertiser in the social network;
wherein the advertisement further includes a communication reference used to request a connection to the advertiser for real time communication with the advertiser; and
wherein the computing device is further configured to track calls, via a communication device, to connect the advertiser for real time communication using the communication reference, and charge the advertiser based on any call tracked using the communication reference, wherein the advertiser is charged a commission fee for a purchase made by the customer using a connection established to the advertiser using the communication reference.