Granted Patent B1

US 12,380,119 · App. 17/962,782 · Granted Aug 5, 2025

Inventors: Joel Alexander Booth (Chicago, IL); Justyn Howard (Chicago, IL); Aaron Rankin (Chicago, IL)

Assignee: Sprout Social, LLC

G06F16/24578G06F16/2477G06F16/9535G06N5/02G06Q30/02G06Q50/01

Abstract

Claims (15)

1. A method for generating an ideal post time for a user of a social networking site, the method comprising the steps of:

acquiring at least one attribute of a plurality of followers that follow an activity of the user on the social networking site;

collecting a timeline for each of the plurality of followers according to an available sequence of said plurality of followers' posts and times of those posts;

computing a score for each of the plurality of followers based on user interests and the plurality of followers' at least one attribute.

2. The method for generating an ideal post time for a user of a social networking site of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

generating activity models for each of the plurality of followers based on the timeline;

weighting the activity models based on the score assigned to each of the plurality of followers; and

aggregating the weighted activity models of the plurality of followers.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of followers' attributes are acquired from at least one of a social importance ranking service or a source of data having information about the plurality of followers.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the method further comprises the step of smoothing the activity models by applying a smoothing algorithm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the score comprises a number of the plurality of follower's followers.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the score is higher for a large number of the plurality of follower's followers.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the score is lower for a small number of the plurality of follower's followers.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises the step of generating a histogram indicating when each of the plurality of followers is online and likely to see a post.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises the step of generating said activity model based on said histogram indicating when each of the plurality of followers is online and likely to see a post.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (198)