3 disrupting pending patents in online campaigns by Google, Facebook and Yahoo

1. Pending patents coming to disrupt online
campaigns by targeting social influencers3 Ehud Barone, inventor, udi@beesandpollen.com
Patent
Bidding on Users
Publication
number
US20100228631 A1
Priority date Mar 3, 2009
Inventors
Dong Zhang, Edward Y.
Chang
Original
Assignee
Google Inc.
Patent
Targeting Stories Based On
Influencer Scores
Publication
number
US20130254283 A1
Priority date Mar 23, 2012
Inventors
Antonio Felipe Garcia-
Martinez, Rong Yan
Original
Assignee
Antonio Felipe Garcia-
Martinez, Rong Yan
Patent Social Reputation Ads
Publication
number
US20130151345 A1
Priority date Dec 8, 2011
Inventors Jonathan Brelig
Original
Assignee
Yahoo! Inc.

2. About Me
Ehud Barone
udi@beesandpollen.com
• 2005: Inventor of “Advertising and incentives over a social
network” US 8560385 B2 - first patent combining social
influencers + ad campaigns for word-of-mouth generation, in a
practical method relevant for today’s social networks (e.g.
Google, Facebook)
• 2006 – present: CTO, Bees and Pollen, active in the field of
leveraging social network data for optimized delivery of user
experience
• 2014 – present: inventor, IP monetization, Bees and Pollen

3. What the presentation is about?
• Why we need social influencers?
• How social influencers are ranked?
• How social influencers’ campaigns work?
• Who hold patents in this space and how they differ?
• How these patents can help Google and Facebook make more money?

4. Social influencers as major source for trusted recommendations
92% trust
recommendations from
people they know!
Social influencers’
campaigns enable
advertisers to target
those special individuals
having most influence on
other people they know
that are most likely to
follow their advice

5. Prime factors in ranking social influencers (factor 1/4)
Relevancy
High relevancy of the target influencer and his friends to the characteristics of the campaign’s target users
Below is an illustration of the relevancy factor among an influencer and his friends to a specific campaign targeting
males, 18-25 years old:
Influencer
Friend Friend
FriendFriend
18 years
Male
20 years
Male
22 years
Male
24 years
Male
18 years
Female

6. Prime factors in ranking social influencers (factor 2/4)
Activity
High activity of the target influencer and his relevant friends in the campaign’s context (e.g. sports)
Below is an illustration of the activity factor of an influencer and his friends to a specific campaign targeting:
males, 18-25 years old who love sports:
Tennis
lover
Hockey
lover
Football
lover
Influencer
Friend Friend
Friend
Football
lover

7. Prime factors in ranking social influencers (factor 3/4)
Relationship
Strong relationship of the target influencer with his relevant friends
Below is an illustration of the relationship factor (bidirectional) among an influencer and his relevant friends:
Influencer
Friend Friend
Friend
A family
member
of
influencer
A close
friend of
influencer
A work
Colleague
of
influencer

8. Prime factors in ranking social influencers (factor 4/4)
Trustworthiness
High trustworthiness between the relevant target influencer’s friends and the influencer in the campaign’s
context (e.g. sports)
Below is an illustration of the trustworthiness factor (unidirectional) between an influencer’s relevant friends and
him in context of a Sports campaign:
Influencer
Friend Friend
Friend
Highly trusts
influencer’s
advice in
sports
Highly trusts
influencer’s
advice in
sports
Highly trusts
influencer’s
advice in
sports

9. How a social influencers’ campaign work? Sample embodiment
Characteristics of
a campaign’s
target users
(e.g. males, 18-35,
interested in sports)
Relevant users
matching characteristics
of campaign’s target users
f( )Relevancy
Activity
Relationship
Trustworthiness
Ranking
social influence of
relevant users
Targeting
campaign’s
ads to top ranked
influencers
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

10. Who hold patents in this space of social influencers’ campaigns?
Patent priority date
01/09/2005 01/09/2014
01/09/2005 01/12/2006
Bees and Pollen
US20070121843
Advertising and
incentives over a
social network
Google
US20080162260
Network Node Ad
Targeting
TrueX
US20080033776
System and method of
storing data related to
social
01/05/2006 01/12/2008
Topsy Labs
(now Apple)
US8768759
Advertising based
on influence
01/03/2009
Google
US20100228631
Bidding on users
01/12/2011
Yahoo
US20130151345
Social reputation
ads
01/03/2012
Facebook
US20130254283
Targeting Stories
Based On
Influencer Scores

11. Social influencers’ patents – claims comparison table
Ordered chronologically by priority date (left is earlier, right is later)
Social
Influence
Factor
Bees and Pollen
US20070121843
Advertising and
incentives over a
social network
TrueX
US20080033776
System and
method of storing
data related to
social…
Google
US20080162260
Network Node Ad
Targeting
Topsy Labs
(now Apple)
US8768759
Advertising
based on
influence
Google
US20100228631
Bidding on users
Yahoo
US20130151345
Social reputation
ads
Facebook
US20130254283
Targeting stories
based on
influencer scores
Relevancy      
Activity    
Relationship       
Trustworthiness    
Granted
Claims’
limitations
Limited of weighting
in all 4 factors
Limited to social
publishers only that
specifically permit
each brand/
advertiser to be
displayed within
their social content
Limited to specific
influencer’s score
calculation based on
delta in number of
links a relevant
community of
members has
with/without the
influencer
Limited to specific
influencer’s score
calculation based
on betweenness
and centrality
Pending patents!
Granted claims limitations yet to be determined
as result of USPTO actions

12. What value these patents can bring Facebook and Google?
Relevant Product +Post Ads Paid newsfeed ads
How targeting social
influencers can be
harnessed to generate
more money?
+Post Ads are to help brands to amplify
their content and make social
conversations.
By targeting the ads to social influencers
who are by definition the most relevant,
most active and most influential among
their friends (in the context of the
campaign), Google can maximize the
likelihood of the targeted users to become
engaged and to generate conversations
Facebook brands suffer from severe
dropdown in organic reach due to content
overload in the user’s newsfeed
By enabling brands to target ads to social
influencers, thus getting social influencers
to become the brands’ fans, Facebook can
maximize the organic reach due to the
higher likelihood of those influential fans
to engage with the brands’ posts

13. Thanks! And feel free to share or contact me
udi@beesandpollen.com
My patent:
Advertising and incentives over social networks (US20070121843)
More about me:
LinkedIn