Generating business insights using beacons on online social networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10917481-B2
Application number	US-201715603275-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 23, 2017
Priority date	Dec 9, 2014
Publication date	Feb 9, 2021
Grant date	Feb 9, 2021

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from beacons of a third-party (e.g., a business), session information for a user of an online social network. A mobile device of the user may have been in at least one wireless communication session with at least one beacon, and during the session the mobile device was proximate to the at least one beacon. The session information may include an identifier for the user, which may be used to access social-networking information for the user. Session information and the social-networking information of the user may be sent back to the third-party. User-specified permissions may delimit which information may be sent.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices of an online social network:
receiving session information associated with a first user of the online social network, wherein:
the session information comprises an identifier of the first user and information indicating that a current wireless communication session has been established between a first client system of the first user and a beacon associated with a particular third-party, wherein:
the beacon is proximate to the first client system at the time of the current wireless communication session; and
the current wireless communication session allows the online social network to send social-networking information of the first user to the third-party;

receiving a request for social-networking information associated with the first user;
determining a category associated with the third-party;
accessing a set of social-networking information associated with the first user;
determining one or more types of social-networking information corresponding to the determined category associated with the third-party;
retrieving a particular subset of social-networking information from the accessed set of social-networking information associated with the first user based on the determined one or more types of social-networking information corresponding to the determined category associated with the third-party; and
sending, responsive to receiving the request, the session information associated with the first user and the retrieved subset of social-networking information associated with the first user to a third-party system of the third-party for display.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the online social network comprises a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising:
a first node corresponding to the first user; and
a plurality of second nodes corresponding to a plurality of entities associated with the online social network, respectively.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a particular second node corresponds to the third-party, and wherein, for the first user, the set of social-networking information comprises a social-networking action of the first user taken with respect to the first node and the particular second node.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the social-networking action represents an expression of affinity for the third-party.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the session information for the first user is stored in association with the first node in the social graph.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session information for the first user comprises a history of wireless communication sessions established between at least one beacon of the third-party and the first client system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session information for the first user comprises an average duration of prior wireless communication sessions established between at least one beacon of the third-party and the first client system.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of social-networking information comprises one or more of:
an image of the first user;
demographic information of the first user;
biographic information of the first user;
one or more preferences of the first user with respect to the online social network;
payment credentials of the first user;
a purchase history of the first user; or
social-graph information of the first user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session information comprises an indication of a time elapsed since a last wireless communication session was established between at least one beacon of the third-party and the first client system.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending at least a subset of the set of social-networking information and the session information to one or more second users of the online social network.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more second users comprise the first user.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a third-party content to be provided by the third-party to the first user, wherein the third-party content is customized based on the session information and the subset of social-networking information; and
sending the customized third-party content to the first client system.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session information and the subset of social-networking information are displayed on a graphical user interface of the third-party system.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises one or more notification elements displaying a subset of the session information and the subset of social-networking information.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session information further comprises an indication of a geographic location of the beacon relative to the one or more other beacons associated with the third-party.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session information and subset of social-networking information for a plurality of first users is aggregated prior to sending the session information and subset of social-networking information associated with the plurality of first users to the third-party system.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third-party system is the beacon.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third-party system is another beacon associated with the third-party.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the category associated with the third-party indicates a type of good purveyed or service rendered by the third-party.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected subset of social-networking information associated with the first user comprises user preferences associated with a type of good or service.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the session information further comprises information about one or more prior wireless communication sessions between the first client system and the beacon and time information associated with the one or more prior wireless communication.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the displayed session information further comprises information about one or more of the prior wireless communication sessions and the time information associated with the respective prior wireless communication sessions.

23. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining one or more sets of permissions specified by the first user regarding the social-networking information associated with the first user.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein sending the session information associated with the first user and the retrieved subset of social-networking information associated with the first user to a third-party system of the third-party for display is based on the one or more sets of permissions.

25. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:
receive session information associated with a first user of an online social network, wherein:
the session information comprises an identifier of the first user and information indicating that a current wireless communication session has been established between a first client system of the first user and a beacon associated with a particular third-party, wherein:
the beacon is proximate to the first client system at the time of the current

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Lebeau Michael James
• Lessin Samuel Wharton
• Barillari Joseph David
• Shimoni Amir
• Murillo Arlene Gabriana
• Niewczas Mateusz Marek
• Modi Manish
• Kalinowski Caitlin E

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• H04L67/52 Primary

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title

• H04L67/18 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q50/01

  Physics · mapped topic