Crowdsourced advertisements sponsored by advertisers in a social networking environment

Abstract

Users of a social networking system are provided with advertisements when accessing content associated with the social networking system. The content of such advertisement may be generated by other users of the social networking system. An advertiser may provide an advertising template containing an advertised message and fields wherein a user can input an endorsement. The social networking system generates an advertisement responsive to the advertisement content provided by the advertiser and the endorsement content provided by the endorsing user. The social networking user can provide the generated advertisements to viewing users who meet the advertisement's targeting criteria, and display criteria or subject to privacy settings provided by the endorsing user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 generating, by a computer system, an advertisement by combining a user endorsement for the advertisement and an advertisement template, the user endorsement being provided by an endorsing user of a social networking system, and the advertisement template comprising advertising content and one or more fields for the user endorsement;   selecting, by the computer system, a viewing user from a set of candidate viewing users specified by the endorsing user, the selecting based on targeting criteria and a relationship between the viewing user and the endorsing user in the social networking system; and   sending the advertisement for display to the selected viewing user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement template is received from an advertiser. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement template comprises an advertisement template stored by the social networking system. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement template pertains to an object within the social networking system not associated with an advertiser. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user endorsement provided by the endorsing user of is provided via a web page hosted by a server outside of the social networking system. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving from the endorsing user a definition of the set of candidate viewing users, wherein the selected viewing user is selected subject to the definition.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 verifying the user endorsement to determine if the endorsement is consistent with one or more advertising criteria.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the verification criteria rejects a user endorsement if it contains negative content about a subject of the advertisement. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement sent for display as a banner ad, an interactive ad, a wall post, a newsfeed story, or an email message within the social networking system. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement sent for display comprises a name and a picture of the endorsing user. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement sent for display comprises information regarding how many users of the social networking system have endorsed the advertised product. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selection of the viewing user is based in part on a combination of a likelihood that the viewing user will click on the advertisement and fees generated responsive to displaying the advertisement. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selected advertisement is sent for display to the selected viewing user responsive to the selected viewing user requesting a webpage or an object associated with the social networking system wherein a user endorsed advertisement can be displayed. 
     
     
         14 . A method comprising:
 generating, by a computer system, an advertisement by combining a user endorsement for the advertisement and an advertisement template, the user endorsement being provided by an endorsing user of a social networking system, and the advertisement template comprising advertising content and one or more fields for the user endorsement;   selecting, by the computer system, a viewing user based on targeting criteria, a relationship between the viewing user and the endorsing user in the social networking system, and privacy settings for the endorsing user; and   sending the advertisement for display to the selected viewing user.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the privacy settings for the endorsing user specify that user generated content be displayed only to the user's friends. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the advertisement template pertains to an object within the social networking system not associated with an advertiser. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the user endorsement provided by the endorsing user is provided via a web page hosted by a server outside of the social networking system. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the advertisement sent for display comprises a name and a picture of the endorsing user. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the selected advertisement is sent for display to the selected viewing user responsive to the selected viewing user requesting a webpage or an object associated with the social networking system wherein a user endorsed advertisement can be displayed. 
     
     
         20 . A system comprising:
 a processor;   an advertisement generation engine that generates an advertisement by combining a user endorsement for the advertisement and an advertisement template, the user endorsement being provided by an endorsing user of a social networking system, and the advertisement template comprising advertising content and one or more fields for the user endorsement;   an advertisement targeting engine that selects a viewing user from a set of candidate viewing users specified by the endorsing user, the selecting based on targeting criteria and a relationship between the viewing user and the endorsing user in the social networking system; and   a user interface generation engine that sends the advertisement for display to the selected viewing user.