Systems and methods for tracking virality of media content

Abstract

Various of the disclosed embodiments concern systems and methods for tracking virality and social lift of media content. In some embodiments, an analytics engine creates and tags URLs to media content using generation codes, time codes, or both. The codes and their respective values allow the analytics engine to determine whether trends or patterns exist in how media content is viewed and shared. The generation codes and time codes can be used instead of, or in addition to, conventional UTM codes. The generation code, time code, or both, can be used to determine which segments (e.g., generations, time periods) of viewers generate a profit, subsequent viewers, etc. For example, the analytics engine can determine when an advertising campaign for a piece of media content should be terminated, rather than simply indicating whether the campaign should continue.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for tracking virality of media content, the method comprising:
 creating a generation code that is used to track viewer characteristics and includes a generation value;   tagging a link to a piece of media content with the generation code;   setting the generation value to an initial value;   allowing a viewer to view and share the piece of media content;   incrementing the generation value if the viewer elects to share the piece of media content with others; and   sorting all viewers of the piece of media content into generations, wherein generation value is used to determine the generation of each viewer.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generation value identifies how many times the piece of media has been shared prior to being viewed by the viewer. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generations represent a viral lifespan of the piece of media content. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the initial value is zero if the viewer is targeted directly by a creator of media content or a host of media content. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 tagging the link to the piece of media content with one or more Urchin Traffic Monitor (UTM) codes.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating a count of viewers in each of the generations; and   tracking viral lift of the piece of media content by identifying changes in the counts across successive generations.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating a count of viewers in each of the generations; and   constructing a visual representation of count against generation.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the visual representation is a line graph. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 attributing each viewer to a source and a previous generation using the generation code and the one or more UTM codes.   
     
     
         10 . A system for tracking virality of media content, the system comprising:
 a storage medium that is communicatively coupled to a computer processor and includes media content; and   the computer processor, the computer processor configured to:
 create a generation code that includes a generation value of “N,” wherein “N” is an integer value; 
 tag a link to a piece of media content within the storage medium with the generation code; 
 allow a viewer to view the piece of media content and share the piece of media content with others; and 
 tag, if the viewer elects to share the piece of media content, an updated link with an updated generation code, wherein the updated generation code includes an updated generation value of “N+1.” 
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the computer processor is further configured to:
 create a plurality of generations, wherein each of the plurality of generations corresponds to a particular generation value.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein “N” is zero if the viewer is directly targeted by an advertising campaign. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the computer processor is further configured to:
 generate a count of viewers in each of the plurality of generations.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the computer processor is further configured to:
 generate a chart that visually represents virality of the piece of media content.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the chart visually compares the virality of the piece of media content to virality of at least one other piece of media content. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the piece of media content is a quiz. 
     
     
         17 . A method for tracking virality of media content, the method comprising:
 creating a first generation code that includes a first generation value of “N,” wherein “N” is an integer value;   tagging a first link to a piece of media content with the first generation code;   allowing a viewer to view the piece of media content and share the piece of media content with others;   if the viewer elects to share the piece of media content,
 creating a second generation code that includes a second generation value; 
 tagging a second link to the piece of media content with the second generation code; and 
 updating the second generation value to be “N+1.” 
   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the first generation code is represented by a first unique identifier in a first uniform resource locator (URL) targeted by the first link, and the second generation code is represented by a second unique identifier in a second URL targeted by the second link. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier correspond to storage locations in a lookup database. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the lookup database further includes at least one UTM code value for each of the first unique identifier and the second unique identifier.