Incentive optimization for social media marketing campaigns

A method performed on at least one computer processor, said method comprising:

• creating a marketing campaign comprising a target website and a plurality of links to said target website, said marketing campaign further comprising a first set of incentives for said users to propagate said marketing campaign within an online social network;
• distributing said links to a group of users, said users being members of said online social network;
• generating a predicted distribution pattern for said marketing campaign by simulating said marketing campaign using a model comprising incentives for said users to propagate said marketing campaign in said social network;
• monitoring distribution of said marketing campaign within said online social network to generate actual distribution results;
• comparing said actual distribution results to said predicted distribution pattern and generating a second set of incentives for said marketing campaign;
• and
• changing said first set of incentives to said second set of incentives for said marketing campaign.

A system comprising:

• a social marketing simulator executing a social distribution model for an advertising campaign;
• said social distribution model comprising a set of directed nodes modeling influence of user towards other users, said model further comprising a probability of recommending for each user towards other users, said probability having an incentive as an input to said probability, said model further comprising types of users and a set of incentives and probability of recommending based on each of said types of users;
• a user database comprising actual users, said actual users being assigned at least one of said types of users;
• a social marketing campaign manager that:
• creates a marketing campaign for a product, said marketing campaign defining an initial set of incentives for said types of users;
• transmits said initial set of incentives to said social marketing simulator to simulate said social marketing campaign and to return a first optimized set of incentives;
• and
• launching said marketing campaign using said first optimized set of incentives.