Patent ID: 8438062

Claim:
A method for displaying advertisements to members of a network, the method comprising: identifying, by a computer, a community within a network, wherein the community comprises a plurality of members of the network, wherein at least two members of the plurality of members are linked to each other directly and wherein at least two members of the plurality of members are linked to each other indirectly, wherein the at least two indirectly linked members are each linked to a common member of the plurality of members; determining a weight of the community based on a quantity of direct links among the members of the community and a quantity of indirect links among the members of the community; for each member of the community, determining a respective score of influence by determining a change between the weight of the community when the member is included in the community and a weight of the community when the member is excluded from the community; ranking, by the computer, each of the plurality of members included in the community, wherein a rank of a member is based on the member's score of influence; identifying, by the computer, a plurality of influencers in the community, wherein the plurality of influencers are members of the community with highest ranks; and associating, by the computer, advertisements with the profiles of the plurality of influencers, wherein a quantity of advertisements associated with an influencer's profile depends upon a rank of the influencer in the community.