Patent ID: 8504423

Claim:
A method of marketing products or services by a merchant to customers on-line, comprising: receiving, by a server, from a participating merchant, data defining marketing campaigns, announcements, coupons, or other messages to be distributed to one or more distinct social networks in which a given customer of the merchant is a member; receiving, by the server, from the customer, registration information including a unique identifier associated with the customer for use in purchase transactions; receiving, by the server, from the customer, a selection of one or more distinct social networks of which the customer is a member and has a corresponding profile or message board page on each of the distinct social networks, and to which certain marketing campaigns, announcements, coupons, or other messages defined by the merchant are to be distributed; receiving, by the server, from the customer, a selection of one or more of the announcements, coupons, or other messages defined by the merchant for distribution to the one or more of the distinct social networks selected by the customer; receiving, by the server, transaction data associated with a purchase by the customer from a transaction source, including the unique identifier associated with the customer; and transmitting, by the server, and in response to the receiving of the unique identifier in the transaction data, one or more of the announcements, coupons, or other messages selected by the customer to each of the distinct social networks selected by the customer, to be displayed on the corresponding profile or message board page of the customer on each of the selected social networks for viewing by friends or followers of the customer on the networks.