Facebook introduced the new Graph Search, a term derived from social graphs and search. This new feature is a long leap from the old Facebook search and takes personalized search to a whole new level. In this post I will help you discover 7 ways in which Graph Search can impact your business.
Here’s what the Facebook Help Center says about it:
“Graph search lets you search for more than you’ve been able to find before… For example, you can search for friends of your friends in a new city you’ve moved to, look up photos by classmates from a specific time period, or see photos friends and others have shared with you from famous landmarks.”
In this blog post we will take you through 7 new features of the Facebook Graph Search and tell you how they can prove to be a great marketing tool for your business.
1 Wikipedia Information:
For all search results, the Graph Search shows a snippet of information from Wikipedia. This is helpful because it can give your customers a quick overview of who you are and what you do. Not only that, it can also give insight about your business in general.
Take-away: Your business’s interests should be well-defined and it wouldn’t hurt to recheck what Wikipedia says about you.
2 Claimed Territory:
The Graph Search shows results for businesses by listing their fan pages and locations. This also helps users search for restaurants, hotels, shops etc. in their vicinity. The more localized pages a business has, the easier it will be for customers to find them.
Take-away: Claim your pages and check-in locations and remove any duplicate listings.
For example, users can get results for searches as specific as “restaurants in London my friends have been to”. This will show them a list of restaurants where their friends have checked in.
3 About You:
Since Facebook’s Graph Search relies heavily on the information you provide, it is imperative that you immediately update your contacts and “About Me” information. This will help Facebook list more accurate information about you so customers can find you easily.
Take-away: Make sure that the phone numbers or URLs you’ve posted are updated and that your About Me information is optimized for search results.
4 Focus on Conversion:
The Graph Search shows users to which of their friends have checked in to places, liked the pages or reviewed the listings. In short, it will show them exactly how popular you are within their circle of friends. Search results will be specific so you can shift your focus on conversion more than awareness. Your customers will become your brand advocates more than ever before.
Take-away: Encourage fans to like your page, share photos, check-in to your brick-and-mortar presence, review your products and spread the word.
5 Personalised Content:
The Graph Search feature will display extremely personalised results depending on the profile information of the users, their circle of friends and their interests. Businesses with local pages can benefit the most out of this because Graph Search will redirect users to pages with relative content rather than the brand’s corporate page.
Take-away: If you haven’t considered localizing your marketing strategy, you should definitely consider it now. Local pages, content in local languages, cultural interests and values all come into play with the Graph Search.
6 Intersecting Interests:
The Graph Search curates search results based on commonalities and links in the data from multiple users. It will be easier for friends with similar interests to find each other and find other people as well.
Take-away: Make sure your business has a strong presence in the conversations where your customers are bound to be checking. Build your brand’s digital reputation well and you’ll see the tangible results in Graph Search.
7 Paid Ads Prediction:
The Facebook Graph Search is still in beta phase and users can see a sample search result and request to join in here. It is yet to see whether Facebook users quickly adapt to this technology or reject it altogether. But if all goes well, the Graph Search could be integrated into Bing searches which can open opportunities for paid advertising.
In conclusion, Facebook Graph Search can mean improved audience reaches for your business. Personalized search results can get your message delivered to the right people at the right time. Businesses will have to put in some effort to utilize its full potential, though. For starters, contact and about information should be highly accurate and up-to-date. Next, you need tangible likes, reviews, shares and check-ins to rise higher in the search results. Last, but not the least, your content should be focused on converting leads to sales.
We hope the Graph Search helps your company graph go higher. Have you joined the waiting list yet? Let us know in the comments below!
