Tag Archives: graph search

Facebook Graph Search: Local Opportunities & Tips to Increase Fan Engagement for Brands

Posted on January 31, 2013 by | 2 Comments

fb-graph-search-infographicGraph Search is rolling out amongst Facebook users, and brands are scrambling to figure out what to do.  While this new functionality for Facebook users doesn’t extend to brands — meaning that operators of brand pages on Facebook won’t be able to use Graph Search to find out more about their fans — nonetheless, it still spells opportunity for brands, especially for local businesses (or local locations of national businesses) and for brands catering to special interests.    In those cases, word of mouth and personal recommendations are particularly useful, and being able to see the brands and organizations your friends like could be helpful.    I agree with Max Gladwell’s assessment of the import of Facebook presences for local businesses, in his HuffPo article titled “Graph Search Optimization: What Facebook’s Social Search Means for Brands,”

“Facebook is giving local pages an equal voice on the social graph. This means that local pages are every bit as important and likely to surface as a brand page. In particular, it means that mobile is elevating local pages to the same stature as brand pages because this is how consumers engage at the local level.”

It’s also important to think about how people use a social network.   In my view, Facebook isn’t a decision engine.  People use it to share personal experiences, and to check in on each others’ lives.   So the trick for brands on Facebook will be to double down on local presences, and encourage sharing amongst their friends and customers, but to do so in a way that is fun, compelling and inherently social.   Here are some ideas.

A local tack shop rewards their 'top fans' with a $10 gift certificate each month.

A local tack shop rewards their ‘top fans’ with a $10 gift certificate each month, which they publicize on (where else!) their Facebook page.

Offer your Facebook friends some real utility or entertainment when they become your brand’s fans on Facebook.  Special offers and early-bird alerts about new products or special sales are popular.   Curate and share interesting content to stay top-of-mind with your audience.

Strengthen local ties by partnering with local charities or civic groups, and (of course) using Facebook to solicit ideas, feedback, involvement and support.    Done well, this will increase visibility within your geographic footprint.

I have yet to walk Ambrosia, a patisserie near my home, and not snap a picture of the extravagant pastries they have on display just inside the front door -- and I promptly upload the pics to Facebook, prompting oohs and aahs amongst my friends (and now the readers of this blog.)

I have yet to walk Ambrosia, a patisserie near my home, and not snap a picture of the extravagant pastries they have on display just inside the front door — and I promptly upload the pics to Facebook, prompting oohs and aahs amongst my friends (and now the readers of this blog.)

Create compelling content opportunities for your brand’s fans, by setting up real-life opportunities.  Everyone’s armed with a cell phone.  Get creative with displays – people take and share photos of thing that have a ‘wow’ factor.  Create other opportunities for people to take pictures and share them on Facebook.  And while you’re at it, don’t forget to take and share pictures the brand’s page as well.

If your brand has physical locations, cultivate your Foursquare presence by offering check-in specials and a nice deal for your “mayor.”    Foursquare users often share their activity on Facebook.  Just be sure that on-site staff are trained and are aware of fulfilling check-in deals.

As is always the case when developing strategies for social networks, it’s important to put your audience first.  Spend some time looking at your fans’ behavior, noticing what sort of content they really seem to like and share.  You can also go into your Facebook Insights dashboard for your brand page, and look at “post level” data.  This data actually reveals which posts on your wall generated the most interaction.   Use that information to inform the type of content you post in the future, and keep building on what content is most successful (and appreciated by your Fans,) because those interactions are the ultimate drivers of a brand’s success on Facebook.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

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Facebook Graph Search – what’s not to Like?

Posted on January 17, 2013 by | 1 Comment

fbgsOn January 15 Facebook announced Facebook Graph Search, a search engine that uses interactions between users and content on Facebook to produce relevant search results.  Those who work with data from social media will know that the potential of Facebook’s social graph is mind-boggling. What Graph Search does is make the data in Facebook more accessible so it can used to understand customers, prospects or stakeholders better, and build relationships that are more mutually beneficial.

How Graph Search works is covered on many other blogs and in Facebook’s own announcement.  I haven’t had access to Graph Search yet, although I’ve submitted my request to be included in the beta.  Nonetheless, I’d like to speculate how PROs and marketers might use it, so here are a few searches that might be interesting for businesses with a presence on Facebook to try out:

  • What photos do people who have liked my page like?
  • What photos do people who have liked my page commented on?
  • What do people who like my company like?
  • What do people who like my competitors like?
  • What do people who like specific industry experts comment on?

How would you use these searches?  Maybe for ideas for blog posts, press releases, infographics or even product ideas?  If you’re hiring then Facebook also has potential to help you identify candidates.  Try a few of these:

  • Who has worked for Company X and Company Y?
  • Who works for Company Z and lives in my city?
  • Who went to a specific university or college and is interested in, say, PR?
  • etc.

In their announcement Facebook provides other examples of searches that include:

  • software engineers who live in San Francisco and like skiing
  • people who like tennis and live nearby
  • photos of my friends before 1999
  • cities visited by my family
  • Indian restaurants liked by my friends from India
  • books read by CEOs
  • friends of friends who have been to Yosemite National Park

Note that last one. It will be very interesting to see if the friends of friends search also includes the ability to search across  friends of those who like an organization’s page.

Initially Graph Search is focusing on people, photos, places, and interests, but even with just those to search on the permutations are many and varied, and finding the right questions to ask will be crucial.  (Organizing an awards ceremony and you want to make sure you provide music most people will enjoy?  Ask Graph Search what music people who like your event page listen to.)

In a stroke Facebook has multiplied the value of a Like or a comment for businesses.  Before Graph Search these might have been nice-to-haves for many, a measurable but not very tangible metric for social media campaigns.  Now they are vital signals in Facebook’s search algorithms that are likely to spawn a whole new algorithm-chasing field of Facebook Optimization (FBO?).  Of course all this speculation is entirely dependent on the quality of a user’s Like, but if you have genuine fans who genuinely follow your company then the Graph is going to pay you back many times for your best-practice social media engagement.

So how relevant is this to businesses really?  In particular B2B businesses.  Won’t all the search results be about people’s personal stuff?  And won’t people have privacy issues with marketers or others tapping in to their streams?  Isn’t this just spooky, if not outright scary?

From a privacy perspective, the lines between personal and public on Facebook are very blurry and people are understandably sensitive to perceived invasions of their privacy. This makes it all the more important for organizations to be clear on their policies regarding privacy and social media and to deal with questions on this topic as openly and honestly as possible.

It’s certainly not the only way to find out what your customers and prospects are interested in, and it should never be your only source, but Graph Search has the potential to provide a unique perspective.

Is it relevant to all organizations? Absolutely.  This has been positioned by Facebook as a beta product, so we should expect it to change, possibly radically, over the next year.  But if your organization doesn’t have a Facebook page and isn’t seeking to build relationships on Facebook, then you should seriously think about doing something about that.

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