Can Facebook Graph Benefit You?

The launch of the Facebook Graph search has sprung into a heavy debate between Facebook users and advertisers alike, some worried about how it will affect their privacy and others more concerned with how it will affect their online business and internet marketing strategy. So what is this provoking feature introduced by Mark Zuckerberg? What will it mean for users? And furthermore, what will it mean for advertisers?

What is the Facebook Graph?

The Facebook graph is simply a new way of searching. It delivers your search results in a different way than search engines where it doesn’t use keywords to detect relevant pages for the user, but instead uses networks and connections the user already has to deliver the results. These connections might include friends, interests, likes, or other settings which are unique to each user.

How Can Facebook Users Make the Most of it?

At the moment, Facebook Graph is in its early stages just as Facebook was when it first launched. Currently, you will be able to launch searches using your profile by entering enquiries related to likes, interests, people, places, friends and photos. This will later develop into more sophisticated searches such as archived wall posts etc.

The way that it will help you as a Facebook user is that it will streamline and save you time in your searches. Rather than having to route through a friend’s profile to find his or her likes you can enter “[Friend’s name]’s favourite TV show” or something more general “Friends who like Disney films” and so on.

It is a personalised feature which enables the Facebook user to have searches that relate to them – and every search will be unique just as every profile is.

What Does This New Tool Mean for Advertisers?

For SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), the Graph Search tool could have big implications for the future. It could mean that visibility for your brand, products or services may be able to improve when used correctly. The optimisation rules will inevitably totally different to Google or any other search engine, but it is a market worth tapping into just for the sheer volume of users that login to Facebook every day (approx. 250 million).

To make the most of this tool for advertisers, businesses need to make sure they take Facebook advice. Apparently the search will return the top search suggestions such as apps, Pages, people,  groups, places or suggested searches.

Facebook says: “People can search for things like restaurants near them, hotels in places they want to travel to, photos posted by Pages they like, or games that their friends like to play.”

Want to learn more about Graph?  Click here to check out the information provided by Facebook and even join the waiting list to try it out!