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FACEBOOK GRAPH SEARCH!!IMPLICATIONS FOR BRAND PAGES

A Blast Radius POV David Jones VP, Strategy-Social 2013-1-15

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— On January 15, Facebook held an event at its headquarters to unveil its latest enhanced feature: Facebook Graph Search. This feature is in beta in the US and will be rolled out to the public on as yet unknown timetable. Amid rampant speculation that the social network was launching a phone, buying RIM, buying NetFlix, enhancements to its search functionality were perceived as the least sexy revelation based on Facebook’s Apple-esque teaser invitation sent out to the week prior.

FACEBOOK LAUNCHES NEW SEARCH FEATURE IN BETA

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— Facebook’s native search abilities have been terribly underpowered and under-engineered since the site hit the mainstream in 2006. The launch of Graph Search is an evolutionary leap that will allow individual Facebook users to better organize the data created by their social graph (friends, friends of friends, pages they like, groups they’ve joined, etc.) Essentially, this is the advent of social search within the Facebook environment and will allow users to find content (photos, videos, etc.) and social signals (likes, check-ins, etc.) sent by the nodes of their personal networks. The search is intuitive and powered by natural language with the ability to refine searches by easily selectable filters.

WHAT IS FACEBOOK GRAPH SEARCH?

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— Since the beta is not available for review as yet, the following information has been culled from the live demo Facebook gave and other documentation Facebook has publically shared: Search results for users Pages will be displayed in the context of a user’s social graph with a large amount of filtering options to refine results on the fly. (See screenshots on following pages). Search results for Page admins There appears to be no enhanced search for Page admins to discover any additional insights about their page followers. As of right now, the search function is aimed specifically at individual Facebook users and not brands or Page admins. Paid Media No additional paid media or targeting capabilities were announced, though “sponsored search results”, which were launched in August 2012, are anticipated to be a part of the rollout. Content Facebook has implied that photos/videos should be uploaded directly to the Page to ensure they are indexed correctly in search. For Pages who use third-party sites to host images (Flickr, Instagram) or videos (YouTube, Vimeo), it would seem that this content is at risk to not show up in Graph Search.

IMPLICATIONS FOR BRAND PAGES

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— GRAPH SEARCH RESULT – CATEGORY-BASED

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— GRAPH SEARCH RESULT – LOCATION BASED

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— GRAPH SEARCH - FILTERS

Photo credit: www.TheVerge.com

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— Pages shouldn’t stray from their current strategy of increasing the volume of likes and engagement on their pages. This currently determines the visibility of the Page in user’s newsfeeds and will continue to do so in the future. There is no reason to believe that this will change as a result of the improvements to Facebook search. 1.  Review Page’s administrative content

•  Ensure you have your vanity URL •  Ensure you’ve categorized the page correctly •  Ensure the “About” content is complete and accurate •  Add location details

2.  Review content strategy •  Consider existing content strategy and posting cadence to ensure that engagement continues to grow. •  Review photo/video hosting and/or uploading protocol

3.  Continue recruiting •  Continue to add likes to your Page organically and through targeted use of Facebook media units

4.  Foster interaction •  Use Facebook media to increase engagement for your top content.

WHAT BRAND PAGES SHOULD DO NEXT

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— Facebook: Graph Search: https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch Blog Post: http://www.facebook-studio.com/news/item/introducing-graph-search-help-people-discover-your-business Brand Pages: https://www.facebook.com/business/news#jan15 Media coverage: TheVerge.com Live Blog: http://live.theverge.com/facebook-see-what-were-building-event/ TheVerge.com Post: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/15/3879520/facebook-tackles-google-linkedin-yelp-graph-search

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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