What will Graph Search mean to your business?
As a marketing strategist that’s a question I think about on behalf of my clients almost on an on-going basis. As a small businesses, or enterprise social media marketer it’s something you should probably be thinking about as well. With 90% of small businesses on facebook you’d be surprised to learn that only 1/3rd only make a post a couple times a week. Another 3rd want to spend even less time on social media. With Facebook’s new ‘graph search’ on its way, that’s something that’s going to need to change.
Assuming you want your local business to grow.
If you haven’t been filled in on what ‘Graph Search’ will allow, let’s start there. Facebook’s new graph search is going to allow Facebook’s 1 Billion+ members to easily and quickly find the best local businesses – according to their friends and other locals. Whether restaraunts, realtors, doctors, or carpenters: Facebook will highlight the services and businesses that your friends like, use, and engage with.
Don’t get left behind.
Graph search is a big deal – and a big shift for local search.
If you’re already on the social band wagon, that may not be enough when Graph search comes out. Presence, and ‘doing it just because everyone else is’ is not what it’s about. Now, it’s going to be about maximizing social visibility — social media optimization — just as smart businesses have worked for years on search engine optimization.
No likes?
It’ll be hard to appear in social search. Sure fake likes from users in Bangladesh might make you look good by perception but they’ll never translate to business because they won’t be truly local. Lots of likes but no interactions? Again, it’ll be hard to gain visibility when local people search for the best businesses. Facebook will be looking at a wide variety of social signals when determining what to show users in response to their queries.
What’ll work?
Being active, having good content, and participating regularly are all key. Most importantly, engaging with your customers and getting them to interact with you will increase your visibility. Businesses that have dedicated themselves to growing a loyal, responsive fanbase by both doing remarkable work and being active in engaging local people via Facebook are best positioned to win at the new social media optimization.
On the other hand..
If you’re part of the 1/3rd who rarely engage on your Facebook page, or the other 1/3rd who could care less about social media and wants to spend less time on it, then it’s probably a good idea to contact someone who can help, and take care of all this stuff for you.
Ideally, someone who has more than a few years of experience under their belt in the field of Social Media Marketing, but also understands the important subtleties that make SEO work regardless of any update that comes along. Most importantly of course – someone who can meld these two skillsets and set of tasks into a powerful Social Media Optimization campaign to have your business on the top of every result your local audience will be searching for.
Someone like.. this guy. 😉 Hope this helps.
Kevin is an Online and Mobile Marketing Strategist who has worked with companies of all sizes over the last 6 years. You can follow Kevin on any of the social platforms below.
