(image: https://www.superdream.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Graph-Search.jpg alt: Facebook Graph Search)
**After months of speculation, Facebook finally unveiled its ‘big announcement’ on Tuesday 15th January. Would it be a smart phone? An update to the controversial (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/timeline-for-business-pages-is-your-brand-ready/ text: Timeline profile)? Or a search engine to steal Google’s crown?**
In a presentation, founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the hotly anticipated new feature to a fair bit of confusion, and a lot of split opinions.
(link: https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch text: Graph Search) is being daubed the ‘third pillar’ of Facebook after Timeline and News Feed. The new feature allows users to sift through people, places, photos, and interests completely transforming the way we use the social network.
While Graph Search is still in beta at the moment, the tests we’ve seen allow you to make a precise query – “restaurants in Birmingham by friends have visited” for example – and give you the exact answer based on your friends’ Facebook activity.
And if this feature doesn’t have the answer?
By default, it will refer you to Google’s biggest rival Bing to help with your query.
**But what about business pages?**
All this, from a user’s point of view, could prove to be really useful.
But how can your business page make the most of Facebook’s latest update? Are there any benefits? Or will your company page be left out?
If you want to get the most out of Graph Search, you will need to optimise your business page for the new feature. You want your page to show up for as many relevant searches as possible, which means taking the time to update all your information.
Include your business address and postcode, so customers can find you by location. You should also make sure you have opening hours, contact details, and a completed profile. All this will work towards helping your gain visibility in the graph.
You should also use page interaction to aid your optimisation.
Try and boost the number of ‘likes’ on your page by posting a variety of content – share a variety of text based updates, links, videos, images, and even polls. All this will boost the number of people ‘talking about’ your page, and help grow your (link: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9770-facebook-edgerank-what-marketers-need-to-know text: Edgerank and influence).
There are other ways we’d suggest optimising your Facebook business page.
If you own a local restaurant for example, encourage diners to check in when they visit. This will improve the visibility of your page when users search for eateries their friends have visited. You should also ask people to leave a recommendation on your page, as this can only boost your visibility.
**What’s next?**
Until Graph Search goes live for everyone, it remains unclear exactly what impact it will have. What we do know though, is that Facebook’s latest feature is sure to transform the world of (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/digital/social-media-marketing/ text: social media marketing).
If you’d like to know more about how you can optimise your Facebook page, (link: https://www.superdream.co.uk/contact/ text: speak to a member of the team today).