Facebook’s Graph Search is set to unfold in 2013, and the new search engine could change the way people seek out and refer services.
Graph Search takes advantage of the vast amount of information Facebook has stored and tagged on the 800 million or so people who use its service. Unlike web search, designed to take any open-ended query and present you with a series of links, Graph Search is designed to take a specific query and direct searches to people, places or Pages that already exist on Facebook.
Facebook’s push for a human search engine encourages professional service firms to create a community around their business. The more companies engage with their audience using photos, groups and events, the more likely they are to appear in Graph search. Gathering ‘likes’ on your page may pay tremendous dividends when those 50 or 100 “likes” now reach a wider audience looking to fill a need.
Whether Graph Search becomes one of Facebook’s most valuable assets or biggest flops depends on users’ willingness to migrate their searches away from Google or Bing to a social media search engine. As social media becomes an accepted part of the professional services marketing mix, Facebook Graph Search may be a cost-effective way of attracting prospective clients to your firm.
-By Berbay Marketing Assistant Alex Giraldo
