It’s about time!

In the ever changing world of social media, Facebook has announced a new component–“Graph Search.” No, you don’t have to dig out your old high school graph paper to be able to use it.

Graph Search is Facebook’s new way of being able to search within Facebook instead of doing a public online search. With the new Graph Search, you can connect with your friends, friends. You can use regular search phrases, but it makes things a little more personal. You can search for friends of friends who have been to Italy and restaurants they like. Or, friends of friends who are bicyclists. The possibilities are endless.

Graph Search for Your Business

Of course with new additions to such big social media sites like Facebook, there are also questions. How can you utilize the new Graph Search in your social media marketing? Here are a few thoughts that come to mind:

• You can find people who are interested in your product or services by using search phrases you would use on Google. However, these people will already be connected to you through one of your friends. So, it’s not a cold call.
• You can use Graph Search as a way to see what your own friends are posting about. What their interests are that may be the same as yours. Remember, social media is all about building relationships.
• You can use keywords in your posts, photos and videos that you know other Graph Searchers are using. This will help attract them to your brand.
• Lets say your niche is a certain age group or former CEO’s. You can use Graph Search to look for people in that age range with your niche keywords.

Where to Find More About Graph Search

You can log into your Facebook account and go to http://www.facebook.com/graphsearch. Here you will find all the new information about privacy and how to use it. Graph Search results will be different for everyone based on your privacy settings. So, make sure you look at your Facebook privacy settings.

Now, Graph Search is not widely available yet. You can sign up to be in a beta test group. However, at some point we will all be forced over to it, so it’s good to learn about it now.

How do you think the new Graph Search will affect social media marketing?