While Facebook is the massive juggernaut of social media, businesses have had difficulty figuring out how to put the site to work. But with the introduction of Graph Search, Facebook launches a new chapter, with big new implications for business.
Facebook ads start making sense. Businesses have difficulty putting Facebook to work because individuals don't come to Facebook to work.
To understand the problem, consider Facebook's big competitor, Google.
When individuals run searches on Google -- or any other search engine -- they are very often looking to buy something, which makes search a natural place for businesses to buy ads. A person searching on the word "refrigerator," for example, is likely ready to spend some money on a refrigerator.
But on Facebook, people aren't looking to spend money. They just want to hang out. And so advertisers buy ads on Facebook to enhance their brand -- make potential customers feel good about the company -- rather than buying search ads, which result in hard conversions right away.
This is the same business model used in TV advertising and on other media. But it's an ad model that businesses have been slow to embrace on the Internet, and Facebook and other social media have had to work hard to demonstrate value.
But that all changes with Facebook Graph Search. An individual running a search on "Restaurants nearby that my friends like" is probably hungry and ready to spend money.
(By the way, that restaurant search, and all the other searches mentioned in this blog, really work on Facebook. I got Graph Search activated this week, and I tested the searches out.)
Graph Search is a way to learn about customers. Using Graph Search, businesses can run complicated permutations using simple natural language. For example, you can find "pages liked by people who like Doctor Who," or "music liked by people who like Starbucks."
"There are infinite permutations that could help businesses determine what type of content to share with fans, what new audience to reach out to, what type of music would resonate with consumers in a commercial, who might serve as a good celebrity endorser and more," writes Brittany Darwell at Inside Facebook. "The social network also offers suggestions for related pages and searches, which could lead marketers and advertisers to discover additional insights."
It's potentially a LinkedIn competitor. Do a search on "People who like Hadoop and who live in New York," or "People who like Microsoft SQL Server and who live in Des Moines," and you can see the recruitment possibilities.
It's a security risk. Or a source of competitor information. Facebook advises journalists to use Graph Search to find sources for stories: "For example, say you're doing a story on a specific company and you're looking to interview someone who works at the company in their New York office, you could do this by searching for 'People who work at ACME Inc. in New York' to find potential employees to reach out to."
That's great for nosy-parker journalists (like me!), not so great for the VP Communications at ACME Corp. And the same tools are available to ACME's competitors.
What potential business applications -- and risks -- do you see for Facebook Graph Search? Let us know.
Linked-In used to have a unique personality, and the connections were based on actually knowing the other person. I don't feel that is true any longer; LI has become a slightly more focused version of Facebook. I get as much junk mail from one as from the other; I get asked to 'join my network' or 'friend' users by just as many people at each venue, just as often by people I don't know.
I've rejected free trial upgrades on LI several times, and I may be missing out on some of its capabability. I'm not interested in paying for subscriptions to just about anything, and LI would probably not be my top choice if I were to make an exception.
LI does seem a bit better about apps. FB has a huge number of apps that want you to send on your entire contact list to them so they can bother your friends. I hate that.
Social sites are a necessary evil for me. I really stil don't like them.
Of course, LI won't sit around idly, either, and no doubt is reworking and extending its capabilities
@Alison, FB's advantage is huge database which it has collected from users which means search results are more relevant. It would be interesting to see what steps LI will take inorder to compete against FB's graph search.
@Anand, I haven't put Facebook Graph Search through its paces yet, but I'd think it will potentially impact LinkedIn. Of course, LI won't sit around idly, either, and no doubt is reworking and extending its capabilities, too! There's some cross-over between the markets and, from a marketing perspective FB's new tool is fascinating from what I've read.
@Mitch, thanks for the post. No doubt Facebook Graph search will be of help to businesses and users but it also brings more opportunities for scammers and potential embarrassment for people who are careless about their privacy settings.
Having used LinkedIn's advanced search capabilities extensively for the past couple of years, I know just how powerful it can be.
@Alison, I totally agree with you. LinkedIn's advance search is very useful to both employees looking for job and employers looking for candidates to fill the job. Do you think Facebooks graph search will have any impact on the linkedIn's business ?
In my experience, every time Facebook introduces something they seem to break two other previously working things.
This post on Develop in the Cloud covers some of the cons of Graph other than the security risk Mitch mentions. Essentially, the information pulled has been less impressive than first thought as well as the usual privacy issues.
But really, we should all be used to this by now. It seems every feature Facebook introduces breaks two things, violates privacy and makes reclaiming the existing privacy more difficult, introduces a new security risk and doesn't live up to its hype.
Still, I think the Graph does mean a lot of opportunities to certain industries using Facebook.
Having used LinkedIn's advanced search capabilities extensively for the past couple of years, I know just how powerful it can be. The interesting component of FB is that people are looser, more open to discussing their personal lives, since LinkedIn has always positioned itself as a professional networking site and FB has always been marketed and used as more of a personal space.
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