Facebook's Graph Search

It has been just over one month since Facebook made the announcement that Graph Search would be coming. Originally speculated as being Facebook's answer to a search engine, these rumours were quickly put to rest by Facebook co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg himself.

“Graph search is not web search, it’s about graphing our part of the web.”                  - Mark Zuckerberg   

In demonstrations, Zuckerberg and the tool’s creators showed how you can use ‘Graph Search’ to dig through the massive amounts of information on the site to find exactly who or what you want to find. The tool essentially allows you to put natural queries into a search engine to make it easier to dig information out of the site. The searches will initially be limited to people, places, interests and photos, but posts and status messages will be searchable this way as well at some point in the future.

But how will Facebook Graph Search affect businesses? 

Thanks to the roll-out of a beta test we are able to find out. After spending several weeks on the waiting list, my account was granted access. After logging into Facebook one morning, I noticed that Graph Search had replaced the previous search function that appears in each accounts news feed.

By clicking within the search area, the user is met with various suggestions on how to begin their search.  

As a user, the first thing you notice is the ease in which the search algorithm guides you through what you are wanting to find. For instance, a search for 'People who are fans of KFC NZ' is text-predictive and quickly takes you to an analysis of the KFC NZ fan base. 

From here the user is able to further delve into the KFC NZ fan base through the 'Refine this search' and 'Extend this search' functions, as shown to the right in the image above. By going to 'More pages they like' the user can then see pages which have the highest crossover with KFC NZ.

It doesn't take very long to get familiar with how to use the search function and from here the user is able to go as in-depth as they wish. Searching the KFC NZ fan base for fans based in New Zealand can be used across a variety of categories, such as the below image which shows the top two athletes that are liked by KFC NZ fans. 

In addition to searching these categories, direct searches can also be done. This means that a Marketing Manager can use Facebook to see if there is a strong correlation between customers (Facebook fans) and an upcoming promotional opportunity (e.g. movie releases, sports teams, concerts etc.). Although early days yet, Graph Search does have benefits for businesses, albeit it is best suited to act as a guide to get to better know your customer base and should be considered an indicator for finding possible correlations as opposed to hard fact.          

- Luke