17 Ways Marketers Can Leverage Facebook Graph Search

What Can I Do With Facebook Graph Search?

With Graph Search, you can do much more than meets the eye.

Facebook Page owners can use Graph Search to:

• Identify their own fans
• Learn about favorite interests and hobbies of fans
• Identify employees of a business who have liked a business’s Facebook Page
• Identify interests of competitors’ fans
• Identify potential business partnerships
• Improve the quality of Facebook contests

Examples of Facebook search queries.

To help you dig deeper into what Facebook Graph Search can do for you, here are 17 ways you can use Facebook Graph Search queries to improve your Facebook marketing.

Note: To use these Graph Search query examples in your own searches, replace the bold text in all caps with the Facebook Page, location, etc., that you’re looking for.

Build Your Personal Network

Here’s an easy way to grow your personal network on Facebook by connecting with people you know from work.

#1: Find Colleagues to Connect With

Graph Search will show you people who aren’t your friends who like a particular Page.

This can help you find colleagues whom you’ve met but haven’t connected with on Facebook and grow your personal network. Remember that your friend request should always include a note that helps your colleague place you with where you met—an experience, a conference, etc.

• Facebook Search Query: People who are not my friend who like PAGE NAME
  

  Example of people who are not my friends who like Mashable.

Build Your Page Audience

Here are two searches you can use to build your Page audience.

#2: Find Friends Who Like Your Page

While you can go to your Facebook Page, click on See Likes and spend hours searching for your individual friends who like your Page, Facebook Graph Search offers an easier, quicker way to identify them.

Compare the results of this query with your friends list to target friends who haven’t liked your Page with a personalized message to invite them to check your Page out.

• Facebook Search Query: My friends who like PAGE NAME
  

  The old way of identifying your friends who like a particular Facebook Page.
  

  The new way of identifying friends who like a particular Facebook Page.

#3: Network Within Facebook Groups Based on Shared Interests

Search for groups of people who have an interest related to your business Page and join a relevant group to interact with.

The basic rules of participating in groups apply here, so don’t blast everyone with self-promotional links. Be helpful, and if it’s appropriate in the context of a conversation,share a link to your Page with the group at large, which will grow your fan base.

• Facebook Search Query: Groups of people who like TOPIC and like PAGE NAME
  

  Example of groups of people who like Mexican food and also like the Christian Karasiewicz Facebook Page.

Learn About Your Fans to Provide More Value

Here are a few searches to help you learn more about your fans. Use this information in your communication and provide more value to them.

#4: Find Your Fans’ Interests

Learn more about your fans without asking them to complete a survey.

If you find that a large number of your fans also like traveling, you can integrate related content into your editorial calendar.

• Facebook Search Query: Favorite interests of people who like PAGE NAME
  

  Examples of interests of people who like the P.F. Chang’s Facebook Page.

#5: Identify Pages Your Fans Like

Identify other pages your fans like to learn about new types of content you could share to keep fans coming back to your own Facebook Page.

• Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by people who like PAGE NAME

You can add additional pages to this search query by adding “and PAGE NAME” to the search query.

• Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by people who like PAGE NAME andPAGE NAME
  

  Facebook Pages that fans of Social Media Examiner like.

#6: Identify Pages Liked by Specific Fans

Locate the influencers in your fan base and search the Pages they like to learn about the other brands and businesses that influence them.

• Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by PERSON or PAGE
  

  Example of pages I like.

Find New Opportunities

Are you interested in delving deeper? Here’s a search to help you discover more opportunities.

#7: Compare Fan Bases to Identify New Prospect Markets

Quickly find out which of your fans also like related Facebook Pages.

Query fans who like your Page and the Pages of events or conferences. Narrow the next cycle of your presentation pitches to events or conferences with Pages that share a high percentage of your fan base.

• Facebook Search Query: Fans of PAGE NAME 1 and PAGE NAME 2
  

  A comparison of fans of one Facebook Page who also like another Page.

Attract New Customers

Use these two searches to help you discover potential new customers.

#8: Find Your Customers

If your business is in close proximity to a company or business, you can use Graph Search to find out which employees of that business like services or products related to yours.

Use the commonalities that are revealed to run a Targeted Facebook ad or create Facebook check-in deals to entice them to try out your establishment.

• Facebook Search Query: People who work at PLACE and like SOMETHING
  

  Example of people who work at Dell who also like Chinese restaurants.

#9: Reveal Intersecting Interests

Create different combinations of queries to learn more about the topics that interest your fans, the fans of colleagues or the fans of competitors.

A blog that hosts guest authors can use the search results to promote a guest author’s post using Facebook ad targeting.

This will improve your ad targeting and ensure you’re reaching the right Facebook fans with your Facebook ads.

• Facebook Search Query: Favorite interests of people who like PAGE NAME 1and PAGE NAME 2
  

  Example of interests of people who like Social Media Examiner and Mari Smith on Facebook.

Increase Brand Loyalty

This search can give you the insights you need to improve your brand loyalty.

#10: Identify Your Competitors

Find out where your customers do business when they aren’t doing business with you so you can focus your loyalty campaign.

• Facebook Search Query: TYPE OF BUSINESS in LOCATION visited by people who like PAGE NAME
  

  Example of restaurants located in Orlando, Florida visited by people who like TooJay’s restaurant.

Learn What Prizes Are Prized by Your Fans

Are you interested in learning more about what your fans like? These searches can help you find out more.

#11: Find Your Fans’ Interests

Prizes are an important part of any promotion. If the prize doesn’t appeal to your audience, your promotion will get very little play.

Search for the movies, music, sports teams, etc., that appeal most to your fans andchoose a contest prize that’s sure to pull entries.

• Facebook Search Query: Movies liked by people who like PAGE NAME
• Facebook Search Query: Favorite music of people who like PAGE NAME
• Facebook Search Query: Sports teams of people who like PAGE NAME
  

  Examples of movies liked by people who like AMC Theaters.

#12: Sort Your Fans’ Page Likes by Gender

Another way to make sure you have the right promotion prize is to find out which products will most interest a specific gender set within your Facebook fans by researching the other brand Pages they like.

• Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by GENDER who like PAGE NAME
  

  Example of Pages liked by women who like Paula Deen.

#13: Reveal Your Fans’ Page Likes by Age

Identify the average age of your own fans in your Facebook Insights and use it to find prizes or incentives that will appeal to a specific age demographicwithin your fan base.

• Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by people over the age of NUMBER who like PAGE NAME
  

  Search results for pages liked by people over 40 who also like the Christian Karasiewicz Facebook Page.

Build a Better App

Here’s how you can discover which games your fans play on Facebook.

#14: Build Your Game App

Before you build an app for a specific audience, find out what type of games have been most successful with them in the past to save valuable time and resources.

• Facebook Search Query: Games played by fans of PAGE NAME
  

  Facebook Graph Search query showing games played by fans of American Express.

Market by Proximity or Affinity

Are you interested in location marketing? Here’s an interesting search to use.

#15: Optimize for Location

If your business is located near museums and places that get lots of visitors such as the Washington Monument, make sure your business shows up when someone searches for businesses near them.

If you don’t show up under this query, run a Facebook ad that mentions the landmark or offer a check-in deal that will appeal to visitors who are close by.

• Facebook Search Query: Places near PLACE visited by people who like SOME ATTRACTION
  

  Example of places near Washington DC that were visited by people who like the Washington Monument.

Identify Brand Ambassadors

Do you want to identify potential brand ambassadors? You’ll find these searches useful.

#16: Find the Right Fan to Help You Spread a Specific Message

You can quickly identify fans of a specific age or from a specific region andreach out to them on behalf of your brand for help in sharing promotions, product launches, etc.

• Facebook Search Query: Fans of PAGE NAME over the age of NUMBER
• Facebook Search Query: Fans of PAGE NAME who live in COUNTRY
  

  Example of fans over the age of 50 who like Metamucil.

#17: Combine Facebook Graph Search Queries

While there are certainly a lot of different search queries, remember you cancombine queries to produce more detailed results.

Instead of using the basic query of ‘Fans who like PAGE NAME’, you can add terms to find the right fans you’re looking for.

Here’s an example of an improved Facebook Search Query: Fans who like PAGE NAME who live in STATE and are over the age of NUMBER.

Example of a combined search query for fans of Apple who live in California and are over the age of 32.

The Wrap-up

While Facebook search queries will identify traits of fans and Pages, there are a few things to remember.

• Facebook Graph Search doesn’t work on mobile (yet).
• You can’t sort the results of a search query.
• Facebook profile privacy settings can limit some results.

There are literally hundreds of possible search combinations and the information returned from them can be used to help you learn about your fans, improve your Facebook ad targeting, do market research and even create contests that your fans are more interested in.

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5 Tips to Enhance Your Facebook Graph Search Ranking

The first three steps outlined below are for entry-level Facebook Page admins. If you’re certain that you’re already implementing the most basic best practices, skip ahead to step four.

#1: Choose the Right Name

This sounds really obvious, but many businesses can’t help but cram lots of keywords in their name in the hopes of boosting searchability. This can backfire.

If you were, say, “Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.: Baked Shrimp, Shrimp Creole, Shrimp Scampi, Fried Shrimp and More Shrimp,” your name would look like spam. Just “Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.” says all anyone needs to know.

For their main Facebook Page, Bubba Gump uses their name and the word Inc., to clarify that you've reached the official Bubba Gump Restaurants Page.

At the same time, you don’t want to be so generic (e.g., “Seafood Restaurant”) that you’ll get lost in the shuffle. Remember that the first word you include in your Page title is the one that Google will consider the most important.

By the way, if there are other Pages out there that use your name, such as Pages that have been created by fans, make sure to add “Official” to your Page. You can alsoadd the location of your business to the name.

For example, if you own a franchise, you would call your Page “McDonald’s Reno.”

Bubba Gump has locations throughout the world so when franchises have their own Facebook Page, they separate themselves by adding their location to their name, like "Philippines."

#2: Add Important Information in Key Sections

You should also include important details about your business in the About, Mission and Company Description sections.

Does your About section include your web address and a description of what you do? Have you included important keywords that search engines will like? The Mission and Description sections offer more places to use keywords—appropriately, of course.

If you’re “the world’s largest online social media magazine,” say so in the About section. If your mission is “to empower users to succeed with social media,” say so in the Mission section. [NOTE: These quotes are from Social Media Examiner's page.]

And in the Description section, elaborate on what your business does; for instance, “Our story began in 1971. Back then we were a roaster and retailer of whole-bean and ground coffee…” as Starbucks does.

Starbucks gets a lot of information across in their short description, mentioning their history and current success.

Finally, if your business depends on local traffic, include your physical address and phone number in the Basic Info section. You can see this in the example below for the Campo Restaurant Facebook Page.

Campo is a local restaurant in Reno, Nevada, so it's essential that they have their contact information easily available.

#3: Customize your Facebook URL

Facebook used to require that a Page have 25 likes before it could have a vanity URL, but that is no longer the case. If you haven’t created a personalized URL yet, do it now.

By default, Facebook will give you a URL that includes a number. It will look something like this:

facebook.com/pages/yourbizname/123123123.

But you can—and definitely should—customize this URL to include the name of your business so that it looks like this: facebook.com/yourbizname.

Having a custom URL makes it easy for people to search for your Facebook Page directly via a URL and helps with Facebook SEO.

To create your Facebook vanity URL, go to Facebook Username. If another business is already using the name you want, you have to come up with a variation (Facebook will suggest options).

And if someone has claimed the name of a business you own, you can file a copyright infringement claim with Facebook.

#4: Encourage Sharing

Even when Graph Search is available to everyone, Facebook will still be a social experience more than it will be a traditional search experience.

For Page admins, this means that your content—posts, photos, video, apps, etc.—must be content that people want to share with their friends.

Imagine Graph Search as a sort of net. The net will capture likes, shares, check-ins, tags, etc., and so it makes sense that the more incoming relationships a Page has, the more easily it will be discovered.

In the image below, Mari Smith’s post was of great interest to her fans.

Mari's post got shared 156 times, proving it was valuable content.

The bottom line is the most popular and shared posts on Facebook tend to be the ones that are interactive, engaging and contain useful information.

Finally, don’t forget that Facebook is about connecting with people. Don’t sacrifice the social aspect of your Page for the sake of making it more searchable with Graph Search or any other search engine.

#5: Get the Most Out of Timeline and Custom App Content

More of your Facebook Page is visible to search engines (and presumably will be visible to Graph Search) than you may realize.

Status updates have a limited shelf life because as you make more, they naturally get pushed down the Timeline. On the other hand, apps that are pinned as a favorite next to your photos are there every time a user comes back.

Consider adding content strategically for more visibility inside Facebook.

Add apps that contain valuable content such as surveys, forms, menus, newsletters and ebooks that live for more than a few days. People will want to share them over an extended period and that will help your content live longer.

In the image below, Palmasola uses a Facebook app to provide welcome information.

Using a Facebook app eliminates the hassle of continually having to post information as a status update.

One final note, don’t focus on SEO at the expense of developing a vibrant and engaged community on Facebook.

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How to Optimize Your Facebook Page for Facebook Graph Search

You want to prepare your Page so that it comes up more often in these searches.

Currently, Facebook Graph Search’s initial search categories are a bit limited.

Facebook gives you some initial search categories or you can search by keywords.

You can drill farther down within these categories and you can also search on more general keywords.

Here are four things that you can do to set your Page up for Facebook Graph Search success.

#1: Watch Your Category and About Section

So far it looks like mostly Place, Music, Books and Movie Pages are the biggest beneficiaries of the category classification. You can search Places by Place Type, but the interesting thing is that the Place Types don’t correspond to the Place types you can choose in the subcategories.

Make sure you have your Page listed as one of these major categories if it fits. If your Place doesn’t fit these categories, don’t worry. Just review your category to make sure you are properly classified.

Review the Places Types.

For restaurants, make sure you mark down as many types of foods you serve as possible in your Edit Info area.

Add all of the types of food you serve.

But also notice the Place subcategories. Only Places have subcategories and they affect how Places come up in the Graph Search.

You’ll notice in this search of “Restaurants nearby that my friends like,” JuJu’s comes up first. But when I selected Brunch, JuJu’s was not listed, even though they list Brunch as one of their Food Styles. It appears that the subcategories in this case are weighted higher in this search.

Places can choose up to 3 Place subcategories, so make sure you are using those choices wisely.

Places should add 3 subcategories to come up in the searches.

Add subcategories on the Basic Information area of your Place Page.

Currently, Pages are not as easily searchable by category in Graph Search. You cannot search Pages by a company or brand type. But it’s still worth checking your category to make sure it aligns as closely as possible with your business.

Facebook Pages are indexed in Google and so you’ll want to have your perfect keywords in your About section to improve your chances of being found.

If you are just getting started with your Page, you may want to make sure you have some of your keywords in your Page name.

You may want to have your keywords in your Page name.

#2: Encourage Check-ins

If you do have a Place Page, you want to encourage check-ins. If you don’t have a physical location that people come to, then I don’t recommend switching your business to a Local Business, especially if you work out of your home (you don’t want some stranger at your door trying to check in).

But one of the benefits of Graph Search is that people can easily search by their friends who have been to your location (and you take advantage of the social proof).

The number of check-ins are not always a factor in the ranking of search results, but the more people you have check into your place, the more likely you will come up in searches when people filter by their friends.

People can easily filter places where their friends have checked in.

#3: Claim Your Place

Did you know that anyone can create a Facebook Place using his or her phone? And anyone can create a Place for your business with a phone. Unless you “claim” that Place as your own, it may just be hanging out there in Facebook space without you getting the benefit of those check-ins.

Searching “bookstores in Denver” turns up a lot of unclaimed Places.

If you have your Page set up as a Place Page (this happens automatically now when you set your category as Local Business), Facebook attempts to display your Page when someone tries to check into your business.

But sometimes it isn’t displayed, and someone may unknowingly create a Place for you by checking in with his or her phone. Or they may use a slightly different spelling or business name when trying to find you, and then Facebook creates a new Place for that check-in.

You want to make sure you claim your Place so you get credit for the check-insto take advantage of the social proof and to come up higher in the searches as mentioned in point #2.

Do a search on Facebook for your business and filter the results by Place. Also search for your business on your mobile phone when you are at your location to see what comes up. Then claim any Facebook Place that is yours.

Search for unclaimed Places with your business name.

#4: Encourage Tagging and Liking of Photos

Photos also come up very prominently in Facebook Graph Search. If people are searching around on photos of their friends, they may see a photo of their friend at your location or tagged by your Page.

People can also easily filter to find photos of friends by Pages they like. All of this activity helps your Page and your business to pop up in people’s minds more often.

People will see friends tagged on Pages’ pictures when they browse.

Remember that you can’t tag personal profiles as your Page. You can only tag your personal friends on a picture or you can encourage people to tag themselvesif you have a picture from an event.

Encouraging people to like pictures also helps your Page because people can easily browse by the pictures they have liked. Now you get another chance to remind them of your presence when they are looking through the pictures they have liked.

People can see your Page picture again when they browse through their pictures they have liked.

Facebook Graph Search is definitely an interesting tool. It will continue to evolve as it goes through beta, but you can start encouraging interactions such as check-ins and tagging to help your Page show up more prominently as people search.

Remember that it’s still important to post regularly and connect with people through the news feed, since not everyone will use Graph Search.

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