GSO or FGO – Who Knows?
Right at this moment (January 16, 2013), the Facebook Graph Search isn’t really a fully baked thing yet for the masses of Facebook users. Once it is, rest assured, there will be people like me trying to figure out the best (white hat) ways to conduct what I am going to call “GSO” (Graph Search Optimization) or maybe “FGO” for Facebook Graph Optimization. Hopefully one of these will stick! Facebook has also suggested a few tips for how a business may optimize for better results.
If you have a small business with a Facebook page, certain things will need to be done to help ensure your page’s visibility in the results of those searches. Things like check-ins and accurate location data, not to mention reviews, comments and other info will also become part of the mix. Of course, each business will have its own challenges (multiple locations, type of business, etc.). So basically. . .stay tuned for more on this!
What’s more fun to talk about is how this will change things for your business.
At the most basic level, Facebook has a huge pile of user data that isn’t the same stuff that Google has access to, so that makes it valuable. A more capable search tool in Facebook opens up opportunities for more people to discover you and your business. It also opens up paid advertising potential in a much more compelling way than what Facebook currently offers. The sheer volume of searches is going to be huge and that means the advertising opportunities will be equally huge.
Translation: You’ll probably want to be on board sooner rather than later.
The Facebook Graph Search suggests that Facebook is honing in on how to compete with Google for the advertiser’s dollar when it comes to contextually relevant and local (paid) advertising. On top of that, it comes with the added benefit of knowing which, if any, of your friends also “like” or have things to say about a product, restaurant, company, band or whatever. It adds a new dimension to how people discover things.
The two things that make this compelling are:
- Facebook has data that Google does not have.
- That data is more personal to individual users than anything Google can provide at the moment.
The unique data and opportunities make the Facebook paid advertising platform that much more viable of a competitor to Google AdWords for most advertisers. Stay tuned for more as things develop!