Facebook just announced Graph Search. I posted my initial thoughts to Tumblr. Here’s the gist of that post.
There are a few things you can search, including people, photos and places. Searches are going to be along the lines of “people who like bikes in Brooklyn” and “cities my friends have visited.” What this means is that the “like” and “checkin” are big factors in Graph Search. Therefore, getting likes and checkins is even more important for brands.
To get more likes, SEOs should prioritize implementing highly visible Facebook buttons instead of those third-party sharing widgets (e.g. sharethis) which some consider old hat with Like, Tweet, Pin “verbing the web.”
To get more checkins, marketers should think about ways of increasing in-store engagement and rewarding checkins.
Lastly, SEOs should promote the use of open graph protocols for greater control over content that is shared to Facebook from client’s sites.
SEOs have been paying attention to Google and how social makes its way into search results and may even be a factor in relevancy and/or freshness. With this move, Facebook could take the short term lead. But, social search is in its nascent stages so it’s too early to declare either company a winner.
Read the original Tumblr post here.
One comment
Dave
July 5, 2013 at 2:51 PM
I see where they are going with this but they’ve got a long way to go to contend with Google.