Facebook Graph Search is a great tool for people who are looking to make new and more fulfilling connections. No matter it be through business, creativity or networking.
Facebook Graph Search can help you navigate through more than a billion people, 240 billion photos and more than a trillion connections. Given Facebook’s ever-growing advertising features, the value of Facebook Graph is becoming more and more apparent.
For example, Facebook Graph Search and Google Search are two completely different arenas. Google Search is based off of keywords and will produce the best results that match those keywords.
With Facebook Graph Search, you can combine key phrases to produce a very targeted result. Such as, ‘My friends in Minnesota that like Lizzo’ to produce a set of results that include friends, people, photos and places that have been shared on Facebook.
Facebook Graph Search will focus mainly on four areas within the platform:
- Interests
- Places
- Photos
- People
Unlike Google Search, Facebook Graph Search is new way to discover interests, places, people and photos that are most meaningful to your situation.
Facebook Graph Search is unique because it can show the strength of relationships and connections of any public figure, business, local attraction, restaurants, etc.
Now lets deep dive into 10 facts that make Facebook Graph Search a valuable tool for your business.
Facts About Facebook
- The Undisputed Champion of Social Media — Facebook is the leading social platform. Reaching 60.6% of Internet users. (Facebook, 2018)
- Facebook has 2.45 billion monthly active users, 1.62 billion active users visited the social network on a daily basis. (Facebook, 2019)
- Facebook has more than 80 million small businesses around the World using Facebook pages. (Facebook, 2018)
- Seven out of ten, 69% of adults in the U.S. claim that they use Facebook. (Pew Research Center, 2019)
- 65% of Facebook users are under the age of 35. (Statistica, 2019)
- 96% of active Facebook users accessed the platform via mobile devices. (DataReportal, 2019) That means that only 4% of Facebook active users logged in on desktop devices to use the social media platform.
- Users spent an average of 58.5 minutes on Facebook each day. (Recode, 2018)
- 86% of U.S. marketers use Facebook for advertising. (Emarketer, 2018)
- 78% of American consumers have discovered retail products to buy via Facebook (Kleiner Perkins, 2018)
- Facebook is the most popular channel for businesses to share video content at 81%.
Facebook has been a powerhouse online and throughout Social Media for the better part of the last two decades. Creating a plethora of opportunities and value for brands, businesses and artists alike.
The social media giant is showing no signs of slowing down. Although other platforms like Twitter and Instagram have their uses when it comes to search. Facebook has cornered the market with Facebook Pages, Groups and its Events features.
As an artist or music professional, if you or your team can tap into the value that these features present for an organization. You will be able to take advantage of the opportunities created by just merely existing in the space.
Your Facebook page allows you to have a centralized hub on the platform, while also participating in Facebook groups which can be utilized for networking, Facebook Graph search and aligning with like-minded individuals.
Ivy Gray-Klein of corey flood, a band based out of Philadelphia says,
“I might make a post on my personal account about needing a show in a certain city and make it public,” she says. “Then friends of mine will tag their friends who may have resources or connections in those cities. It may sound kind of trivial, but having that more personal connection really helps, like recognizing you have a lot of mutual Facebook friends with that person… Especially within DIY, leveraging that community can be helpful. I don’t have a professional booking agent who has established relationships with venues.”
The Facebook events feature, in my eyes, presents the most value.
Morgan Schaffner, the marketing manager for AdHoc says,
“People’s decision to attend a show is often based on social reasons, and Facebook does truly make it very easy to see which of your friends are ‘attending’ a show… I think it’d be very challenging to as easily find such a large target audience.”
Some people may view Facebook as a place for family, friends and keeping up with co-workers. For artists and music professionals, the Facebook event features can give you access to every city, town or college in the World.
That is why advertising on the social platform has created this love ~ hate relationship.
Devin McKnight, a guitarist who has performed with Grass is Green, Speedy Ortiz, and produces his own music as MANEKA says,
“I don’t really want to be on Facebook at all, but I feel like I have to because of my band. I don’t know how much it helps, but I do know the event invites kind of have that market cornered. No other platform really offers that.”
Facebook may have a 50–50 split on its branding with some users but the value it creates remains to be undeniable and unmatched.
Related: The New Facebook Graph Search | Part 1
4 Surprising Ways To Use Facebook Graph Search
Graph Search is a very useful tool when used effectively. It can examine an amazing number of criteria for data-driven purposes.
Here are some people-focused queries to experiment with:
- “People named [name] who like [something]”
- “People named [name] who like [something] and work at [company]”
- “People named [name] who like [something] and live in [city, state]
- “Fans of [page] who visited [city, state]”
You can also proceed with a more familiar approach to a people-focused search.
For example, you might want to search something like:
- “People who live in [city, state] and are [single/married] and like [something]”
- “[women/men] who work at [company] and live in [city, state] and like [page]”
Sometimes, Facebook Graph Search requires you to think outside of the box.
Although, queries like these can connect you with single Chicagoans who like turtles, men who work at Crossfit and like the Murder She Wrote fan page, and more.
Facebook Graph Search can be essential when networking in different cities or states. It can connect you with different artists or music professionals who might be flying under your radar.
1. Business/Venue-Focused Search
If you’re more keen on finding venues than people, give these queries a try:
- “[type of venue] liked by people who like [something]”
- “[type of venue] liked by people who like [page]”
- “[type of venue] liked by people who live in [city, state] and like [something]”
- [type of venue] visited by fans of [page]”
- [type of venue] visited by people who work at [company]”
- [type of venue] visited by people who work at [company] and like [something]”
In addition, a business-focused search can be immensely favorable when it comes to marketing and promotions for artists and music professionals on tour or looking for local opportunities/brand partnerships.
For example, envision you know of a Minneapolis breakfast food truck — called ‘The Winnebagel’ — and their business has decreased.
By using a business-focused query, you might discover that a lot of New Yorkers who like food trucks also like a certain artists or venues.
Setting up shop near that venue or where that artists is performing might attract more customers.
A business-focused search can definitely help you identify cross-promotional opportunities.
You might find that many people who like a certain food truck(s) also like certain artists or venues.
As an artist or music professional, you have to be open to the idea of reaching out to one of these food trucks and determining if they might be interested in partnering with you or a venue for a special event, or a cross-promotional initiative.
2. Page-Focused Search
Similar to a business-focused search, a page-focused search can provide valuable insight into customer interests and behavior.
Here are a few quick page-focused queries to dabble with:
- “Favorite pages of [company name] employees”
- “Favorite pages of [profession]”
- “Pages liked by people who like [something]â€
- “Pages liked by people who like [something] and visited [city, state]â€
Queries like these can paint you a more three dimensional picture of your ideal fan or follower. They can also introduce you to potential marketing ventures.
While conducting market research for The Minneapolis ‘Winnebagel’, you might just learn that many fans or followers of your music also like the Facebook page for National Bagel Day.
As an artist or music professional, you can never count out a promotional opportunity.
3. Post-Focused Search
Facebook posts are reservoirs of fruitful data, and the proper post-focused query can aid you enhancing your brand’s content strategy.
How?
By studying your competitors and identifying what kinds of posts provide a considerable reaction from potential fans and followers.
What are your competitors doing with their posts that you’re not?
Why are fans and followers reacting to one post and not the other?
For post-focused searching, try these queries:
- “Posts liked by people who like [page]”
- “Posts liked by people who like [something]”
- “Posts liked by people who live in [city, state] and work at [company]”
Through these queries, you might determine that fans who like food trucks reacted well to a competitor’s post about a negative review, and reacted poorly to a post about a news story.
If you notice this behavior occurs enough times to be considered a trend, you might want to try imitating their strategy.
4. Mutual Friend Search
Along with Graph Search, Facebook provides a powerful mutual friend finder which allows you to filter results based on a number of criteria, including workplace, school and location.
This feature can be convenient for managing contacts, as the existence of a mutual friend is far more likely to inspire a reaction.
Conclusion
Facebook amasses data from almost one fifth of the world’s population, making it one of the largest libraries for consumer insight in existence.
And while its search engine isn’t the most dependable, it can expose some impressive information with the appropriate query. In order to leverage the engine’s semantic search capabilities, establish your search objective, and focus the query respectively.
Researching what businesses interest your fan base?
Curious about what kinds of posts your competitors prefer?
Dying to know which Lizzo fans recently visited Kokomo?
With an exceptional knowledge of Facebook Graph search, you can identify all that and more.
Related: Twitter Advanced Search
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