Images and friends can truly take their social connection and interests to the next level with the introduction of Facebook’s Graph Search. It’s the chance to group friends of like interests through a search. You can skip having to post as a status, “Anyone gone to XYZ restaurant yet?” As an avid user of Yelp when looking for new places, wow if this doesn’t provide for the possibility of me staying on Facebook to find feedback. Of course as with any change to Facebook, you should be concerned with the level of privacy on your personal accounts. In fact this would be a good time to review some of your older pictures, pages you have liked and even places you’ve checked in to. If you’re concerned about a few people who may be too interested in your activities, you may want to consider deleting them or preventing them from seeing certain things. (Do not take your privacy lightly concerning Graph Search. Read this post by Gizmodo.)
While I, like other marketers, wait to be granted access for the beta testing, there are two things for sure that none of us who manage brand pages have to wait for – improving the customer experience and images used for branding.
Every single organization with a brand page needs to immediately think about how good and bad experiences will affect your business. People will be able to easily see informal reviews and pictures of your place within their group of friends. So honesty in advertising and word of mouth has just been amplified. You will need to focus on if you are really delivering the pleasant experience you have been sharing through your marketing efforts. This update is as though Yelp just entered Facebook. Like TripAdvisor just sat down with your potential customers. As though the Better Business Bureau just advertised any complaints. Partial statements about an experience with your business just took front stage and you must do what you can to make sure the audience applauds.
As for the images uploaded on your page, just how great are they? Or how many are original to your brand? It’s easy to take the economic or lazy way out and solely snap pictures from your camera phone and upload to your page. Perhaps a couple of pictures in low lighting may be acceptable every now then to represent a live occurrence, but that cannot be your only source for representing your product(s). Adding images that are not related to your services may just be helping out someone else more than yourself.
Look at it from this angle. Once Graph Search rolls out, when your images are grouped with ones from camera phones from users, how will you stand out? Will your images be compelling enough to get the user to click on the image and visit your page and purchase from you? I mean that is the end goal of using any social media platform, right? To entice a sale. This isn’t to negate the fact that some things will look ok from a high quality camera phones, but this is to say that you should consider using a professional grade camera or a photographer to properly represent your products. Treating your social media page as some impromptu dumping ground of information and images should cease sooner than later.
Oh Graph Search. It sounds as though you’re going to challenge the small businesses to look big. It seems as though you’re going to make everyone focus on quality service. This could wreak havoc on the lazy business owner or social media managers. One place for people to find out from their trusted peers where to go and where to run like crazy from in the opposite direction. Oh Graph Search, you may definitely be the enemy of doing “just enough”.
What do you think? Are you ready for Graph Search? Are there other things to consider now before its release?
Please leave your thoughts and comments below. They may be used in the future for another article.
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Above Promotions is a full service publicity, marketing and promotions company, founded with the purpose to serve an array of clients that are looking to expand their presence in the marketplace. From a local to international market, Above Promotions Company can provide the exposure that goes above your expectations. Visit http://www.abovepromotions.com today.
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Ebony T. Grimsley is the Creative Director and Owner of Above Promotions Company. She is also the recent author of “Because You’re Small: Effective Marketing Strategies for Immediate Implementation.” To find out more information on the book, please visit http://www.abovepromotions.com or purchase online at Amazon, Booktango and other online bookstores.
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