In January of this year, Facebook introduced its newest feature – Graph Search. The idea of Graph Search is that you can use information that resides only on Facebook as search data. Graph Search scours the content that users share on their own pages (including likes, photos, and check-ins) to search for people and business pages. Facebook Graph Search is still in the beta phase, slowly being rolled out to select users, but now is the time to get your business page ready to tap into the power of Facebook Graph Search for B2B marketing.

Complete your business page profile

First and foremost, make sure your page is complete and your information is current, as well as categorized correctly. Include your physical address, hours of operation, web URL, and business description. The more information in your profile, the better chance you have to show up in others’ Graph Search results.

Update and optimize

The Facebook business pages which have a lot of activity will come up higher in the Graph Search results than those that do not. Post frequently with relevant and interesting content that is keyword rich. Include images and video along with text whenever possible as visual posts are great for promoting sharing and increasing reach and rank.

Engage fans

Graph Search accounts for the interaction and positive feedback your Facebook page receives. Facebook rewards pages that have more activity by other users with greater reach and higher search rank. Respond to your fans’ comments and questions on your page and encourage conversation.

Target leads

Although Graph Search is still in its early stages, it boasts the ability to search for other users based on location, interests, friend connections, and more. The ability to segment and target leads in this way promises to be a huge benefit for marketing. Start experimenting now to get a leg up on the competition before Graph Search outgrows the beta stage and other businesses begin to see its full potential.

Link to Facebook

Incorporate links to your Facebook business page on your website, blog, and other social media accounts. Social networking is all about getting noticed, so more traffic to your Facebook page means it will rank higher in Graph Search and be more visible to other users.

While Facebook Graph Search is still being tweaked and in limited release to users, the anticipated benefits for B2B marketing strategy are very exciting. Do you have Facebook Graph Search yet? What impressions do you have of its usefulness and potential for B2B marketing?