Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook just rolled out a HUGE new product that will change how you do business online. It's called Graph Search and it changes the playing field for Facebook, social media, and the Internet in general.

Why Is Graph Search a Game Changer?

Consider this. Facebook hosts:

• nearly 240+ Billion (that's with a B) photos
• over a Billion (again, that's with a B) people
• and over one Trillion (that's with a T) connections
• plus over 1 Million people join Facebook daily!

And now Facebook provides a search for this massive amount of information including Places, Photos, Interests, and People. This new search product will be pretty amazing and provides Facebook users with additional reasons to spend more time on the big FB.

The 3 Pillars of the Facebook Ecosystem

Facebook is built on 3 main services:

1. The NEWS feed - provides a feed of the news going on in the world around you. This is where you see what your friends are up to via a real-time feed. You have control of this news because you can "hide" content you don't want to see.
2. The TIMELINE feed - this shows what's going on in your life. This information is listed in chronological order. You can also add events and you have the option of "hiding" posts.
3. The new GRAPH SEARCH - is where Places, Photos, Interest, and People come into play. This is the new way to find people who are most relevant to you in these areas.

Graph Search & Google Search Are Different - But the Same

This differs from Google search although the intention for both companies is the same. Google's search is based directly on asking questions through keyword, image or other inquiries. Google scours the entire world wide web and even the "real world" to provide as much info as possible for these searches. By "real world" think Google's new virtual tours, business photos and maps.

Facebook's Graph Search is different because it only returns search results from your community and connections. It's about the stuff shared by the people you are connected to.

The similarity? Both Google and Facebook want to keep people on their online products. The more time people spend on Facebook or Google the more opportunities they have to serve ads. Sound a little devious? Well, traditional media like television, radio, newspapers or magazines operate in a similar manner. Regardless of whether it's new or traditional media advertisers are fighting for your time and attention.

Providing Unique Advertising Opportunities

Facebook advertising presents some unique opportunities for your business. Done right you can advertise your business to a very segmented, customized market at very reasonable costs. For example, you can target your advertising to males 20 to 35 years of age who live in Toronto and are skiing enthusiasts. This advertising campaign can run anytime you wish, for example from January 7 to 21, and can be paused and restarted or stopped permanently any time you wish. Segmenting and managing your advertising so precisely is typically impossible when using more traditional media.

Review YOUR Facebook Privacy Settings Soon!

Facebook's Graph Search does take privacy into consideration. This means a non-friend can't search and see content that you shared with friends. People's Facebook privacy settings impact what is available for each individual Graph Search.

So speaking of privacy… now is a good time to review YOUR privacy settings. Because everything you have made available to your friends is potentially searchable. This will likely result in many people scrambling to review and edit their interests and pages they have liked in the past.

Filed in // Social Media Marketing, Strategy