Facebook Graph Search, as we covered in a recent blog, is the latest development in social search. Unlike a traditional search engine such as Google, which traverses vast search archives to find relevant information on topics, Graph Search allows Facebook users to search for relevant people, places and photos within their social network. Graph Search is still in the process of being rolled out, but it’s time to start thinking about how its arrival will affect your hotel’s marketing campaign. To give you a head start, here are 5 simple tips on how to work the new product to your advantage, based on what Facebook has revealed.
1. It’s not what you know, but who you know.
Social search is vastly different to traditional search, so what works for you on Google will not work on Facebook. Let go of ideas about keyword optimisation and embrace a new search strategy for Graph Search.
2. Actually, it’s who knows you.
If you have the right audience, when Facebook users are asking friends of friends about hotels in your area, Graph Search will connect them. Of course, this means that you really have to carry on putting in the legwork in terms of collecting Likes from your guests, mailing list contacts, friends and anyone relevant to your property.
3. Your Facebook fans are now members of your marketing team
Graph Search will essentially serve as an inbuilt recommendation system, with your fans, their friends and their friends of friends acting as referral marketers on your behalf. Facebook has stated that the new product is a “search tool that can help you get access to things people have shared with you.” Graph Search is going to produce search results based on friends’ shares, which means the value of the Share Button has rocketed. Make sure you are asking your friends, guests and prospect guests to share your content at every opportunity.
4. Engagement is key
Graph Search will rank social search results in order of levels of engagement, which means you need to step up your game in terms of attracting fans and giving them a reason to engage with your content. As Facebook puts it “Results are ranked by people you care the most about; the rest are sorted by mutual friends and other signals in the Facebook system.” In other words, EdgeRank, which determines the order of search results based on relevance, freshness and closeness.
5. Location data matters
As Graph Search features in-built geo-targeting, it’s essential that your hotel’s Facebook page includes location data, and that all the information on your page is up to date and as complete as possible.
As more information becomes available about Graph Search, there will be more and more ways to optimise your hotel’s marketing campaign to take advantage of it. For now, these 5 simple tips will help you get ahead of the game.
Contact eTourism today if you need help with your Facebook marketing.
