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5 Ways To Prepare Your Dealership For Search Graph Now!

By Eric Miltsch on Jan 23, 2013

 

Graph Search will usher in a new age of optimization. Sure, we may be familiar with the efforts 
​involved with "optimizing our website" or "optimizing for Google" - and now we have the opportunity to wrap out heads around a new beast: "optimizing for social search." 
 
I'm already convinced Graph Search will improve a brand's digital reach while also improving engagement with Facebook users. 
 
And yes, Graph Search will be called a flop by some, it'll also be considered "creepy" by others and many more digital marketers will simply ignore it much like they did with website optimization, SEO/SEM and any other must have strategy over the years. Don't be that guy - wrap your head around this concept and prepare yourself and your dealership for this changing segment of social search.
 
Let's quickly review the four primary categories of Graph Search and examples of how it can be used - this is a Natural Language Search Engine, letting you create and mix common phrases to find anything that has already been shared on Facebook:
  1. Interests: "Cars my friends like," "TV shows liked by people who like TV shows I like," games played by friends of friends," "companies liked by CEO's," "websites liked by CMO's"
  2. People: "Friends who live in NYC," "Friends of friends who live in my city," "people who play indoor soccer in my city," "friends who like jazz"
  3. Photos: "photos I like," photos of my friends in college," "photos of my friends at DSES," "photos of my friend's cars" 
  4. Places: "car dealerships in Rochester, NY," "restaurants in Las Vegas liked by my friends," "Caribbean cities visited by my friends" 
So, how should your dealership be prepared and optimize your Facebook pages for Graph Search?
  1. Be sure the primary fields are completed and updated with the most current info: Dealership name, category, vanity URL and most importantly, a robust About section - each item is part of the information that what will help Facebook users find your business.
  2. Update your address on your local places page - this will help you dealership show up when people use a search query for a specific location.
  3. Build your fans organically, based on specific geographic areas rather than taking a shortcut and simply buying fans and likes - the more likes you have from real people the better chances your chance will be for showing up in search results. Having thousands of bogus people like your page who reside in Malaysia will not help your dealership within Graph Search. (Besides, that's such a lazy marketing solution and it's a complete waste of money) 
  4. Integrate your social messages with the rest of your marketing communications - include your customer activity and their moments within your content marketing. These connections will increase the chances for your dealership name to be included in Graph Search phrases.
  5. Know that this is still early! More changes and enhancements will come: paid options, Graph API expansion to open searches to websites making other sites truly interactive and of course, additional mobile functionality.
Search Graph will change dealership marketing opportunities, but first we must change the way we think about Facebook and the way people use it. Facebook's potential to provide true utility is enormous. This will be a slow transformation, but one that will inevitably happen.

Comments

I'm anxious to see it and how it will really affect dealers. This is a great list Eric to start with to make sure that you will show up. Now it will be interesting to see about those likes that are thousands of miles away and if that will deter any results.

January 29th

When I logged into facebook this morning, I had the graph search available. After playing a little in it, I'm not seeing how this will really affect anyone. Yes, it's cool, but I don't see it as a "game changer" for anyone.

January 31st

Jim, give it time.

Replace everything in your comment with Google Plus and you have the same response everyone else gave last year about G+.

Here's a simple usage example: last night I searched "Music likes." The results showed his music preferences - some of which I liked and others I had never listened to or even heard of. Because these "recommendations" were from someone I know, trust and have a connection with, I was instantly more inclined to check them out. Now, imagine this happening for other products and services - even car dealerships and specific vehicles.

Also, the social signals being created from your brand pages (likes, comments, shares) are going to carry extra weight with regards to their impact on search results within Bing - don't count Bing out, their presence within all of this is being understated.

Another big element of GS is how it fits into the mobile app. It was announced yesterday that Facebook's mobile app is now larger than the desktop version. All of these new functions will eventually transfer over to mobile and ultimately change the way we use Facebook on our phones as well.

January 31st

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