How to Use Facebook Graph Search [Noob Edition]

How to Use Facebook Graph Search [Noob Edition] When Facebook Graph Search was announced, I was excited for my recruiting friends and a little bit worried that people might be frustrated by it. In the past, when Facebook has implemented a change, most of my friends have gone up in arm; but not my recruiting pals for the most part, recruiting folk are more interested in what NEW things we can do with shifting software and Graph Search is no different. Within a few days of my receipt of Graph Search, I hadnt even taken the requisite tour that Facebook was prompting at the top if my page, when I realized that several of my smart friends had already written some great posts on Facebookand I hadnt even tried it yet. So Id obviously missed the boat on writing the authoritative guide on Facebook Graph Search but what about the Newbies Guide to Facebook? Surely, since I am a marketer and not a recruiter (anymore), I would be the ideal gal to lay down the DOs and DONTs of FBGS. 1) DO use Facebook Graph Search to target better Graph Search is the ultimate in finding out what your friends like and dont like. Now this has some amazing implications for recruiters. For example, you can search friends of yours that work at Microsoft. Or friends of (fill in name) that work at Microsoft and went to Northwestern and live in Redmond and are married.yeah you can. When you have this option, you can learn quite a lot about the population youre targeting. Business2Community says: Graph search is more micro-based in which businesses and Facebook users could use it to understand the interests, the activities and other demographics of their fans or friends, much better; and by knowing more about your targeted consumers, businesses can therefore create better strategies in marketing to their consumers via Facebook Graph Search. 2) DONT assume its a LinkedIn killer As SocialMediaToday points out: For Graph Search to be relevant, users will need to fill out their profiles as completely as possible including career titles, current company, professional interests, etc. How many people actually have a fully-updated Facebook profile with all of their professional work experience and interests? While that MAY be true, dont count it out. A lot more people are on Facebook now than LinkedIn and its way more user-friendly for your average job seeker. The one thing that may kill its threat? The fact that no one really wants to censor themselves. 3) DO realize its affect on PPC ads for Facebook You already cant really use Facebook for the total amount of people available in a given metro with a specific set of skills when pricing out ad campaigns. Same goes for graph search. If people dont give you the info, says Glen Cathey, you cant use it as search parameters. Do you think that the accountants on Facebook who live in the Alpharetta area just don’t put their work experience on their profile, or that they hide the info from being retrieved by people other than their friends? I’d argue the former at this point. Keep in mind that this issue not only affects search, it also affects advertising. You can’t use Facebook PPC ads to target people who don’t give you critical information to target. He sees the fact that Facebook returns fewer results as a bad thing, but I am guessing that it probably isnt necessarily. Being able to tap into  a more highly selective list appeals to the marketer in me. 4) DONT call it a professional networking site Facebook is what it is. Vague statement to be sure, but on purpose because thats what makes Facebooks Platform so overtly successful, it is what you want it to be. Using it for job search? Great, fill in your history. Building out a family reunion group? Have at it. Want to post your duck face pics? Well.okay then. Work4Labs Stephane Le Viet puts it this way in his article delineating the journey from social to professional: The foundation was laid with the creation of brand and “Timeline for  Business” pages. These gave Facebook’s  users  a chance to becomeconsumers  by publicly declaring their affiliation with companies using the “like” button. The trend continued with the release of Sponsored Stories and targeted ads. With these, Facebook’s  consumersbecame  passive candidates, since employers can now suggest jobs to consumers whose browsing habits and profile data align with the categories defined by the company. If Hard Rock Cafe is looking for employees to fill a new outlet in Tokyo, for example, they can target young Tokyo residents who like Rock N’ Roll. For the newbies And what about for the newbies? Well here are some DOs and DONTs from my personal experience: DO use Graph Search to find things when Facebook moves them around on you. Now I know where everything is, I just type: videos of NAME posted by me and it pulls them up! DO use it to find friends that are all in one city for fast simple networking (and also to make sure you arent inviting out of towners to your events, AHEM). Simply type in friends of mine who live in CITY. One caveat: it pulls up anyone even BORN there. DONT think you can ignore it. Facebook Graph Search will be important to recruiters and therefore it has to be important to job seekers, therefore it has to be important to recruiter.see where Im going with this? If you’re a recruiter looking for candidates, you see the value in mining these results. If you’re a jobseeker looking for work, you probably see the value of  showing up  in these results. On the other hand, most recruiters already screen candidates through Google and LinkedIn, and you can bet the same critical eye will turn toward Graph Search results.