17 Ways Marketers Can Leverage Facebook Graph Search : Social Media Examiner

Are you using Facebook Graph Search as a marketing power tool?

If you knew more about your Facebook fans, how would that improve your marketing efforts?

Marketers can now use Facebook Graph Search to perform focused searches that will return better, more accurate search results that can be of real use to your business.

What Can I Do With Facebook Graph Search?

With Graph Search, you can do much more than meets the eye.

Facebook Page owners can use Graph Search to:

Identify their own fans
Learn about favorite interests and hobbies of fans
Identify employees of a business who have liked a business’s Facebook Page
Identify interests of competitors’ fans
Identify potential business partnerships
Improve the quality of Facebook contests

facebook search query — Examples of Facebook search queries.

To help you dig deeper into what Facebook Graph Search can do for you, here are 17 ways you can use Facebook Graph Search queries to improve your Facebook marketing.

Note: To use these Graph Search query examples in your own searches, replace the bold text in all caps with the Facebook Page, location, etc., that you're looking for.

Build Your Personal Network

Here’s an easy way to grow your personal network on Facebook by connecting with people you know from work.

#1: Find Colleagues to Connect With

Graph Search will show you people who aren’t your friends who like a particular Page.

This can help you find colleagues whom you’ve met but haven’t connected with on Facebook and grow your personal network. Remember that your friend request should always include a note that helps your colleague place you with where you met—an experience, a conference, etc.

Facebook Search Query: People who are not my friend who like PAGE NAME
Example of people who are not my friends who like Mashable.

Build Your Page Audience

Here are two searches you can use to build your Page audience.

#2: Find Friends Who Like Your Page

While you can go to your Facebook Page, click on See Likes and spend hours searching for your individual friends who like your Page, Facebook Graph Search offers an easier, quicker way to identify them.

Compare the results of this query with your friends list to target friends who haven’t liked your Page with a personalized message to invite them to check your Page out.

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Facebook Search Query: My friends who like PAGE NAME
The old way of identifying your friends who like a particular Facebook Page.

The new way of identifying friends who like a particular Facebook Page.

#3: Network Within Facebook Groups Based on Shared Interests

Search for groups of people who have an interest related to your business Page and join a relevant group to interact with.

The basic rules of participating in groups apply here, so don’t blast everyone with self-promotional links. Be helpful, and if it’s appropriate in the context of a conversation, share a link to your Page with the group at large, which will grow your fan base.

Facebook Search Query: Groups of people who like TOPIC and like PAGE NAME
Example of groups of people who like Mexican food and also like the Christian Karasiewicz Facebook Page.

Learn About Your Fans to Provide More Value

Here are a few searches to help you learn more about your fans. Use this information in your communication and provide more value to them.

#4: Find Your Fans’ Interests

Learn more about your fans without asking them to complete a survey.

If you find that a large number of your fans also like traveling, you can integrate related content into your editorial calendar.

Facebook Search Query: Favorite interests of people who like PAGE NAME
Examples of interests of people who like the P.F. Chang’s Facebook Page.

#5: Identify Pages Your Fans Like

Identify other pages your fans like to learn about new types of content you could share to keep fans coming back to your own Facebook Page.

Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by people who like PAGE NAME

You can add additional pages to this search query by adding “and PAGE NAME” to the search query.

Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by people who like PAGE NAME and PAGE NAME
Facebook Pages that fans of Social Media Examiner like.

#6: Identify Pages Liked by Specific Fans

Locate the influencers in your fan base and search the Pages they like to learn about the other brands and businesses that influence them.

Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by PERSON or PAGE
Example of pages I like.

Find New Opportunities

Are you interested in delving deeper? Here’s a search to help you discover more opportunities.

#7: Compare Fan Bases to Identify New Prospect Markets

Quickly find out which of your fans also like related Facebook Pages.

Query fans who like your Page and the Pages of events or conferences. Narrow the next cycle of your presentation pitches to events or conferences with Pages that share a high percentage of your fan base.

Facebook Search Query: Fans of PAGE NAME 1 and PAGE NAME 2
A comparison of fans of one Facebook Page who also like another Page.

Attract New Customers

Use these two searches to help you discover potential new customers.

#8: Find Your Customers

If your business is in close proximity to a company or business, you can use Graph Search to find out which employees of that business like services or products related to yours.

Use the commonalities that are revealed to run a Targeted Facebook ad or create Facebook check-in deals to entice them to try out your establishment.

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Facebook Search Query: People who work at PLACE and like SOMETHING
Example of people who work at Dell who also like Chinese restaurants.

#9: Reveal Intersecting Interests

Create different combinations of queries to learn more about the topics that interest your fans, the fans of colleagues or the fans of competitors.

A blog that hosts guest authors can use the search results to promote a guest author’s post using Facebook ad targeting.

This will improve your ad targeting and ensure you’re reaching the right Facebook fans with your Facebook ads.

Facebook Search Query: Favorite interests of people who like PAGE NAME 1 and PAGE NAME 2
Example of interests of people who like Social Media Examiner and Mari Smith on Facebook.

Increase Brand Loyalty

This search can give you the insights you need to improve your brand loyalty.

#10: Identify Your Competitors

Find out where your customers do business when they aren’t doing business with you so you can focus your loyalty campaign.

Facebook Search Query: TYPE OF BUSINESS in LOCATION visited by people who like PAGE NAME
Example of restaurants located in Orlando, Florida visited by people who like TooJay’s restaurant.

Learn What Prizes Are Prized by Your Fans

Are you interested in learning more about what your fans like? These searches can help you find out more.

#11: Find Your Fans’ Interests

Prizes are an important part of any promotion. If the prize doesn’t appeal to your audience, your promotion will get very little play.

Search for the movies, music, sports teams, etc., that appeal most to your fans and choose a contest prize that’s sure to pull entries.

Facebook Search Query: Movies liked by people who like PAGE NAME
Facebook Search Query: Favorite music of people who like PAGE NAME
Facebook Search Query: Sports teams of people who like PAGE NAME
Examples of movies liked by people who like AMC Theaters.

#12: Sort Your Fans’ Page Likes by Gender

Another way to make sure you have the right promotion prize is to find out which products will most interest a specific gender set within your Facebook fans by researching the other brand Pages they like.

Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by GENDER who like PAGE NAME
Example of Pages liked by women who like Paula Deen.

#13: Reveal Your Fans’ Page Likes by Age

Identify the average age of your own fans in your Facebook Insights and use it to find prizes or incentives that will appeal to a specific age demographic within your fan base.

Facebook Search Query: Pages liked by people over the age of NUMBER who like PAGE NAME
Search results for pages liked by people over 40 who also like the Christian Karasiewicz Facebook Page.

Build a Better App

Here’s how you can discover which games your fans play on Facebook.

#14: Build Your Game App

Before you build an app for a specific audience, find out what type of games have been most successful with them in the past to save valuable time and resources.

Facebook Search Query: Games played by fans of PAGE NAME
Facebook Graph Search query showing games played by fans of American Express.

Market by Proximity or Affinity

Are you interested in location marketing? Here’s an interesting search to use.

#15: Optimize for Location

If your business is located near museums and places that get lots of visitors such as the Washington Monument, make sure your business shows up when someone searches for businesses near them.

If you don’t show up under this query, run a Facebook ad that mentions the landmark or offer a check-in deal that will appeal to visitors who are close by.

Facebook Search Query: Places near PLACE visited by people who like SOME ATTRACTION
Example of places near Washington DC that were visited by people who like the Washington Monument.

Identify Brand Ambassadors

Do you want to identify potential brand ambassadors? You’ll find these searches useful.

#16: Find the Right Fan to Help You Spread a Specific Message

You can quickly identify fans of a specific age or from a specific region and reach out to them on behalf of your brand for help in sharing promotions, product launches, etc.

Facebook Search Query: Fans of PAGE NAME over the age of NUMBER
Facebook Search Query: Fans of PAGE NAME who live in COUNTRY
Example of fans over the age of 50 who like Metamucil.

#17: Combine Facebook Graph Search Queries

While there are certainly a lot of different search queries, remember you can combine queries to produce more detailed results.

Instead of using the basic query of ‘Fans who like PAGE NAME’, you can add terms to find the right fans you’re looking for.

Here’s an example of an improved Facebook Search Query: Fans who like PAGE NAME who live in STATE and are over the age of NUMBER.

Example of a combined search query for fans of Apple who live in California and are over the age of 32.

The Wrap-up

While Facebook search queries will identify traits of fans and Pages, there are a few things to remember.

Facebook Graph Search doesn’t work on mobile (yet).
You can’t sort the results of a search query.
Facebook profile privacy settings can limit some results.

There are literally hundreds of possible search combinations and the information returned from them can be used to help you learn about your fans, improve your Facebook ad targeting, do market research and even create contests that your fans are more interested in.

One last thing.

Don’t forget that you can delete your Facebook Graph Search history if your searches yield no results.

What do you think? Have you used Graph Search queries? How have they helped you improve your Facebook marketing? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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