If you're a business owner, Facebook's new search feature is a great addition to your marketing tools. But how can you take advantage of this new feature?
Why and How Facebook Extended Search Works
Ever see a post in your Facebook feed and then want to see if again later, only to have to scroll through what feels like eons of updates from friends and pages you follow? Instead of having to navigate through your entire home feed to find that one post you'd like to see, Facebook now allows users to search for posts based on keywords and intended ideas. (In other words, it's not always the exact match keyword phrase but the presumed meaning behind it.)
In a social media environment where people are searching for what's going on in their world, it's about time that Facebook opened up search to everything that's public within the Facebook universe. If your posts are shared with the general public in your privacy settings, they'll now turn up in Facebook search, even if you're not friends with the searcher.
Although this might come to a shock to some Facebook users that their public posts can now be seen by anyone in search, this is a boon for businesses. If someone is searching for something related to your business, there's now a much higher chance of them getting to you even if they don't like your page. Search has become a big part of social media marketing.
How Businesses Can Take Advantage of Facebook Search
Facebook pages have been part of Google search results for quite some time now and Facebook SEO has played a role in getting Facebook business pages to show up in Google results. Applying SEO techniques within Facebook itself is of the utmost importance now that Facebook has a further reaching search function.
Although we don't know the factors that go into which Facebook posts will be shown first in search, it is likely a combination of whether the searcher likes your page, engagement with your page and posts, and keyword relevancy.
Follow these tips to ensure your business shows up in search as much as possible:
- Create relevant content often for your Facebook business page and share consistently.
- Write keyword rich descriptions in your posts and for any videos or photos you post on your page.
- Focus on increasing engagement on important posts from your business.
Need help to optimize your page for Facebook search? Get in touch.
How Facebook Extended Search Will Change Facebook
We'll likely see a number of changes on Facebook, depending on the success of the new search feature. Most notably, if search takes off, Facebook is likely to incorporate ads into the search stream, just like Google does with search result pages. We wouldn't be surprised to see Facebook ads served up to users in the near future.
On top of increasing revenue for the social media giant, Facebook's new search feature will likely also increase conversations on older posts and increase real-time conversations on the platform, much like Twitter's in-the-moment news updates.
Facebook isn't ready to sit on the back burner and let other social media platforms become more relevant and useful in their users lives.
Need help developing a social media marketing plan? We offer free initial consultations to help small businesses identify how social media marketing can help them reach their goals.
Kim Herrington is Creative Director of Orsanna where she leads the production and strategy for clients' marketing and advertising. She founded Orsanna over seven years ago to bring quality marketing services to business owners.