Facebook Graph Search for you and your business

(MoneyWatch) Changes are afoot over at everyone's favorite social network, Facebook. By now, you've probably heard about Graph Search, even if you don't yet have access to it. The good news is that if you have a business, Graph Search delivers a bevy of new ways to analyze and act on data about your customers. If you're just a Facebook user, you can also exploit this new tool, while also learning how it exposes even more of your private information.

First of all, if you're not already using Graph Search, you'll want to get it. That's easy -- Facebook has a page where you can request access. It might take a few days, but you'll soon get a message inviting you to turn on the new search bar at the top of Facebook. From there, you can take a short tutorial and start making natural language searches that help you correlate and synthesize previously discrete data points about people all across Facebook.

So what are some things you can do with Graph Search? Here are some powerful searches you can perform today:

Learn about co-workers at your company, or get information about people who work at a partner or competitive company. Just ask Graph Search "People who work at [name of company]." Graph Search will helpfully offer suggestions of companies it knows about.

Find out who is friends with two different people. You can quickly find out people who have Facebook friends in common -- just type "People who are friends with [person A] and [person B]"

Discover demographic information about customers. There are a virtually limitless number of queries you can feed Graph Search to learn about your customers. For example, you can go with a generic search, like "things that have been liked by fans of Microsoft," or go for a more targeted search, like "Music that is liked by fans of Demand Media."

Get a list of all the places someone has visited. Thanks to Facebook's check-in service, you can see in surprising detail all the places that specific people -- or groups of people have gone. Try "Places that [person] have been," or "Places that fans of [company] have been" for that sort of detail. You can also use the map tool to refine the search; you can narrow it down just to restaurants, for example.

CBS

Full Circle Social - Managing your social media

Facebook Graph Search: One more reason why your business should be on Facebook

Be Engaging on Facebook - For property management

Here are some more tools and tips on how you can use Facebook to benefit your community.

Be Unique
In order to set the Facebook vanity url for your fan page, there are several things which need to be in place first.

• You need to be admin of the page in question
• You need to have 25 “likes” or “Fans”
• You need to know the name you want for your community’s page because once you set it, you can never edit or transfer it.

To create your pages url, click on “Edit Profile” and choose “Marketing” from the left-hand side, then select “Create Alias”.

Be Proactive

According to Facebook, “Places is a Facebook mobile application that allows you to see where your friends are and share your physical location. You can check in to nearby Places to tell your friends where you are, tag your friends in the Places you visit, and view comments your friends have made about the Places you visit. Use Places to experience Facebook in a completely new way by connecting with your friends in the real world.”

With Facebook Places, you can easily share where you are, what you're doing, and the friends you're with. . It helps people discover new places or businesses by seeing where their friends are.

Here are some benefits to adding your community to Facebook Places:
It will come up when people try to check in to anywhere nearby (building awareness)
By people checking in it will appear in their Facebook newsfeed (brand awareness)
You can add more information about your community to the check in description (website, phone number, address, etc.), so when they check in on their phone they find out more about your community instantly
If people find you on Facebook while on their computer they can get directions to your community

It is quite challenging to add your business to Places, especially without a smartphone! The best description I found on the Internet that led me through it quite painlessly is the website for Dummies.

Be Apps Friendly

Questions App— Sometimes you just need a little feedback. That’s what social engagement is all about, right Questions and polls can be published to your page wall/feed, live on a custom tab or be popped into your left-hand navigation where visitors can click anytime they come to your page. You can invite your Fans to take a poll, and they can easily share it as they would any other post or app. Best of all, everyone can see the poll results without leaving Facebook.

Promotions App— Contests and giveaways are a great way to engage your residents and prospects. A chance at some free stuff (like free application free, free pet rent, etc.) is one of the top reasons people follow and friend brands in the first place. ThePromotions app makes it easy to build and publish a contest on Facebook in a way that is inherently social and shareable.

YouTube for pages App— If creating video content is part of your community’s social media strategy (and we recommend it should be) you can squeeze more views out of your productions by dedicating a Fan Page tab to your YouTube channel.

http://www.naahq.org/read/aptly-spoken-blog/part-two-be-engaging-on-facebook


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Facebook Graph works for property management

Are you ready for the Facebook Graph Search?

The team at Facebook has finally thrown down the gauntlet and is poised to show the world that it can hold its own against search engine giant, Google. Early in January, Facebook announced its new social search engine, called “Graph Search”. Facebook plans to change the way we search by using the personal data of you, your friends, and the 1 billion other users of the social media giant. It works by taking the likes, check-ins, and locations of all the people, places, and things on Facebook and indexes all of that information into a search engine. Now, a user can search “People who went to University of Georgia and like R.E.M.” and get a list of all the Facebook users that meet that requirement. With this switch to a more social search engine, now is a good time to make sure your Facebook profile is up-to-date.

In addition to looking up individuals with the new Graph Search, it is also possible to look up pages of businesses and landmarks. Prospects can submit searches like “Apartments in Sarasota, Florida” or “Townhomes my friends have been to” and receive a personalized list of apartments, emphasizing the ones that have more likes and activity within their group of friends. We all know that word of mouth is one of the most valuable marketing tools a manager or leasing agent has at their disposal, and this brings those personal endorsements to a more public scale. Now every time a friend of a resident searches for apartments through Graph Search, your page will pop up on the top of the listings. That is, of course, as long as your residents have liked or checked into your apartment community. Maybe now is the time to take a look at your Facebook strategy before Graph Search goes live within the next couple months.

There are several ways to stimulate the number of likes on your Facebook page: -Add a flyer promoting your Facebook page to the leasing office and make sure your residents and prospects don’t leave without one!

• Insert a link to your Facebook page in your e-mail signatures and website. I also make sure to put links in my Craigslist ads to make sure new prospects see the most updated specials and offers.
• Many residents might not want to add your page and be spammed with links they care little about. Make sure the links and statuses you are posting are of value. One great selling point is that Facebook and Twitter are great for distributing information about events and news on-site quickly.
• Utilize QR codes and text messages to make it easier for residents to ‘Like’ you. Residents can text “like YourFacebookPage” to 32665 and automatically become fans without having to get on a computer. Alternatively, they can scan a QR code with their smartphone (Kaywa is a great source to generate free codes) and jump instantly to your Facebook page.
• Offer a small incentive for people to like your page. For example, if a prospect is ready to submit an application, offer $5 off the application fee in exchange for them to like your page. They save $5, and you gain more visibility with all of his/her Facebook friends and acquaintances.

Remember that social media growth is a marathon and not a sprint, and that consistent work is key to build a strong social media base. By re-examining your Facebook page now, you will be a step ahead of your competitors and will look even better in front of prospects searching the web for their new home.

By: James King, Leasing Specialist - CLASS Leasing

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