You might have noticed a new search function on Facebook in the past few weeks. We tipped you off to this new Graph Search feature back in January and now it’s available to the masses.
Facebook’s success is what made this change necessary. Since the beginning of Facebook, everything has been about friends. People have so many friends that nothing makes sense unless you live on the site. That’s what they are attempting to fix with Graph Search.
What does that mean for us? We can search for things differently and potentially use them to connect better. Let’s say our own KS Brooks is going to do a book signing in Spokane and she wants to make sure that Mr. Pish fans can find out about it. Brooks can do a search for “Friends of my friends that like Mr. Pish in Spokane, WA.”
That’s a pretty specific request, yet here is a sample of the return from that search.
Keep in mind, I did this search from my own FB, so these are friends of Jim Devitt’s friends that “like” Mr. Pish in Spokane. Obviously, the results returned would be different if Brooks did it herself. This type of info can be useful to allow you to reach out to people you may not have connected with in the past.
Now you can waste hours of your time finding out who likes to read, who knows about your books and what restaurants your friends like. It’s amazing the things you can learn and the time you can waste.
Facebook was unprepared for the onslaught of questionable searches and now has pulled the plug if you type in something that might not sit right. In the end, it’s about advertising dollars. Facebook is hoping that this tool proves that they have the secret key to getting your message in front of the right people.
So go ahead, play around with it; you might find people you want to connect with or you might find “people who like to get drunk in my city.” I’m not endorsing that, but it’s there if you want it!
Hmmm, this might help us all avoid spamming our friends with posts they don’t care about.
🙂
Thanks for the tip.
No problem, Thanks.
Thanks, Jim! Interesting idea. I’ll have to give it a try…
It can be a big time suck, so look out!
Thanks Jim, another helpful post. I’ve got 3 search terms ready to go:
1. People who will buy my book if I offer them a bribe.
2. People who will buy my book if I tell them I’m related to the British Royal Family.
3. People who will buy my book to avoid me constantly spamming about how great it is.
I think I could be on to a winner! 🙂
Thanks Chris, I think you’re on to something with #3!
I haven’t tried this yet but I will. Thanks Jim.
My pleasure!