As a feature enhancement, as a search engine, and as a new ad platform, Facebook beta Graph Search announced on 1/15 has the potential to impact the brand social media landscape in a number of ways. At the conceptual level, Facebook continues to go down a path that deprecates the role of URL, or link level exploration of the Web in favor of the social graph object - this has advantages and disadvantages but it diverges from Google's approach and from the approach of most modern platforms. Whether it's the way forward for the Web as a whole or its own walled ecosystem remains to be seen (by a long shot), but for businesses seeking to keep their social media strategy calibrated for broad success, we believe the smartest course is to anchor most publishing programs in a central, URL-based, owned media hub on the Web while continuing to fully participate on Facebook's constantly evolving playing field. So that you're as prepared as you can be as it rolls out, our global team has prepared a 15-page briefing outlining our initial perspective and recommendations regarding Facebook's Graph Search. It outlines what this new feature is, where we think it's heading, its impact to the social space, and what we will be watching out for as it develops.

1. Observations, analysis, and insights on
Facebook’s new beta internal search engine
PN CONNECT
RAPID BRIEFING
January 16, 2013

2. WHAT IS IT?
A SEARCH FOR THINGS, NOT LINKS
Graph Search is the new interface for Search within
Facebook. It allows you to use a series of filters to
find photos, places, or things based on what
Facebook knows about the likes and activity of
others.
Instead of a Google or Bing search, which is
ultimately trying to connect you with Web pages
most relevant to your query, Graph Search connects
you with a list of Facebook objects - profiles,
restaurants, TV show pages, etc. – that match what
you’re looking for. It’s almost as if they took the ad
targeting suite and flipped it around to be used by
consumers.
It also connects up with Bing search, so any query
that doesn’t return strong enough results from within
Facebook will bring back Bing listings that are more
like traditional search engine results.
2 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

3. THE BASICS
FACTS AT A GLANCE
• Graph Search is a beta product not yet released to the public, and will roll out to a small subset of users first.
Join the waiting list here: https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch
• At the present time, it does not have a publicly available API.
• At launch, Graph Search is only in English; Facebook plans to expand it to more languages quickly.
• It does not search posts or status updates yet but will in the future.
• All results are ranked primarily to surface those connected to people you care most about first; then, other
signals within Facebook’s data stores are taken into account.
• At launch there are no unique paid placement opportunities, but it is believed that Facebook’s current paid
placement opportunities will soon be in play in these results.
3 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

4. HOW DOES IT WORK?
As in Google’s “Search Plus Your RECOMMENDATIONS
THE ALGORITHM World,” your search results will be
ranked around your relationships. The In terms of recommendations, it’s easy to
In a similar fashion to how Google+
more you interact with someone, the imagine users turning to Graph Search in
works, Facebook “likes” and check-
more likely the algorithm will much the same way they use Yelp,
ins form the primary signals used to
privilege their recommendations and Foursquare, etc. today. It could quickly
determine relevance. There are
data over those of strangers. supplant sites such as Angie’s List and
numerous secondary factors as well,
become a go-to way to source restaurant
including the data from when
recommendations, professional services, new
Facebook has asked users to rank
and recommend restaurants they
INITIAL USE CASES movies and TV shows, products, etc.
have checked into.
FINDING PEOPLE
Facebook has not yet shared any PAID VS. ORGANIC
This includes Facebook’s original
further detail on the algorithm, so it
purpose – dating, and professional
is expected that attributes will be At launch, Facebook has indicated that there
recruitment. Some observers see the
valued in some way similar to are no unique sponsored placement
potential for Graph Search to become
Edgerank’s. There is a separate team opportunities in Graph Search, but you can
the preferred method to find vetted
working iteratively on Search, so it’s expect them to layer those opportunities in
candidates since it allows recruiters to
also possible they will derive their over time, as this will create a market similar
explore the friend and colleague
own scoring system. to Google’s sponsored results.
networks of other businesses so
easily.
4!
4 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

5. WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
When you begin to type a search parameter into the search bar, you’ll see:
In this example, the
user began to type
“my friends who”
The bolded auto-completed
words form possible search
queries that the user may
be looking for, in this case
friends who live in San
Francisco, friends who work
at Facebook, etc.
5 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

6. WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
Example of a Graph
Search results page
In this example, “Movies
liked by my friends” was
entered into the search bar
Search results can be This section allows you to refine your
“liked” immediately. The search using several different category
magnifying glass leads off types. Refining filters are contextual
into a further branching and Graph Search presents filters based
search that encourages on the type of search you are
discovery. performing.
6 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

7. WHAT OTHERS SAY
“With Facebook Graph Search, the objects we search for aren’t web pages but instead virtual
representations of real world objects: people, places and things. The connections are primarily
Facebook Likes. Did such-and-such a person like a particular photo? A particular doctor? A
particular restaurant? Those likes are the ties that bind the information in Facebook together.”
- Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land
“Most strikingly, it expands Facebook’s core mission – not just obsessively
connecting users with people they already know, but becoming a vehicle of
discovery.”
- Steven Levy, Wired
“It’s easy to see the potential. Facebook is generally appealing to advertisers because
it knows users’ interests and interactions. Now, on top of that, it could be likely to
know what those same users are about to do.”
- Sarah Kessler, Fast Company
“If Graph Search is successful, it will be much more important that your page is liked
by the friends of a person searching for your product or service. Engagement will
continue to be important for a number of reasons, but the page like will be back in
play as a primary Facebook marketing metric.”
- Craig Smith, Social Media Today
7 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

8. STRATEGIC IMPACT
CONTENT VISIBILITY ALWAYS BET ON URLS FOCUS ON FUNDAMENTALS
In the short term, Graph Search only With the emphasis on social graph Brands that approach SEO on Google by
works at the Page or Brand level, not at objects as their atomic unit, Facebook, aligning with Google’s core mission and
the post level. Until it expands its feature unlike Google, is downplaying the aiming to do everything they can to match
set, this will mean most content a brand importance of the URL, link, or Web searchers up with the best and most
produces on Facebook will be virtually page as a unit of search and interest. relevant information have enjoyed
invisible to a searcher – they will be Programs that operate from a central sustained success, and ultimately haven’t
searching for and land on a brand’s owned media hub and anchor their taken any actions that would compromise
timeline, not a specific post. In the short activities in the canonical structure of their business goals in other ways. In
term, this will also likely mean that a the Web will play comfortably in both Facebook’s ecosystem, the approach
page’s aggregate activity level will ecosystems, while those that place should be no different.
matter more than the activity around its strong bets on Facebook alone will find
most massively popular posts. As brands themselves completely beholden to the In some form or another, Facebook’s
experiment with optimizing around the economics of its emerging advertising algorithm will seek to make
limited beta of Graph Search, initial platform. recommendations based on total activity
findings will emerge and we will evaluate and sentiment around each page, person,
their worth in the broader context. Our recommendation is to watch the or object and against the filter of one’s
beta rollout of Graph Search as its peers – in this way, brand strategy on
We expect post-level search to be highly details emerge, but resist the urge to Facebook remains unchanged. Although
prioritized in the product roadmap, anchor all social content on Facebook’s tactics may fall in or out of fashion,
however, so expect this to change in a shifting foundation. aligning around business goals and an
matter of months. audience’s needs and interests will not.
8 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

9. OUR PERSPECTIVE
A BRIDGE TO A MORE OBJECT-ORIENTED PLATFORM
As a feature enhancement, Graph Search should provide a new reason for Facebook’s billion-
plus users to remain engaged with the platform and spend more time within its walls.
By Facebook’s own acknowledgement its search interface has for years been sorely lacking
as a way to find information quickly, and Graph Search does more than just shore that up – it
exposes a new, more powerful way to take advantage of all of that rich metadata.
As it rolls out initially, we expect already popular individuals, businesses, and brands to see
an infusion of new referral traffic from Graph Search, but in the short term that will be limited
to page-level and not post-level activity until Facebook further evolves Graph Search. In the
short term, it will not expose the depth and breadth of an active brand’s content; brand
pages will be viewed and presented more as landing pages than as repositories.
9 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

10. OUR PERSPECTIVE
A SCREWDRIVER, NOT A MULTI-TOOL
As a standalone search engine, Facebook Graph Search has the potential to erode market
share over time particularly for vertical recommendation engines and tools like Yelp,
Foursquare, LinkedIn, etc.
As it gains traction, it will likely deflect some percentage of searches that would otherwise take
place on those external sites, including Google. However, since in its current incarnation it is
limited to some very particular use cases for search confined to helping users find objects
(people, places, businesses, etc.) it’s not a “Google killer” today.
It would take many iteration cycles before Facebook could offer the wide range of use cases
Google supports today and pass the “sniff test” of a user looking for a particular restaurant,
event, or movie and for whatever reason can’t get the results they expect to display.
10 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

11. OUR PERSPECTIVE
A NEW AND LUCRATIVE AD INVENTORY – PRICING MODEL
UNKNOWN
As an advertising platform, the new Search tool will soon offer new opportunities to reach
highly qualified and motivated users with demonstrated purchase intent. It will likely be as
lucrative and as competitive a marketplace as Google’s SEM platform as it reaches full volume.
In fact, it increases the pressure on Google to more fully integrate Search Plus Your World and
create unique opportunities for advertisers to deliver smarter, more customized content that
takes advantage of its store of social data.
On both platforms, advertisers will only be limited by their ability to create customized content
that takes advantage of the data. That said, it is not yet clear how Facebook will price those
opportunities. Google has always generally tied the costs of its advertising products to the
market rate as established through an arbitrage model, while Facebook has often used a more
abstract model.
11 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

12. OUR PERSPECTIVE
THE WEB VS. THE SOCIAL GRAPH GARDEN
Facebook continues to give short shrift to the URL, link, or Web page as a unit of content and
Search interest, while Google continues to make the URL the atomic unit of its world.
Programs that operate from a central owned media hub and anchor activities in the canonical
structure of the Web will be able to play comfortably in both ecosystems, while those that
place strong bets on Facebook alone will likely find themselves completely beholden to the
economics of its emerging advertising platform.
Whether it’s viewed as a positive or a negative, it’s clearly a two-horse race moving forward.
To maximize impact for the near future, brands will need to straddle both ecosystems –
Facebook’s and Google’s – and carefully plan both paid and organic programs in both that
follow the swim lanes each provide.
12 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

13. WHAT TO WATCH
Broadcasting the future of print from the Olympics of printing
KEY QUESTIONS WE’LL BE EVALUATING MOVING FORWARD
• The purpose of Graph Search is to keep users within Facebook’s walls. That can run counter to a brand's
objective to get them out of Facebook for a conversion of one form or another, which places more emphasis
on brand posts to make a compelling case for a user to click to leave Facebook. Will Facebook’s algorithm
and feature set penalize brands that successfully drive users off of the platform?
• We've consistently heard from Facebook and other studies that visual content such as photos drives more
engagement. How will photos be properly indexed and displayed by Graph Search?
• Given Facebook's track record of changing their products how stable can we expect this product to be over
the next twelve months? How different will the experience and results be in a few months from launch?
• Google has built an entire secondary industry around SEO/SEM and that community is very passionate. Until
now, Facebook has purely been SEM-focused. How will it develop/cultivate an SEO community built around
Graph Search?
13 PN Connect Rapid Briefing: Facebook Graph Search

14. NEXT STEPS
TO PREPARE FOR GRAPH SEARCH…
1. The feature is rolling out slowly to a small beta list, so it may not make sense yet to make changes to
your publishing program, given the feature’s initial limited volume and what little is known yet.
2. Sign up for the waiting list and enlist others to do so as well so that you have a large body of testers
available when the time comes: https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch
3. Monitor the tech press and sources like Inside Facebook for emerging case studies and experiments
that delve in to the ranking algorithm.
4. Watch your inbox for additional insights from PN Connect as more details become clear.
PN CONNECT IS HERE TO HELP
If you have any questions about Graph Search or would to talk more broadly about related social media
strategies, please contact the PN Connect digital marketing team.
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15. ABOUT PNCONNECT
PN Connect is the global digital services offering from Porter Novelli.
PN Connect represents our social media marketing, web development
and digital analytics services and incorporates the combined talent,
resources, experience, and leadership of both Voce and Porter Novelli’s
digital teams. Currently the team includes 60+ digital consultants across
our network of offices working with some of our largest clients.
For more information about PN Connect or to learn how we can help
your organization with digital strategy, development and measurement e-
mail: pnconnect@porternovelli.com