Monday, August 19, 2013

Aysegul talks about Facebook Graph Search


Facebook Graph Search has been recently rolled out to everyone using Facebook in US English.

The tool lets users find specific information including their friends’ favourite hotels, restaurants, films and more, using filters such as location, gender, specific personal interests etc...

In some ways, Graph Search is a natural extension to the News Feed. However, rather than reviewing friend’s news feeds, now you can ask questions to Facebook about your friends and quickly find out the results. For example; searching 'Friends that have gone to Barcelona on holiday' would bring up a list of all the friends in your network who have either listed Barcelona as somewhere they have visited on their timeline or have checked in to a location in that city. You can then message your friend to learn more about it.

With its features, Facebook Graph Search is believed to be really big for marketing from creating awareness to purchase decision making process, as most of the people searching for pubs or restaurants etc... that their friends ‘Like’ when they’re figuring out where to go and in general friends’ recommendations are important decision making triggers.

Via this tool, people will be exposed to a huge range of new results.

Let’s try a research for hotels:


You can narrow it down by making it more descriptive:


What does Facebook Graph Search mean for brands and businesses? 

From a business perspective, whether you’re a small or a large business, you would really want to get your data into Facebook so that you’re showing up on the results pages.

Not all the businesses probably have physical locations on Facebook, so that they will need to think of clever ways to get themselves found in Facebook.

In terms of marketing, this change also support the need for an Integrated Social Search approach as this development is additional proof that the search and the social teams can’t be separated anymore. Brands and companies would want the SEO efforts to be taking into account what is happening in the search as well as in social media and in this case Facebook.

Below we have listed a couple of points about how your Facebook pages can best take advantage of the opportunities presented by Facebook Graph Search.

1)      Make sure your Facebook listings include the right information and are optimised.

This can be ensured by checking if the right category has been chosen and the added business address is correct. To fully optimise your page, suggest completing your profile including important keywords, posting and correctly tagging photos and videos, and encouraging your fans to add recommendations to your profile as the reviews will show up in Graph Search results.

2)      Encourage Check-ins

For local optimisation, encourage your fans to check in to your business page whenever they visit. It is one of the most important features as people mainly tend to search by location.

3)      Learn more about your fans to provide more value

This tool lets you learn about your fans’ interests and likes by sorting them into behavioural (hobbies, recent activities) and demographic segments (age, gender, location).

Fans interests can be used for Custom targeted campaigns, contests; and by identifying the other pages your fans like you can learn what content to share will be liked by your fans.

This may help you to provide more value to your fans and to increase brand loyalty.

For more tips and the possible search combinations you could use to help you conduct your research, suggest viewing the article 17 Ways Marketers Can Leverage Facebook Graph Search from Social Media Examiner.

If you have any queries on how social media can benefit your business, please do get in touch with our Sales team.

Author: Aysegul Yigitbasi




Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Geek Video of the Month




Last week (August 4th of 10th) was the first annual Geek Week on YouTube. So if you are a geek or a wannabe nerd, head on over to view geek culture from around the world.

The Agenda for the Geek Week was as follows:
  • Blockbuster Sunday 
  • Global Geekery Monday
  • Brianiac Tuesday
  • Super  Wednesday
  • Gaming Thursday
  • Fan Friday
  • Best of Saturday
This month’s ‘Geek video of the Month’ was part of Geek Week’s Brianiac Tuesday and features 10 Videos that will make you smarter. Excellent work.

You may also want to get involved with the Geek Test that is featured on their channel, to find out ‘What’s your Geek IQ?”.

We are really looking forward to the next Geek channel takeover, hopefully for a month next time, as their is clearly too much Geeky content being shared.

Well done to Jason Bradbury (of Gadget show fame) for launching his own YouTube Channel 'Supa Robot Attack' on Gaming Thursday, the channel brings remote controlled fighting robots to YouTube.
Sounds fun!

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

Team Event: Go Ape Tree Top Adventure



A great afternoon was had at Moors Valley Country Park, where the team experienced the outdoor ‘Go Ape Tree Top Adventure’.   We chose a great day for it, the temperature was ranging at about 18 degrees, which was ideal for the amount of physical activity that was required.  It was an awesome group activity, with team members giving each other encouragement to take the difficult crossings. Lots of giggles and some great photos have been shared.

  • Krishna (New Business) battled through a recent cricket injury with a smile on his face when climbing up the many ladders.
  • David (Web Development) progressed with gusto through the 1000 metres of high rope crossings, giving those who needed it confidence to progress further.
  • Fiona (Search Marketing) showed no fear on all the activities, coming down the Zipwire like an elegant fairy.
  • Kieran (Design) showed adventure with a head first landing into the wood chip from the last big Zipwire.
  • Farah (Project Management) went for the difficult crossings on the swinging rope bridges and got so involved in completing the course managed to rip her trousers.
  • Alex (Director) took the first jump on the free fall drop Tarzan swing, with much force. Think he was trying to impress his two lovely boys who were watching on the forest floor below us.
We would highly recommend this activity to other companies as a great team bonding event. We will definitely be booking again. Lots of smiles and lots of fun.

Thanks to David and Alex for organising the event. This month's team event: ‘Paint Balling’!

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Top Ten Tips for LinkedIn for Business





We are regularly asked for our top tips for engaging on social networks. Sharing with you this month, our top ten tips for engaging and optimising on LinkedIn, including updates and optimisations on Company Pages and personal LinkedIn accounts.

Feel free to share your LinkedIn tips in the comments section below.

Top Ten Tips for LinkedIn for Business

1. Know who, what and why you are looking to connect on LinkedIn. Define your goals. Listen and search.

2. Edit the description of your Company Page. Add keywords within speciality section. Choose the most appropriate industry. Optimise on the products and services pages. 

3. Create a professional headline and a summary about you and your experience on your personal account.

4. Select an appropriate networking approach. Send a personal message when reaching out and connecting. 

5. Develop a campaign on the Company Page to create community dialogue. 

6. Get involved with communities / Engage in group discussions and news. 

7. Add interesting and useful content to your Company Page, the type of content that would receive recommendations, likes, comments.

8. Follow influencers and news channels, so that stories you are interested in appear in your 'Home page' feed. 

9. Stay up to date with changes within the LinkedIn network.

10. Cross promote other social channels from your LinkedIn Company Page and personal profile page.  

You may also be interested in reading our Top Ten Twitter Tips for Business and Pleasure.

Author: Sarah Griffiths