Facebook Graph Search seems to have a lot of potential. With the improved search feature, we'll finally be able to sift through all the user data on Facebook in an intelligent, intuitive way.
For businesses and startups especially, features like Graph Search and Facebook's conversion measurement tool sound promising -- has Facebook finally given business owners the toolkit they need to acquire new customers, target ads on a micro level and drive measurable conversions?
The jury's still out, so we asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs to share how they're using (or plan to use) Facebook's newer features to serve their business goals. Here's what they had to say.
1. Retain Current Customers vs. Acquiring New Ones
2. Utilize Conversion Measurement
— Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
3. Enable Engagement and Understand Specific Results
As these tools launch, every brand is on an even playing field; no one, regardless of size or budget, has an advantage over even the smallest startup. We believe that all startups must test, learn and listen to see what's working. Facebook has enabled brands to be more analytical about engaging their fans.
— Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches
4. Use Social Graph to Better Invest Facebook Dollars
Before Social Graph, our "executive ad" would have targeted people who had the job title "founder." With Social Graph, we can see that "founders" on Facebook don't often fit the profile of "executives." So instead of targeting "founders" and "CEOs," we can target different terms that match the executives we want to reach. This enables our dollars to be better spent on the conversions we want to see.
5. Build Community Through Social Graph
6. Use Google Analytics to Track Facebook Leads
We use Google Analytics to track the leads Facebook generates for us via our website. We set up goals and have noticed that engagement correlates highly with conversion rates. Tracking the engagement on a given post has allowed us to figure out what topics interest our readers the most, which then guides our content creation process. We couldn’t do that with Facebook’s tools alone.
7. Recruit With Social Graph
— Jeff Berger, Doostang and Universum Group
8. Hone Your Target Audience With Graph Search
— Heather Huhman, Come Recommended
Image via iStockphoto, zmeel