Users, Consumers and Marketers: Defining the New Universal Facebook Search

The latest Facebook announcement has everyone talking about how the media platform is leveraging its data to increase engagement not only to its users, but its advertisers as well. With Facebook making public posts searchable, it means that any search will now reveal a new level a personalization by including conversations from people in those results. It’s an exciting new development that will affect content marketers and users alike, as the experience becomes increasingly tailored to individuals and their searches.

How Does Facebook Search Impact Users?

Not only will users be able to search for their friends, users will be able to search for and read conversations around the world about topics they care about, or are interested in. Predictive search suggestions will improve, meaning that when you type in anything at all, Facebook will be more intuitive about what you’re looking for.

Facebook says that search results will be organized and have a clean layout – separating news, events, and conversations to make the experience more fluid. Additionally, public conversations about topics will be searchable. If you want to learn about why people are talking about Drake’s new video, you’ll be able to look for it and see exactly what your friends (and the rest of the public) are saying about it, directly from the search results.

For those who don’t like the sound of this, there is a way of turning off this feature, although it will also affect who has been able to see all of your posts from the past. That could include any embarrassing public photos posted years ago on your timeline, or comments you made that you could now regret. Check out your privacy settings and follow the instructions here if you’re considering opting out of the new search feature.

What the Universal Facebook Search Means for Advertisers

The new Facebook search feature is the platform’s attempt to make even more user data indexable, searchable, and targetable to content marketers and advertisers. By indexing users’ public posts, marketers will be able to hone in on smaller, more localized conversations, mini-trends, and other unique events that can help them shape more appealing and personalized campaigns to those users.

For instance, if a community is having a conversation about the election, advertisers will be able to see who is in the conversation, what is their demographic, and exactly what the conversation is about.

While this might seem like a total paradigm shift, it’s not clear whether or not it will dramatically impact Twitter, Google, or any other ad platform for that matter. For many content marketers, Twitter is about publishing content, engaging in conversations that have the ability to trend when they reach a tipping point. For tips on how to increase your successes on Twitter, read Johnny’s 7 Be’s of Highly Effective Tweeting.  

Google’s search algorithm is also personalized, but draws on things such as your emails, location, or calendar entries, in addition to what you’ve previously searched for. Facebook’s universal search is unique in that it offers a different level of personalization that’s based more on the user’s “likes” and personality. And, unlike Facebook, Google allows you to remove your personal search preferences, which isn’t an option when anyone signs up for the social media platform.

Content marketers should prepare themselves as they do any other opportunity to make meaningful connections with their users – to connect with their audience, get feedback and as much engagement as possible in order to fine tune their future campaigns. As for Facebook users, the new change ushers in an equally exciting opportunity to better engage with each other, find out what other friends are saying around you, and using a search algorithm that is more intuitive and useful to you.