Valorie Reavis of Linkup Marketing has a piece of advice for spas and salons—you must be ready to take advantage of Graph Search, the latest development from Facebook that promises to take word-of-mouth recommendations to new heights.
Graph Search, which was recently unveiled by Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is being piloted in the U.S. before being rolled out worldwide, but it promises to connect users to people and businesses via friend recommendations and activity. However only those spas and salons that are active and working strategically on Facebook will benefit.
According to Facebook, Graph Search makes Facebook more than a social network. It will be a powerful search engine fueled by users who are interested in what their friends do and trust their opinions and tastes. Using filters connected to location and lists of affiliations, like the school they went to, Graph Search will allow users to do a general web search using Bing, but will focus on finding businesses and people relevant to them using their friend network.
“Most spas and salons are now aware that a presence on Facebook is important, not just for keeping in touch with clients, but also to reach out to clients’ friends through posts and campaigns,” says Reavis. “But with the launch of Graph Search, it is even more important, as it could well become an important source of new client recommendations. A strong Facebook strategy will pay high dividends to smart spas and salons in the near future.”
With around 1 billion users, 240 billion photos, and 1 trillion connections, Facebook offers an enormous amount of content to helps users find information within their trusted network. With Graph Search, this information is now searchable. “Users could search for hair color in their area, and Graph Search will come up with a list of people and businesses that their friends trust that are interested or talking about hair color in that area along with pictures of their gorgeous looks,’ says Reavis. “This is a whole new layer of credibility.”
Reavis is urging spas and salons to ready for Graph Search now by actively encouraging clients to recommend them on Facebook using the recommendations tool, and getting clients adding pictures of themselves if and when they “check-in” on Facebook as they arrive and leave the spa or salon.