When Facebook announced the launch of Graph Search at its media event on the 15th January, we at The Practice were excited by the prospect, particularly as it was dubbed the site’s “third pillar.”

Last week, we blogged our initial response to the announcement, and outlined several of our predictions, including how our privacy is likely to be affected. For Facebook users, the new feature throws up several concerns, but for brands, we can only see them benefitting from the transition.

So how will Graph Search prove to help the marketing efforts of businesses? Ben Gibson, Managing Director of The Search Agency argues that promoting the value of “likes” and interests is likely to favour return of search. “There has been much discussion over the last few years regarding the value of a Facebook “Like” but Graph Search will make it even more important for brands to generate quality “Likes” so their pages can be found,” he states. If Facebook’s Graph Search tool acts as the site’s built-in search engine, ‘likes’ will regain their value because searches are to be based on discovering interests. “Likes”, or the notion of sentiment, is one of the only elements that gives Facebook Graph Search a potential edge over Google- particularly with their unsuccessful attempts to establish their own “like” system, the “+1” button.

“Likes” and “shares” have already started to factor into the business mindset. We saw evidence of this towards the end of last year, as Facebook updated its News Feed algorithm, Edgerank. The changes meant that only a company’s most viral posts would show up on a fan’s newsfeed; ie. those with a higher engagement rate in the form of “likes”, “shares” and comments. Less engaging posts perhaps only achieved a reach to around 10 per cent of a page’s fans, rather than all. This, alongside Graph Search, is adding value to the “like”, and with this, once again placing emphasis on the notion of social connectivity.

However, the “like” causes many problems for analysts, primarily because it’s not been uncommon to see companies paying for more in order to increase their clout. Graph Search literally gives advertisers justification for the amount they’ve spent over the years whereas before they would have been dissatisfied in the disappointing return of investment. In this way, Graph Search is highly appealing to marketers, who hope that ‘likes’ will now take on meaning.

For businesses, this means greater frequency in search results, and, coupled with growing mobile usage, we see this particularly benefitting location-reliant companies such as restaurants, bars and cafes- those companies who could stand to attract local punters searching for a pit-stop near by. We also predict smaller businesses benefitting from having a greater return of search, as more people are made aware of these by searching in line with their current interests.

Do you think Facebook’s Graph Search is set to be a more attractive and subtle way for businesses to advertise without us being bombarded by the current display ads? And do you think adding value to the “Like” will help companies connect with a greater audience? Please tweet your thoughts to us on Twitter @PracticeDigital and comment on our Facebook page.