LCI Blog: How can Facebook Graph Search help public relations?

Hi, I’m Samantha Cuerington, LCI’s newest intern. I graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California in May, and soon after walking across the stage, I was given the opportunity to join the LCI team. A few months ago, one of LCI’s former team members wrote about the creation of the Facebook Graph Search and how it can help PR professionals. I decided to conduct my own research about Graph Search and how it relates to PR and everyday life.

What is Graph Search?

Graph Search uses Facebook profiles, photos, places and interests as its database. With that information, it connects people based on their similarities.

How can Facebook Graph Search help young PR Professionals?

That’s simple: through connection.

For example, when I searched for “people I may know,” I soon found nine people I had somehow missed connecting with during my four years at St. Mary’s College.

Then I looked for “people I may know in PR,” “people I may know who studied PR” and “people I may know who studied PR and live in San Francisco.” A total of 14 Facebook users turned up in that search.

The people Graph Search delivered in this query were based upon mutual friends, mutual interests and mutual “likes,” such as PR in this case. In this search, I had 3-6 mutual friends with the first 10 people and 1-3 mutual friends with the next three Facebook users.

How can Graph Search help professionals in public relations?

Graph Search can help PR professionals connect with local journalists and develop a basic understanding of their audience. By conducting a simple search regarding “journalists who live in San Francisco,” Graph Search pulled more than 100 people in my area. This feature can help PR professionals with such important tasks as building media lists, developing relationships and understanding what interests a journalist has.

Facebook has developed a social media tool that helps PR professionals gain easy access to users’ interests, hobbies and careers. It will also help users find other young people working in the same career because it helps with networking to find potential new business opportunities, and it can also be helpful when seeking a new job.

If you’ve tried Graph Search before, what’s been your experience? Check it out and see how it may help you connect.

If you’d like to share your thoughts about Graph Search, please leave a comment below or contact me at [email protected]. Happy searching!