Facebook Opens Its Doors to Live Search

Although I don’t currently have a Facebook profile I do realize that it’s extremely popular and used by a lot of people within my own personal network of family and friends.  What I’m hearing from the folks who do have profiles is that Facebook is a great way to display an overview of yourself; your personality, likes/dislikes, and is a tremendous source for connecting with friends, both personal and professional, old as well as new.  And now, according to a Kelsey Group blog post I stumbled upon, it’s gotten even better! 

 

With its October partnership with Microsoft, Facebook will now provide search capabilities while staying within the Facebook platform.  Check out the comment from the Facebook blog:

 

“By integrating web search into Facebook, you can increase the information available to share with your friends, family and coworkers on the site.  For example, your friend may invite you to an event at a new restaurant. Without leaving Facebook, you can check out the details of the restaurant on the web.”

 

So it’s my understanding that this capability will serve up tremendous opportunities for small and large businesses alike, as it involves local search and utilization of the ad platforms within the site.  How cool is it that you can connect with friends and family within Facebook, research and even book an event while in the site?  Convenient, right?  So, if you’re in business trying to target this large, viable audience with your products or services, why not consider adding Facebook to your marketing mix.

 

And talk about a timely subject matter!  We’re always looking for new and innovate ways to market ourselves and our company and Patti Spirko and I were just discussing the advantages/disadvantages of creating a Facebook and/or MySpace profile for our company or recommending it to our clients.  This topic was discussed during a blogging workshop Patti attended at the Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference in Columbus last month.  The question was thrown out to the group, “has any one gotten any new business from your Facebook account.”  No one in the group could say for sure that they had.  Facebook, it seems (at least to that particular group) is a great way to connect with friends but for professionals truly looking to gain valuable business leads, LinkedIn may be the better option.

I’m still undecided about a Facebook profile.  I do, however, rely heavily on LinkedIn for generating new business leads and keeping professional contacts in one place.  So I’ll pose this question to you folks that may have a Facebook and LinkedIn profile.  From a business standpoint, which of the two sites do you find more beneficial?