Brands are you listening? Facebook in app search has a lot in store for you

Social media marketing is going through a major game change with the introduction of ‘Add Link’ button on Facebook. It will allow you to search for links that can then be shared directly without leaving Facebook interface at all.

This in app search engine will impact content shareability, visibility and reach for both - brands and users alike. Social Samosa takes a look at how can brands leverage the upcoming Facebook feature.

Sudhir Nair, Head of Digital Marketing Agency, Grey

“It changes the game play a lot. It takes out the pain of leaving the ecosystem and looking for what you intend to share and again get back in. Not all of us are that planned to make this less irritating. An in-app search engine will help continue the engagement for brands with its consumers; which is a anyways a quality inherent to Facebook. At this point it’s not known; if it will crawl the entire web or just its own ecosystem. Either ways it will have a huge impact. The importance of content is a no-brainer; but with this it all becomes searchable too, within an ecosystem. It is in the moment; thereby the time to share is faster. The better you create, the more you share, the more the impact. Much like native advertising; this too will have a                                                                      significant impact.”

"Moreover, Facebook has already approached media and publishing houses to post directly on Facebook, which will only add to the search engine data, giving users more reasons to stay on the biggest social networking site," Nair added.

Zafar Rais, CEO, Mindshift Interactive

“Keeping a consumer inside Facebook will help the app monetize further and show higher value for a brand investing on the platform through content and campaigns. The content brands have been posting on Facebook will prove to be far more useful when consumers wish to search for specific information through the in-app search engine. The search engine will allow brands to reach out through new targeting mechanisms, with the app enabling personalized content through tracking usage patterns, further enhancing the value a brand can derive out of this feature."

Paritosh Ajmera,  Co Founder & Director - Technology, FoxyMoron

"It’s Facebook’s way of changing the search ecosystem. By adding this link option, Facebook is tactically keeping users within its network, reducing the number of times they end their Facebook browsing session. This option will gradually end the process of copying and pasting links on the browser, increasing the time spent on Facebook. Hence, it will benefit brands by making content sharing simpler and faster. I think Google needs a challenge and I hope Facebook can achieve it."

Vikas Chawla, Co-founder, Social Beat

“It’s too early to comment on how brands or publishers can leverage the in app search feature. At the outset it looks like a feature to enable users to search & then share links of articles that they have read before. Facebook had earlier announced that in the near future content from publishers would be displayed within the app rather than redirecting them to the browser (something that Twitter has been doing for a while now) which allows users to stay on the app and engage with it longer. This in app search has a similar aim to ensure that users can find the most interesting content and then share it                                                                      within their network - thereby reducing dependence on other mobile applications. While FB has said they have ndexed over 1 trillion posts, it’s unclear whether the search feature would take into account webpages that have never been shared on FB.

We have already seen success in amplifying reach of content for brands via FB. This needs to be requisite for brands wherein content is promoted to the right audience in order to build the brand connect. This new feature will further help make this easier for users. Sharing relevant content is going to be one way to leverage this feature.

In its current avatar the feature may not be able to impact Google which looks at trillions of websites and content pages. Similar to Twitter, FB is likely to restrict such content and search features to content sites rather than websites/apps/landing pages which will still need to be discovered via Google and other search engines.”

Chetan Asher, Founder & CEO, Tonic Media

“There will be much more clarity when Facebook runs a beta version of the in app search engine. Basis what they have said so far, marketers can leverage by encouraging consumers to tag the links and pages. Create a kind of virality with the links.”

This latest development is being called the ‘Google scarer.' After all Facebook has access to exclusive user related data, unlike Google.

Whether this data access advantage will turn the in app search engine into the ultimate one or help only in creating great personalised content for users, only time will tell.