by Lauren Hunter

Whether you love it, hate it, or haven’t really used it much, Facebook Graph Search can help your church get discovered by those in your local area, much like searching the Yellow Pages.

While the title of the infographic below is, “Can Facebook Graph Search Make You Money?” I thought it more applicable to the Church to focus on how Facebook Graph Search can help people find your church online.

Graph Search uses the one trillion or so social connections on Facebook to provide relevant and professionalized search results.

The name itself is derived from a sociogram which Facebook uses to depict the personal relations of its users. It currently supports  searches for the following types of objects – public posts, people, pages,events,applications, groups, places, check-ins and objects with locations info attached.

So, how does all this help small business? One way is that Graph Search places an emphasis on local search rather than brand pages.

This means that small businesses with local pages are given the same voice as everyone else. Check out the infographic below, developed by: Advantage Capital Funds, to learn more about Graph Search as well as some tips on how to optimize your pages to take advantage.

Has your church checked out Facebook Graph Search to see how different search terms pull up your Facebook Page?

Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer, consultant and blogger who loves the Lord and desires to encourage churches to better use technology to improve every aspect of ministry. Her blog, ChurchTechToday, was born out of a need to find a place to discuss how technology can impact the Church in positive ways.

This post originally appeared here October 11, 2013. Used with permission from the author.