Facebook Graph Search will prove key for local retailers

Facebook Graph Search in action, as seen on Mashable

The web is abuzz today with discussion around Facebook’s Graph Search, its new in-built social search system based on the data it’s been able to gather from all us users over the past eight years.

Safe to say, it marks an interesting move for the platform, and one that’s likely to impact significantly on all businesses alike, but particularly such consumer-facing ones as fashion brands and retailers.

If you’re a local boutique for instance, there’s no time like the present to make sure all your info is up-to-date, you’re doing everything you can to increase your following, and you’re thinking more than ever about how to stand out from the competition. It seems those who interact and engage with their fans the most, will be the ones that appear at the top of search results.

Here’s a good synopsis of what it’s about from Mashable: Facebook Graph Search could be its greatest innovation

And some nice comments from various industry experts over at Econsultancy: Facebook’s Graph Search: what does it mean for marketers?

Infographic: millennial shoppers and their online influences

Forewillow*, a new Ohio-based ‘re-commerce’ start-up, has just released an infographic about millennial shoppers that’s sprinkled with some interesting facts. It outlines that 28.5% of the US population, or those classified as millennials (born from the early 80s to early 00s), will have more buying power than any other generation by 2017.

It also suggests they are 16% more likely to explore brands online than non-millennials (top clothing labels include Forever 21, H&M, Gap, Levi’s, Express and Nike), and that 64% of them want brands to offer them more ways to share their opinions online.

Already, 60% of them spend time creating user-generated content such as reviews, compared to just 29% in other generations. And 42% of them say they’ll share positive and negative feedback via social media channels before going directly to the company themselves.

See the whole thing, below…

*Forewillow invites users to sell bundles of clothes to others who share their size and style – doing so enables them to earn virtual currency to buy their own bundles from someone else. It aims to target millennials who are “fashion conscious but not designer obsessed”, and help them “live in today’s ‘one and done’ fashion mindset without breaking the bank”. Find out more here.