Today I noticed that one of my clients had both the Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Panel appearing for the business in search results. Typically these are not separate entities but combined within the businesses knowledge panel.
The site does not have Organization structured data on site but LocalBusiness structured data which includes SameAs fields for their social media profiles that are displayed in the Knowledge Graph.
Knowledge Graph & Knowledge Panel Appearing in SERPS
Both knowledge graph and knowledge panel being displayed for business name.
Structured Data Markup and Knowledge Graph / Panel
Google developers docs recommends to use markup on your official website to add your social profile information to a Google Knowledge panel. Knowledge panels prominently display your social profile information in some Google Search results.
Google shows this using Organization Schema
<span itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization"> <link itemprop="url" href="http://www.your-company-site.com"> <a itemprop="sameAs" href="http://www.facebook.com/your-company">FB</a> <a itemprop="sameAs" href="http://www.twitter.com/YourCompany">Twitter</a> </span>
On this site I have used normal LocalBusiness Schema
<script type='application/ld+json'> { "@context": "http://www.schema.org", "@type": "LocalBusiness", "name": "SHOOTFACTORY", "url": "http://www.shootfactory.co.uk", "logo": "http://www.shootfactory.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/shootfactory-brand.svg", "telephone": "+44 (0) 207 252 3900", "email": "info@shootfactory.co.uk", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "Alaska Buildings, 61A Grange Rd", "addressLocality": "London", "addressRegion": "London", "postalCode": "SE1 3BD", "addressCountry": "United Kingdom", "sameAs" : [ "https://plus.google.com/+shootfactory", "https://www.facebook.com/SHOOTFACTORY/", "https://twitter.com/SHOOTFACTORY", "https://uk.pinterest.com/shootfactory/", "https://www.instagram.com/shootfactory/", "https://vimeo.com/shootfactory"] } } </script>
I would have thought that by using SameAs within the Local Business schema it would have added the social profiles to the businesses knowledge panel, like it has done with Harrods knowledge panel.
The only thing that I can surmise, is that we have worked very hard on the businesses branding which has in turn resulted in a separate knowledge graph being displayed.
Google never ceases to surprise me.