Facebook has unveiled new products that will help the over 90 million small businesses on its platform, as part of its celebration of the National Small Business Week.
In addition to its small business training program which comes up in Washington DC annually, Boost with Facebook, Facebook has added new solutions to help small businesses save time and resources so they can focus on growth.
Among the new tools being introduced by Facebook is the Automated Ads feature which takes the guesswork out of buying ads on Facebook, creating the right advertising plan for each business in a few easy steps. Based on the businesses’ goals, this tool uses the existing images from their business page and let’s business owners “set it and forget it” to make it even more simple for them to advertise and focus on other aspects of their business.
The new additions also include Appointment Bookings, a new tool which expands Facebook’s free tools for small businesses to effectively manage their time. With this new tool, service-based businesses on Facebook and Instagram can now accept and manage appointments, customer information and send appointment reminders — all from their phone.
The latest addition also includes video creative tools that help small businesses build eye-catching video for mobile in just minutes.
A statement from Facebook reads; “We believe in empowering small businesses through our free and paid solutions to help more people launch and grow businesses, which translates to real impact for their communities and local economies. According to the SBA, 98.2% of businesses in Washington, D.C. are small businesses and together they employ more than 240,000 people.
“Beyond adding more tools, we also want to help make sure business owners in the District — and around the country — have the digital skills they need to take their businesses to the next level. That’s why all of the sessions at our D.C. Boost with Facebook event, hosted at Union Market, are free and open to anyone who wants to join.”
Attendees will hear from local business leaders making a difference through the use of digital tools while getting the opportunity to attend classes on everything from getting started on Facebook and Instagram to optimizing their content for mobile and the audiences they want to reach across platforms.
“Through events like this one, we’re making progress towards our goal of training one million people in the US in digital skills by 2020. We hope these new tools and training programs make it easier for small businesses on our platform to focus on what’s most important: growing their businesses,” the statement adds.
