Facebook's latest community push is on-site small business training
The company will visit 30 cities in 2018 to provide increased tech savvy via its own platform.
Facebook has been quietly supporting small businesses around the globe to the tune of $1 billion. The company says that it has trained more than 60,000 small businesses with Boost Your Business, and that over one million small businesses have used its free online learning hub Blueprint. 70 million small businesses use Facebook Pages, too, according to the company. Now Facebook is launching Community Boost, a new program to help small businesses in the US become more digitally savvy.
The idea of the new program is to support small businesses' use of digital and internet tech, which new research (performed in collaboration with Facebook) has shown translates to new jobs and opportunities. According to Facebook, Community Boost representatives will visit 30 different cities in 2018, including Houston, St. Louis, Albuquerque, Des Moines and Greenville, South Carolina. Visiting teams will work with local organizations to provide digital skills training for job seekers, advise entrepreneurs on starting new businesses and help regional businesses and nonprofits "get the most out of the internet," according to a blog post.
While much of the training will likely be focused on using Facebook to reach small business goals, the company does promise to help people getting online for the first time or wanting to support their community with training on basic digital literacy and online safety. The company will also train community members how to organize using Events and Groups.
