Facebook Rolls Out ‘SMB Guide’ to Help 9 Million Indian SMBs in Building Digital Presence and Reaching Potential Customers Online

New Delhi, November 4: With an aim to help the micro and small businesses in India to limp back to normalcy, social media giant Facebook on Wednesday rolled out a dedicated offline to online ‘SMB Guide’. In order to help these businesses recover from the pandemic-induced crisis, Facebook has come up with new resources to help make this journey frictionless for them. Reports inform that this offline to online SMB Guide for India is free and publicly available. However, the social networking giant is also proactively reaching out to nine million small businesses across the country to ensure it reaches the businesses who need it the most.

The SMB Guide is available in Hindi as well as in English in order to support a large number of businesses across distinct geographies. Archana Vohra, Director Small and Medium Businesses, Facebook India, said in a statement said that the new resources are geared to helping the smallest of businesses across geographies to move from offline to online with minimum effort. “"While the offline to online SMB Guide is publicly available, we are proactively reaching out to 9 million small businesses across India to ensure timely support”, she said.

The SMB Guide:

According to a report by IANS, the SMB Guide has been designed to provide a step-by-step direction on how the smallest of businesses can build a digital presence quickly, and reach potential customers online. The guide covers Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and key themes such as building an online presence, mobile storytelling, social media advertising, and creative and performance strategies.

The social networking giant said it is also rolling out the next leg of 'Boost with Facebook', a skilling and learning programme for scaling young businesses. The programme went virtual earlier this year, and is now going vernacular, and will be delivered primarily in Hindi through Facebook Live sessions. One of the key themes discussed during Boost with Facebook will be how small businesses can build for Diwali and the festive season beyond it, the company said.