Helping People and Businesses Find Their Online “Main Street”
Helping People and Businesses Find Their Online “Main Street”
Facebook BusinessBusinesses are facing immense challenges during the COVID-19 crisis, and supporting them is critical to the well-being of entrepreneurs, communities and the economy. As many stores remain closed and social media serves as an online Main Street, the shift to doing business online is more urgent than ever.
Today, we’re announcing new ways for people to support and discover small businesses, along with more tools for keeping businesses informed and connected with their customers.
Helping People Support Local Businesses
We’re releasing a “Support Small Business” sticker on Instagram and a #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag on the Facebook app to let people show their love for small businesses. Creators on Facebook can also use a new “in support of” tag to promote small businesses to their fans.
When people use the Support Small Business sticker on Instagram, their story will be added to a shared Instagram story, so their followers can see it along with other businesses that people they follow are supporting. If they mention a business using the sticker, the business can repost the content to their stories or message the people who tagged them.
We also know people want to more quickly find essential products and services. To help them do that, we’re exploring ways to easily connect them with local businesses on Facebook. Through Businesses Nearby people can learn what’s happening with their neighborhood shops, message them or order food and buy goods from them through third-party apps. This will also help businesses see more virtual foot traffic as they move online to stay open.
Keeping Businesses Informed
Businesses can now access COVID-19-related information, business tools and best practices in the Facebook and Instagram apps. This real-time, in-app information helps businesses more quickly take steps to move their business forward. These complement our existing Business Resource Hub and can be found in the shortcuts on the Facebook app and through businesses’ profiles on Instagram.
Helping Businesses Stay Connected With Customers
People and businesses are already finding inspiring ways to help their local communities using our tools like gift cards, food orders and fundraising. In Kirkland, WA, Sitar Indian Cuisine created a fundraiser, Sitar's Food Drive to Feed Community Hero's Fighting COVID-19, and raised over $12,600 to serve 5,000 meals to frontline healthcare workers and people in homeless shelters and camps.
Businesses are also using creative ways to engage their customers as they pivot to online-only service – from gyms offering workouts on Facebook Live to stores sharing product information in their WhatsApp catalog, and restaurants using Messenger to reach customers with delivery options.
To improve how businesses stay connected with their customers in this critical time, we will be launching a major upgrade of the Business Inbox in Messenger, making it easy for businesses to communicate with customers directly in the Messenger app. With just a few clicks, businesses can also leverage our Chat Plugin to enable seamless chat experiences on their websites.
Following the launch of Temporary Service Changes, a tool that made it easier for businesses to share critical information on their Facebook Page, businesses also now have a way to tag COVID-19-related posts from the Page composer to keep people updated.
We remain committed to small businesses as they fight to stay open and shift online, and we’ll continue to explore new ways to support them.
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Announcements
May 11, 2020
Helping People and Businesses Find Their Online “Main Street”
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Today, we’re announcing new ways for people to support and discover small businesses, along with more tools for keeping businesses informed and connected with their customers.
Helping People Support Local Businesses
We’re releasing a “Support Small Business” sticker on Instagram and a #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag on the Facebook app to let people show their love for small businesses. Creators on Facebook can also use a new “in support of” tag to promote small businesses to their fans.
When people use the Support Small Business sticker on Instagram, their story will be added to a shared Instagram story, so their followers can see it along with other businesses that people they follow are supporting. If they mention a business using the sticker, the business can repost the content to their stories or message the people who tagged them.
We also know people want to more quickly find essential products and services. To help them do that, we’re exploring ways to easily connect them with local businesses on Facebook. Through Businesses Nearby people can learn what’s happening with their neighborhood shops, message them or order food and buy goods from them through third-party apps. This will also help businesses see more virtual foot traffic as they move online to stay open.
Keeping Businesses Informed
Businesses can now access COVID-19-related information, business tools and best practices in the Facebook and Instagram apps. This real-time, in-app information helps businesses more quickly take steps to move their business forward. These complement our existing Business Resource Hub and can be found in the shortcuts on the Facebook app and through businesses’ profiles on Instagram.
Helping Businesses Stay Connected With Customers
People and businesses are already finding inspiring ways to help their local communities using our tools like gift cards, food orders and fundraising. In Kirkland, WA, Sitar Indian Cuisine created a fundraiser, Sitar's Food Drive to Feed Community Hero's Fighting COVID-19, and raised over $12,600 to serve 5,000 meals to frontline healthcare workers and people in homeless shelters and camps.
Businesses are also using creative ways to engage their customers as they pivot to online-only service – from gyms offering workouts on Facebook Live to stores sharing product information in their WhatsApp catalog, and restaurants using Messenger to reach customers with delivery options.
To improve how businesses stay connected with their customers in this critical time, we will be launching a major upgrade of the Business Inbox in Messenger, making it easy for businesses to communicate with customers directly in the Messenger app. With just a few clicks, businesses can also leverage our Chat Plugin to enable seamless chat experiences on their websites.
Following the launch of Temporary Service Changes, a tool that made it easier for businesses to share critical information on their Facebook Page, businesses also now have a way to tag COVID-19-related posts from the Page composer to keep people updated.
We remain committed to small businesses as they fight to stay open and shift online, and we’ll continue to explore new ways to support them.
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