By: Nour El-Miligi
As the world is slowly trying to heal and gradually rotating the work wheel once again, we have to say that COVID-19 hurdles haven’t been the easiest, especially for local and small businesses that are now mostly overlooked. However, the new Love Local initiative featured by Facebook has come to the rescue.
As the title implies, love local aims at drawing strength from the community, seeking their support to help small businesses in the Middle East, since it’s one of the most affected regions by the pandemic. The initiative has been launched through all Facebook-related apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger aiming at reaching those who work in small-medium businesses to promote their local products.
Through their Facebook page, the campaign shed light on the humanitarian stories of local brands and the challenges they’re facing amid the pandemic to push people into looking through their products, which they eventually discover are actually of good quality and don’t defer much from foreign and international brands. With time, the campaign hopes to create more consumer demand for local products by driving the community into having more engagements and building trust with local brands.
Aside from promoting to the local businesses, the initiative also provides access to SMB Training Hub, featuring more than 40 online webinars on the platform for business owners to be skillful when it comes to social media use and capable of obtaining the newest and most advanced ways, learning how to promote for their products as well as grow and sustain their online presence. All of the online courses revolve around the concept of business growth, where you’ll find many pieces of training entitled to topics related to “How to grow your online store with social media” or “Keys to a successful digital transformation.”
Believing that “Small businesses are the backbone of any economy and pillars of their local communities”, the Facebook initiative was adamant on shifting the attention of the community to these businesses, emphasizing their prominent role in maintaining the balance of the economy.
Using social media to promote for one’s products has become pivotal and consequential more than ever, especially during the pandemic, where most people’s shopping behaviors have shifted to the online platforms; that’s where the initiative stemmed from. Educating business owners on how to face the COVID-19 challenges as well as supporting those businesses by diverting the attention to them, is what the campaign aspires for.
For business owners who are interested to find out more about #LoveLocal, the available Facebook grants program, courses, and webinars, you can check their Facebook page. And for those who want the campaign to promote for their brands, you just have to upload your post on Facebook and mention the hashtag #LoveLocal.
