In an exclusive conversation with SMBStory, Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses, Facebook India, reveals how the social media giant is working to boost the SMB sector, why it decided to collaborate with VC funds, and how it is investing in skilling and training entrepreneurs 1+ Shares Share on
Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are a significant growth driver in India They have the potential to increase its share of contribution to GDP from the current 8 percent to about 15 percent by the year 2020
The fact that the Indian government is stressing on the revival of these traditional industries was seen in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2019, which aimed to strengthen MSMEs by making them digitally active and providing access to hassle-free finance
Social media giant Facebook also aims to help SMBs in India grow Facebook India recently announced an industry-first initiative of collaborating with Venture Capital (VC) funds to accelerate the growth of SMBs they invest in As a part of this programme, Facebook will work with VC funds with the aim of skilling and mentoring brands by sharing insights on best practices, proven solutions, playbooks, and vertical insights among other key learnings
Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Business at Facebook India
In an exclusive interaction with SMBStory , Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses at Facebook India , offered insights on how Facebook is giving a boost to small and medium businesses by connecting them to their target customers
Edited excerpts of the interview:
SMBStory: How is Facebook helping SMBs in India grow?
Archana Vohra : Across the globe, we support approximately 90 million SMBs And in India, we are exceptionally committed to giving a boost to the SMB ecosystem
There are two sets of SMBs in India: one is digitally engaged while the other is absent from the online medium, lacking even a basic understanding of the internet world For the first set of people who are already online, we have launched various programmes recently This includes the VC brand incubator that helps Facebook partner with VCs and, in turn, help micro-business entrepreneurs skill, mentor, and train
Small businesses and startups are cash-strapped, and keeping this in mind we also organise various workshops where leaders from Facebook extend solutions that can enable them to grow and scale their business
Facebook recently also launched the SheLeadsTech programm e exclusively to encourage women entrepreneurs.
The programme has enabled 600 women entrepreneurs access to tools, mentorship, and resources to help overcome barriers, and build a successful business in technology
Now, for those SMBs that are not digitally active, we have a three-layered approach We have a boost programme that we launched in India last year; here, we guide them on coming online and how it will help their business grow The second programme is blueprint training, and involves complete digital marketing training online and in classroom The third is the Facebook for Business website, which is intense on tutorials and self-help; it even tackles basic queries like how to create a Facebook page
By helping SMBs grow, we are solving the problem of reach, frequency, scaling up, and RoI
SMBS: People are sceptical about “boosting” on Facebook and feel that the cost of these advertisements is high They fear they will not get a return on the amount they spend How do you address these issues?
AV : When a customer says that their business isn’t scaling with the number of likes, I make it clear that the number of likes doesn’t define growth as it is not using the advertising platform So, an entrepreneur has to be very clear on their business aim when they start with Facebook marketing If an entrepreneur wants business reach, frequency, or double the depth of business there are certain tools for that
This is the reason we provide training sessions to advertise on Facebook.
There may be challenges with people but the solution at any level involves one question: how do entrepreneurs at each level get training and skilling to scale?
SMBS: What about Facebook guidelines on the type of content suitable for ads? Text or video?
AV : Facebook never nudges one product over the other The brands themselves figure out who their target audience is If there is a higher video-watching audience, they go with something compatible with that However, if their audience is fine with a static image or a plain ad, the brand will choose that
When it comes to emerging consumer trends, we are not into that The choice of the type of ad lies with the brand You have to use Facebook within its family of apps and decide what’s useful for your business
SMBS: How many SMBs have you helped as part of your VC programme?
AV : For the initiative, we had brands from ecommerce, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)
We had 25 different brands in the room.
We kept the audience a little small because the idea is to empower and equal them
SMBS: How does Facebook plan to support SMBs in the future?
AV : There is a lot to do in the future We will double down on training, mentoring, and skilling entrepreneurs We will focus on enabling people to come online and also help them with driving business growth
The government is focusing on Startup India and expecting around 50,000 startups by 2024 Even we are committed to boosting the startup ecosystem, and we will continue to drive it in various ways
Wherever we can drive the larger growth of SMBs, be it through a partnership, government relationship or skilling, Facebook will keep investing in these spaces We have invested in Meesho that helps in reaching out to a large number of resellers and homemakers in one platform that has enabled SMBs to grow So, wherever we see an opportunity to strengthen SMBs, we are happy to invest
from WordPress https://ift.tt/2Y0UUut
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment