On Thursday, Facebook was in to teach local veteran and military family small business owners how to optimize their presence and engage customers on the world’s largest social network. Facebook staff greeted all the up and coming entrepreneurs and business owners eager to provide insights on how to get that little extra exposure that they need to make it in in these tough economic times.
Facebook staff have made their way around the country, with 40 stops, to assist smaller businesses as they navigate the social media juggernaut.
At Thursday’s event, military family members had an opportunity to network and exchange information with each other about their businesses before the instruction began. Quite a few took advantage of the large selfie booth set up just outside the conference room.
Among the many tables set up in the back of the room, helpful Facebook staff could be found wearing camo print shirts with the Facebook logo on it.
Rep. Martha McSally, a retired USAF A-10 pilot, kicked of the event with a salute to veterans. The retired Colonel said she was thrilled to see how many veterans Facebook has helped over the years and the effort they made on Thursday. “I think it’s fantastic. It’s these kinds of partnerships – sitting down and figuring across the private sector – helping individuals and veterans – that are going help our veterans take all of their potential and bring it to our community. Whether that is a small business or anything else they are trying to do: if they are an advocate or an activist for something. I think the business partnership that Facebook is doing here is a great model.”
Another group dedicated to veterans, Team Red, White and Blue also presented at the event. The group helps veterans stay active after service. From fitness activities, to gatherings and events, Team Red, White, and Blue constantly looks for new ways to reach out to veterans. Facebook is one of the main avenues they use to connect with veterans.
“Personally I think it’s been a really great way to be more direct and personable and genuine with the posts that we do,” Vivian Vralsted said, “because you are not going through a middle person necessarily. I know some people still use ad agencies even if they are utilizing Facebook, but it’s a really great way to connect directly to our members. We don’t use a page so much as ourselves and the other chapters of our organization use “closed groups” (on Facebook) so we can post what our events are and keep that limited to our current members. Anyone can join, but that way we can really direct it at the population that is the focus of our events.”
McSally told the crowd that while Facebook has made starting up a business and advertising it easier and cheaper, she knew the people of southern Arizona faced issues this joint effort could not solve.
“We have a really challenge in Southern Arizona. With Raytheon, Davis Monthan and the University of Arizona our biggest employers, we’ve got a real gap to get other good paying jobs here – and we have a lot of low paying jobs here. So we’ve got this wonderful university here. Kids are graduating and to paraphrase something somebody else told me – ‘we have to stop having our graduation ceremony at the airport.’” McSally continued, “Across the board, part of it is what we (the federal government) are fighting for: that we have the opportunities to grow our infrastructure so we capitalize on trade with Mexico. That we grow our defense and aerospace industry and also we have a growing bio tech industry. Appropriate research dollars coming to the university and supporting things like Tech Line Arizona which starts up companies that we hope will stay here. Those are my focus areas, but there are also ones that can happen at the state level, the county level and local level to make Southern Arizona business friendly and one that businesses and families want to move to. Millennials want to move to and stay…You look at the conditions we have here – they are awesome – but we just have to have economic opportunities for everybody. So this is a great initiative that is gonna help us but we’ve got a whole lot more that we can do as well.”