DETROIT -- Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg virtually stopped by a Detroit’s Economic Club meeting Tuesday to talk about the role of social media in small business growth.
Before the Zoom talk, Sandberg met nine owners of Detroit businesses ranging from skin care to tea. The virtual roundtable was comprised mostly of women and minority business owners. She highlighted their stories as examples of small business ingenuity.
Sandberg’s first Instagram Gift Guide also features five female founders in Detroit, including The Little Flower Soap Co., Pure Detroit, House of Pure Vin, Bon Bon Bon, and Ellis Island Tea.
She said Facebook provided social media training to 100 million small businesses, including one million woman-owned businesses, in 2020.
Sandberg announced Boost with Facebook is coming to Michigan this month in partnership with the Small Business Association of Michigan. The Boost with Facebook program gives business owners marketing, advertising and data analysis tools for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The free tools offer help with increasing online awareness, connecting in local markets and increasing online sales.
To register for a webinar focused on how to raise online awareness, small business owners can go to Small Business Association of Michigan’s website or Facebook page.
Throughout the pandemic, more businesses turned to e-commerce. The National Retail Federation reported online sales increased 21.9% in 2020. In previous years, online shopping accounted for about 7% of total shopping volume.
“I think coronavirus has been an acceleration to what is online, but that was a move that was happening,” Sandberg said. “They say never waste a good crisis. We need to make sure that small businesses come out of this crisis not just surviving, but stronger.”
Pre-pandemic, one third of businesses did not have an online presence, Sandberg said. Facebook and Instagram offered cost efficient ways to bring businesses online, she said.
Sandberg said about 200 million small businesses use Facebook’s free tools and 10 million use advertising products.
“When you think about what it used to take to start a small business — get a storefront, get a loan, raise a lot of capital — that was prohibitively hard for people, much harder for women, much harder for minorities, even harder for women of color,” she said. “This is the great equalizer. Online anyone can do this in minutes.”
Last month, Apple announced changing its privacy settings to let iPhone users turn off their unique advertising ID. Facebook has launched an opposing campaign: “Good Ideas Deserve to be Found” in defense of personalized ad data.
Sandberg repeatedly brought up personalized ad data as a benefit to small businesses, using examples of Detroit yoga studios and bakeries that wouldn’t be able to afford widespread advertising, but could effectively reach their core markets with more localized advertising.
Tightening up on personalized ad data as a way to protect privacy is “an untrue promise,” Sandberg said. She defended Facebook’s advertising strategies, saying that when users see a local ad, their information does not go to that business.
Part of Facebook’s campaign involves educating users and business owners on how personalized ads work. Sandberg said the company does take responsibility for protecting privacy and being transparent around privacy issues.
“Our job is to make sure we protect people’s privacy and make sure we explain that well,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve explained it well, which is part of why we’re having this conversation today.”
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