IONIA, Mich. — After 15 months of lockdowns, many businesses that survived the pandemic have little time to waste in getting back to where they were before March 2020.
So to help, the city of Grand Rapids partnered with Facebook recently in hosting a “Boost with Facebook” event, walking entrepreneurs through the most effective methods to reach potential customers.
Russ Oakley is the owner or Metal Monkey, a metal sign company that started in the Spring of 2018 out of Ionia.
He was invited to be part of the event, a free training for Grand Rapids small business owners. It taught Oakley and other business owners like him to determine who is most likely interested in his business and how to make his advertisement spending more efficient.
“One of the cool things is Facebook has an algorithm that they set up," Oakley told Fox 17. "So it helps you to kind of track who's looking at your stuff. So basically, it helps people looking for metal art to find us."
The 45 minute training aims to help entrepreneurs rebound quicker now that the economy is back open, something Oakley already appreciates.
“What I've seen that Facebook has done is they've created just a whole bunch of tools for small business to market through Facebook and Instagram," Oakley said.
Oakley admits, he’s still a work in progress in effective advertising which is why he’s so excited about trying out some of the new tools he has learned through the event.
“That's the key about Facebook for us is, you know, we have people that know people that we don't know," Oakley said. "So once they post whatever they got made on Facebook and friends start commenting and all sudden you start getting busy. So what we found is Facebook is the key to our survival. So if we wish to continue to grow, then we need to focus on Facebook.”
To watch the free event, click on Boost with Facebook.
SEE MORE: WEST MICHIGAN REBOUND