Last Wednesday, Facebook announced that there are now 40 million active small business pages on the site. For this reason, Facebook has launched some new tools and educational resources to support businesses with the launch of its new Boost Your Business Program. This will also include a new chat support tools feature for businesses to ask questions and receive direct feedback from Facebook.

Boost Your Business Program

Facebook elaborated on the Boost Your Business program in an official blog post, nothing that the new program “is comprised of both half-day and 2 hour pop-up events, each focused on bringing small businesses together to share best practices and hear about the latest marketing strategies and tools.” The upcoming Boost Your Business events in San Diego, Minneapolis, Nashville, and Boston will be in collaboration with companies such as MailChimp, Shopify, Visa, and Zenefits for added guidance. These events will be focused on social media marketing best practices and how to grow their business on Facebook. Representatives will be discussion marketing strategies and tools now available for small businesses.

Facebook for Business Live Support

Businesses on Facebook have always wanted a more direct way to get their Facebook questions answered. Now, Facebook is giving advertisers on the social network a dedicated chat line where small businesses can chat with a Facebook ad specialist about their ad campaigns.

“Businesses that advertise on Facebook now have access to one-on-one support through live online chat. By clicking “Get Help” on the Facebook for Business website, advertisers can chat and screen share with a trained Ad Specialist to get quick answers to their Facebook advertising questions.”

The live chat feature will roll out in several countries, starting in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Facebook says it plans to also launch a live mobile chat and phone support as well.

The 2015 Boost Your Business Program is Facebook’s effort to help small businesses improve their marketing and reach more customers on the site. Facebook is hoping that these new resources and tools will encourage more small businesses to take advantage of the ad opportunity on the platform. So far, Facebook’s ambitious efforts are bearing fruit. In April 2015, Facebook’s first quarter earnings revealed that use engagement and mobile advertising increased for the social platform, making up 73% of the social network’s total advertising revenue from January – March 2015, up from 69% at the end of 2014.

What are your thoughts on the new resources and tools that Facebook is providing for small businesses? Are you planning to take advantage of these resources in the future?