Social media has become a vital tool for nearly every business to engage with their customers, but many small business owners have no idea where to start. Facebook Inc. wants to solve that problem with the launch of a new outreach program called Facebook Community Boost, which is aimed at teaching digital and social media skills to business owners, entrepreneurs and job seekers around the country.

Dan Levy, vice president of small business at Facebook, said the goal behind the new program is “to help U.S. small businesses grow and to equip more people with the digital skills they need to compete in the new economy.”

Facebook Community Boost will tour the country, visiting 30 U.S. cities in 2018, including Houston, St. Louis, Albuquerque, Des Moines and others. According to Levy, Facebook has invested more than $1 billion to support small businesses on the social network, and Facebook Community Boost is not the company’s first education program. Facebook’s “Boost Your Business” program has held a number of conferences around the world to teach small business owners about using Facebook’s many tools, as well as how to employ advertising best practices and how to be creative with social media posts.

“I’ve visited a lot of communities this year and one theme I’ve found is that strong small businesses create strong communities,” Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook earlier today, when he said he was meeting with small business owners in St. Louis (pictured). “That’s because small businesses create jobs, provide services, and bring people together. A lot of small business owners end up being leaders in their communities too.”

Zuckerberg added that Facebook needs to “make it easier for people to start and build new businesses or find jobs and opportunities, and in the process strengthen their communities.”

In addition to teaching business owners and entrepreneurs the ins and outs of social media, Facebook Community Boost is also targeting job seekers. In its announcement today, Facebook pointed to new research from Morning Consult Intelligence, which said 62 percent of U.S. small businesses list digital and social media skills as an important factor for hiring decisions.

Although Facebook’s new program is aimed at teaching digital skills, it also seems to focus heavily on Facebook’s own products, including Messenger, Instagram and Workplace. So far, the company has been vague about what other skills will be taught and whether they will include programs that Facebook does not already own.

Photo: Facebook