New Delhi: A large part of the Indian economy depends on the small and medium enterprises that are present in every nook and corner of the country. They contribute a significant amount of money in direct and indirect taxes and help in rotating the wheel of the financial world. More often than not, these entrepreneurs rely on word-of-mouth branding, perform reasonably well in their domain, and have a modest base of loyal customers. However, they face a huge challenge when it comes to scaling their businesses outside a specific boundary or to multiple states. They do not have strong budgets and reliable teams to handle the advertising and demand it generates. However, digital medium has helped them in solving this problem to a large extent. During the initial days of Covid2019, many of these players lost a huge chunk of business as shops were closed and most customers turned to e-commerce. Amid such times, many of them turned to digital to find new buyers. They started advertising on mediums such as Facebook, Instagram and others to find like-minded customers and connect with them.

In light of this, Facebook is working towards bringing these entrepreneurs and professionals to its platform and helping them amplify their business.

To celebrate such entrepreneurs and small businesses, the social media giant recently launched the Nayi Shuruaat campaign. It aims to celebrate the resilience small and medium businesses have shown to pivot and make a nayi shuruaat (new start) amidst the biggest crisis the world has seen in recent times. The initiative lauds real stories of optimism, strength, and economic recovery from across the country.

Facebook India director, small and medium businesses Archana Vohra said, “Facebook’s goal has always been to enable new opportunities for businesses, especially for the more than 60 million small businesses across India. In the face of so much uncertainty, we’ve remained inspired by how small businesses have reinvented themselves by moving online – many for the very first time. Every day we see amazing examples of SMBs using the Facebook family of apps to pivot, and make a new start, and grow through this particularly challenging time. This film is about celebrating their economic recovery and nayi shuruaats, and we hope that their resilience will inspire millions of other small businesses and entrepreneurs across the country.”

The film focuses on three unique small businesses - The Moms Co that sells toxin-free mom and baby products, coffee brewing small business Sleepy Owl, and Doodlage, a sustainable fashion brand.

While coming from distinct industries, all three businesses bounced back from the pandemic by leveraging the strength and reach of their Facebook and Instagram communities. 

"We started The Moms Co three years ago with a Facebook post, and built a strong community of mothers across India that has helped us become a leading brand for natural, toxin-free, and safe personal care products for moms and babies. Covid brought our expansion plans to a sudden halt, forcing us to re-evaluate our strategy and figure a way to make a new start amidst the new normal. We turned to our Facebook and Instagram communities to grow in these times. Over the last few months, we've done regular engagements, interactions, and Lives to engage, learn, and even institute new product development processes. We've seen our business grow 200 per cent over pre-Covid levels, and Facebook has been central to this," said The Moms Co co-founder Malika Sadani.

Doodlage co-founder Kriti Tula said, "Doodlage was born with the dream of bringing together fashion and sustainability. The drive behind Doodlage resonated with people on Instagram. Our products are made by upcycling factory waste, recycling second-hand clothing and industrial waste. When Covid struck, many brick and mortar stores we stock at struggled or went through a worse fate. Connecting with our digital consumers became more important than ever. Our business has grown three times of what we were before the pandemic, and our usage of Facebook and Instagram has more than doubled in this span. With the support of our community on Instagram and Facebook, we were able to bounce back in these tough times, and deliver not just across India but also expand to Australia, Dubai, Singapore and Europe.”

"Sleepy Owl started with the vision of building an indigenous coffee brand in India. We're a digital-first brand and while starting out used the Facebook platform to build the brand and spread awareness. Our community on Facebook and Instagram helped us grow from a small kitchen in Dwarka, Delhi to retail shelves across India. But when the world shut down, our Facebook and Instagram community came to our help yet again, helping us make a new start. Since March, we've used Facebook and Instagram a lot more than we did before the pandemic; we've reached new customers and coffee-lovers, taken orders online, and served more 150,000 cups on the back of digital," said Sleepy Owl co-founder Arman Sood.  

The Nayi Shuruaat film has been made by Wunderman Thompson and the campaign will run across print, digital, and television.

In the last few months Facebook has also taken numerous steps to support the economic recovery of small businesses. As part of its $100 million global grant for small businesses, the company announced a $4.3 million grant for small businesses in India. The social networking platform has also taken its industry leading skilling programs online to provide continuous support to small businesses through the pandemic.

Its flagship skilling program ‘Boost with Facebook’ is now being delivered through Facebook Lives in both English and Hindi to reach out to a larger audience. The company recently rolled out a local SMB Guide in Hindi and English to help small businesses move online seamlessly reaching out to 9 million small businesses across India.

This year, a key focus for Facebook in the Indian market has been bringing small businesses onboard its platform in order to help them expand their businesses. These businesses do not have the resources and capacity to spend heavily on ATL, BTL advertising. Hence, Facebook aims to bring them online where they can leverage digital advertising and spend according to their appetite and reach the audiences they wish to connect with.

Over the last couple of months, the brand has launched several ads in its More Together series where it showcases how people can use their connections to do more. It has focused on how people have helped small businesses sustain during this period.

On Diwali, it launched a seven minute film where it showcased how a young entrepreneur helps sustain as many households as possible through the hardships of the pandemic via her dairy venture. The film beautifully showcases how the employees make use of Facebook to amplify their message and attract new customers.

A lot of entrepreneurs are already advertising on Facebook to expand their business. If the brand can get more people to join the platform it will definitely have a huge impact on its revenue. Simultaneously, the platform will also have to continuously innovate to ensure that people connect more on the social media platform and its audience base continues to increase.