The digital giants are all chasing India’s small businesses. If Google India launched a big push through a mobile app called Google My Business some time back, and domain name registrar GoDaddy launched an ecommerce solution to help online entrepreneurs set up a web shop quickly and cheaply, then now it’s Facebook India’s turn to try and empower small and medium entrepreneurs by setting up an SME India Council.

According to Facebook, this is the first such initiative in Asia Pacific by the platform. Explains Kirthiga Reddy, managing director, Facebook India, “The SME India Council is an open forum for local businesses to share feedback with our teams so we can align and continue to develop impactful solutions to grow their business.”

According to Facebook, there are 2 million small business pages on the platform. And that 57 per cent of FB users in the country are connected to at least one small business. There are over 1.99 billion interactions between businesses and FB users.

But this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to potential. According to advisory firm Zinnov, there are 51 million small and medium businesses in India and only 20 per cent of these (about 10 million) are technology ready. Just about 500,000 have a website. This is a ripe target for Facebook, which already has most large companies on its platform and is looking for growth avenues.

As Nimesh Shah, head maven at Windchimes Communication, a social media consultancy, points out, “Facebook’s growing SME thrust was just a matter of time. It is imperative for that platform to keep reinventing itself and search for new pastures to maintain the high rate of growth. In any economy SMEs provide the quantum and have the capability to provide that impetus provided they see value in it. “

Earlier this year, in August, Facebook launched Small Business Boost - a series of events aimed at helping SMEs promote their brands and products through FB pages. Now the SME India Council is strengthening this drive. As Rahul Desai, India SME Director, Facebook, says, "The SME India Council will help our teams understand specific needs and build solutions to help all Indian businesses connect with the right people and grow.”

Among the 12 who are part of FB’s SME council are Amruta Walvekar, director, Wrapistry, Anaka Narayanan, Director Brass Tacks., R Balakrishnan, co founder, GIO Adventures, Vivek Iyer, co-founder, English Dost and Maya Chandrasekaran, chief of talent at Babajob.com.

Shah of Windchimes feels that for any SME to adopt a social platform, it will ask two questions: Is there a big enough universe of my potential customers for me to target, and secondly, does the platform have features that can target customers hyper-locally without wasting media monies. He feels Facebook is tackling both through initiatives like Internet.org and SME Council.

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