MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Small-to-medium businesses looking for smart ways to gear up for the festive season gathered today at Facebook’s Festive Bootcamp in Manila. Participants brushed up on their digital marketing know-how and learned about new tools and templates to save time and effort during the busiest time of the year.
The free training event which took place in 17 Facebook offices around the world over a span of 24 hours, is part of Facebook’s celebration of small businesses and the important role they play in their respective communities. Here in the Philippines, 200 Manila-based small-to-medium businesses joined the event and attended a series of seminars and workshops aimed at making running a business on Facebook easier.
“Millions of businesses across the world use our free and paid tools to run and grow their businesses everyday. We’re proud of the major role we play in helping businesses of all sizes grow and create meaningful impact in their communities,” said John Rubio, Country Director, Facebook Philippines. “With festive boost, we want to provide small and medium-sized businesses access to market insights and tools that can help them plan for an extended holiday season for their customers.”
The Bootcamp included courses to help businesses build their end-of-year strategy to hands-on experience with Stories School—a popular course that helps businesses understand how best to connect with customers through the Stories feature of Facebook and Instagram.
Giving small businesses a boost this festive season is part of Facebook’s commitment to helping local entrepreneurship thrive. On-going programs include:
- Boost with Facebook: a suite of tools and training programs to help small businesses grow and to equip more people with the digital skills they need to compete in the digital economy
- Blueprint – provides free e-learning training for businesses
- FbStart and SheMeansBusiness are programs to accelerate entrepreneurship, foster mentorship and celebrate diversity
The company expects to deliver over 200 free small-business trainings and workshops around the world this year.
Filipino Holiday shopping insights
At the event, the company also shared the results of a Facebook-commissioned study conducted by Ipsos, which looked into the shopping behavior of 1,501 survey respondents in the Philippines aged 18 and above.
Insight #1 : It’s an Extended Holiday Season
The study notes that an annual spike in online consumer activity happens in November and December due to a rise in shopping moments, and extends until January. These include mega sale days such as 11/11 (Single’s Day), 12/12, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Lunar New Year, which are growing in popularity in the Philippines year-on-year. In the Philippines, 12/12 is the most popular shopping day for 37% of respondents this year versus 16% last year.
Insight #2: Shoppers hack the in-store experience with mobile
A big part of Christmas shopping still happens in-store, but mobile plays a key role in discovering and browsing for gift inspiration. 85% of respondents said they use their mobile/computer device to find ideas, while 72% went in-store.
For the majority of respondents, the most common resource for discovery of gift ideas were their Facebook and Instagram feed, and Stories. 94% of those surveyed shared that Facebook is influential in their Christmas shopping decisions while 58% credited Instagram in influencing their purchase.
Even when inside the store, 73% of respondents said they would use their mobile device—up by 10% since last year. What do they do on their smartphones while shopping in-store? Many of them said they compare prices (69%); compare products (61%); and read product reviews (60%).
Insight #3: Videos inspire holiday gifting
More than thumb-stoppers while browsing mobile devices, respondents said that online videos help them determine what they want to buy for Christmas.
Respondents said that during the holiday season, they like watching videos that emphasize families (67%); while others prefer videos that get them in a holiday mood (58%) or give them holiday gift ideas (58%).
Insight #4: 9 out of 10 people say they’re more likely to buy from a business they can message
Respondents said they’re more likely to make a purchase if they are able to contact businesses on an instant messaging service. This drives the importance of being able to engage customers on a more personal level.
The top five reasons cited for messaging a business during the holiday season are: to find out more details about a product (66%); to purchase a product (58%); to track an order (58%); to find shipping details (56%) and to find store information (47%).
From discovery to purchase, holiday shoppers will rely on what they find online through their mobile devices. Messaging and video content will continue to transform expectations of businesses to be more responsive, and to build more engaging and meaningful connections with customers.
Additional resources for small and medium-sized businesses:
- Insights: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/the-mega-sale-is-on-five-key-trends
- Tips/Courses:
- 10 Courses to Help You Perfect Your End-of-Year Strategy
- Ready for the busiest season of the year? Make it your best yet with this essential set of courses. https://fbblueprint.com/BoostYourStrategy
- Courses:
- Get Started with Pages
- New to Facebook for business? Watch and learn what we’ll cover in this series and how you can use it to grow your business. Course HERE.
- Get Started with Pages
- 10 Courses to Help You Perfect Your End-of-Year Strategy
- Create Your First Post
- This course explains the concept of Facebook posts and how they can help you communicate with customers on your Page. Take HERE.
- The Essential Guide to Facebook Page Posts
- Learn about the best practices for posting on your Page – including frequency, and relatability. See HERE.
- The Essential Guide to Facebook Ads
- If you’re new to Facebook ads or digital advertising in general, you may not know how to create these types of ads. For the five key steps, see HERE.
- Get Started with Events
- Watch a step-by-step guide to see how you can create and publish an event on Facebook HERE.
- Promote a holiday deal
- Learn about the different kinds of offers and discounts you can post on your Page HERE.
- Tips for Telling Your Business’s Visual Story on Instagram
- Use this training to better communicate, express your business identity and create engaging visuals and compelling text for your posts. Learn HERE.
- Spread some holiday cheer
- Want to interact with your customers in real time? Learn how to use Facebook Live HERE.
- How to Use Facebook Tools to Communicate with Your Customers
- To help you manage interactions with your customers, explore the benefits of Page Inbox HERE.
- How to Evaluate Your Page’s Performance
- With Page Insights, you can your engagement metrics become more valuable the more often you post. You can use this information to compare how different posts perform and create future posts accordingly.
