Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that social network sites could provide a good platform to small entrepneurs to expand their business and find new market sitting at their homes.
“The government is providing infrastructures to these small traders while social sites provide them the take their products to new heights. This has opened new frontiers before them,” Yadav said at the conclusion of Facebook’s first leg of `Boost your Business' programme on Friday.
After hosting a series of successful events and outreach activities in Kannauj, Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi , the ‘Boost Your Business’ program completed its first leg of the programme in Uttar Pradesh.
"The social media, particularly Facebook, has certainly helped the traders and businessmen to boost their businesses. Such programmes should be launched in other districts of the state too," he said.
The CM said that his government wanted all round development. "If the government is building infrastructure it is also trying to ensure that small traders expand their business and are being provided help at all levels," said Yadav.
“The social sites could help these traders to markjet their products better as the Internet has brought all markets close. A person sitting in Moradabad can sell his produce in Australia and Germany,” he said.
Yadav further said that this program is designed to arm Indian businesses with the knowledge, skills and technology required to stay innovative and connect with customers at home as well as abroad.
Head of Economic Growth Initiatives for Facebook (India), Ritesh Mehta said that thousands of MSMEs from UP can now connect to millions of new potential customers across India and worldwide through their Facebook pages.
"We look forward to taking the ‘Boost your Business’ program to other states as well. These events help provide small businesses with the technology and resources required to generate sales in a measurable way,”he said.
In the past week, a team of experts visited various markets and business hubs of lucknow and educated businessmen on how they could use the Facebook to build an online presence that helps them grow. The program has helped in creating around 572 business pages in lucknow.
The event also saw business owners sharing their success stories with the audience and also discussed impact of their Facebook pages on their businesses. Besides the CM, his ministerial colleagues Nitin Agarwal and Abhishek Mishra also attended the programme.