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Whether it\u2019s to \u201cbring the world closer together\u201d or improve its public image, Facebook today<\/a> announced Community Boost<\/a>. Facebook tells me it\u2019s investing tens of millions of dollars into the program that will travel to 30 cities around the U.S. in 2018. It will teach digital job skills to the unemployed, internet literacy to those just getting online, startup methodology to entrepreneurs and customer growth to small business owners.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, though, all these skills revolve around Facebook, which Facebook clearly thinks is the key to a better life.\u00a0Stops on the tour include Houston, St. Louis, Albuquerque, Des Moines and Greenville, South Carolina\u00a0\u2014 which are conspicuously all red states that voted for Trump in the 2016 election. Perhaps Facebook hopes to reduce unemployment that led to the dissatisfaction with current political systems which landed us Trump.<\/p>\n Facebook cites research by Morning Consult<\/a> indicating \u201c62% percent of US small businesses\u00a0using Facebook said having digital or social media skills is an important factor in their hiring decisions \u2014 even more important than where a candidate went to school.\u201d\u00a0Houston Mayor\u00a0Sylvester Turner says that \u201cWe\u2019re happy to welcome Facebook to Houston to boost our residents\u2019 digital skills and make sure our vibrant community of entrepreneurs and small businesses gets more out of the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n The program might be perceived as less self-serving if Facebook had concentrated on teaching skills beyond it site, like how to make a good-looking resume or handle job interviews. So while the intention behind Facebook Community Boost might be honest, it\u2019s tough to interpret it as altruistic while Facebook is amidst congressional hearings into election interference on its platform and is toying with the entire journalism industry as it sucks out ad dollars and jobs.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at Facebook\u2019s plans for the program, with the parts where people learn to better use Facebook bolded.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re\u00a0looking for a job<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>we\u2019ll provide training to help you improve your digital and social media skills<\/strong>. According to the research,\u00a062% percent of US small businesses\u00a0using Facebook said having digital or social media skills is an important factor in their hiring decisions \u2014 even more important than where a candidate went to school.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n If you\u2019re an\u00a0entrepreneur,<\/strong>\u00a0we\u2019ll have training programs on how to use technology to turn an idea into a business or show you ways to create a free online presence using Facebook<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n If you\u2019re a\u00a0business owner\u00a0<\/strong>we\u2019re going to offer ways your business can expand its digital footprint and find new customers around the corner and around the globe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n If you\u2019re\u00a0getting online for the first time<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0you want to support your\u00a0community,\u00a0we\u2019ll provide training on digital literacy and online safety.<\/strong> And we\u2019ll also help community members use technology to bring people together, with features like Events and Groups<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n All that said, it\u2019s hard to imagine any of the other tech giants like Google, Apple or Amazon pouring resources into something so directly tied to improving people\u2019s socioeconomic mobility. Similar to Mark <\/a>Zuckerberg\u2019s 2017 challenge to meet people from every U.S. state<\/a>\u00a0that finished today in Missouri, you can either see it as just publicity, or as Facebook legitimately wanting to get out and hear from its constituency. Users can request Community Boost come to their city by filling out this form<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things I\u2019m most proud of is that 70 million small businesses use Facebook to connect with customers,\u201d writes Zuckerberg<\/a> about today\u2019s announcement. \u201cThat\u2019s 70 million people who now have access to the same tools the big guys have. Now we need to make it easier for people to start and build new businesses or find jobs and opportunities, and in the process strengthen their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Facebook tells me it\u2019s invested more than $1 billion into supporting small businesses since 2011 through programs like\u00a0Boost Your Business classes,\u00a0<\/span><\/a>which teaches social media management, and the\u00a0Blueprint<\/span><\/a> online\u00a0learning hub that 1 million businesses have looked to for social marketing skills. Facebook also is building a digital marketing curriculum to train 3,000 Michiganders in the next two years.<\/span><\/p>\n It will take a lot more to convince people Facebook is a benevolent force in the world. Even though its heart is often in the right place, Facebook has demonstrated an inability to predict the misuse and negative secondary impacts of its platform or do enough preemptively to prevent these problems. But if it wants to mend the rift in U.S. society, getting more people employed is a good start.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Featured Image: Facebook<\/small><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/DRWdTZZoTRs\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether it\u2019s to \u201cbring the world closer together\u201d or improve its public image, Facebook today announced Community Boost. Facebook tells me it\u2019s investing tens of millions of dollars into the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-9896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/95504_screen-shot-2017-11-09-at-9-45-33-am.png?resize=640%2C243&ssl=1\")
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