As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, so must we. Staying connected with family members, friends and businesses has taken on new meaning. Teams at Meta are involved in efforts to help keep people informed and safe as we build the programs, products and services our communities rely on. In this story, Diana D. shares how her team is helping small businesses transition their services online, help find financial relief and manage through challenging times.
Just six months into her role on Meta’s U.S. Policy Program team, Diana found her team’s work supporting small businesses taking on a new level of urgency.
“When the coronavirus pandemic hit and people were encouraged to stay home, small business owners quickly realized they needed to react, transition and pivot their businesses online,” she says. “They needed immediate relief. Within every level of Meta, we felt an immense responsibility to help support the small business community with this transition.”
Diana spent part of this past summer working from Jackson Hole, WY
As a former small business community liaison to the White House during the Obama administration, Diana has seen firsthand how small businesses benefit their local communities. “I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true—small businesses truly are the backbone of our economy,” she says. “They embody the American dream.”
To help business owners navigate these challenging times, Diana’s team needed to pivot quickly as well. One of the team’s biggest programs is Meta Boost, which brings live training sessions to cities around the country. Experts help businesses learn how to leverage Meta tools to build their presence online and reach more customers. With COVID-19 requiring shelter-in-place and social distancing mandates, the team shifted to an e-curriculum.
“Within every level of Meta, we felt an immense responsibility to help support the small business community with this transition.”
Through the
Business Resource Hub, businesses can now access programs online, and locate helpful information such as resources from government agencies and guides on how to navigate loans. Another key initiative was supporting the
Meta Small Business Grants Program. Diana’s team helped promote the program and its resources to key stakeholders and partners through webinars. “We made sure we had a wide variety of partners to get this up-and-running, and that it reached businesses across the country,” she says.
Diana says the entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to innovation that Meta team members bring to their work has been incredible to witness. “Meta is a place that thrives on brainstorming and cross-functional collaboration. Anyone can run with a thought and see it through to the implementation of a product. There’s just one guideline: always ask how the idea brings support to a community,” she says.
Diana continues, “We’re constantly ideating and iterating to come up with new ideas to better serve the small business community. It really comes from a genuine place, and it feels good to know that Meta is putting such a focus on helping small businesses weather this storm in any way we can.”
This post, originally published on October 20, 2020, was updated on October 14, 2022, to reflect our shift to Meta and new details about team members, roles and responsibilities.
