Whāriki And Facebook Introduce New Digital Skills Training For Māori Businesses

Auckland, 10th November 2020 - Facebook in partnership with the Whāriki Māori Business Network will today launch a free digital marketing programme, ‘Boost with Facebook’, tailored to support Māori-owned businesses across Aotearoa.

Available for free online and open to all businesses, the training will be hosted by new Facebook Community Trainer Katie Brown (Raukawa and Ngāti Whātua) and includes live streamed workshops, case studies and panel discussions of particular relevance to Māori businesses, and those within retail and tourism sectors.

During the five week programme participants can expect to learn new skills ranging from how to find customers online to using live streaming tools to showcase products and services.

Heta Hudson, Whāriki Chairperson, encourages whanau to sign up for the free online courses, saying, “If you have a business, then you are almost certainly online and utilising social media to connect with customers, tell your stories and sell your products. During lock-down we saw the proliferation of whanau businesses using social media platforms like the “Buy Māori” Facebook Group to promote their businesses and connect with customers everywhere. Facebook provides an easily accessible, cost-effective platform for whanau to launch and promote their businesses into a ready market, virtually overnight! It absolutely made sense to us to partner with Facebook to provide free training to allow whanau the opportunity to learn how to utilise the full suite of Facebook and Instagram tools available to enhance and grow their connections with their customers, amplify their stories and grow their business! Kia whakatuarā tātou ki a tātou nga pākihi Māori!”

The first training session begins live online at 2pm on Tuesday 10th November, followed by the first panel discussion at 7pm on Thursday 12th November. The five-week programme continues until 10th December.

Alisha Elliott, Head of Policy Programs - Australia and New Zealand at Facebook, says “We’re proud to extend our partnership with Whāriki to back more Māori-owned businesses with digital skills to grow and find customers throughout the local, national and global economies. Small business owners are thinking more about the skills they need as part of longer term digital transformation and we want to support them on that journey. In fact, 47% of New Zealand SMBs recently surveyed reported they expect their usage of digital tools for interacting with customers to increase after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. (Source: Deloitte Digital Tools in Crisis and Recovery SMB Report, 2020)

Anyone can attend the training sessions and panel discussions, which will all be streamed publicly on the Facebook App (NZ) Facebook Page and the Whāriki Facebook Page.

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