With industries like food & beverage, tourism, and entertainment taking major losses in view of global health crisis, more and more people, mostly entrepreneurs, are turning to social media as a way to save their businesses and jobs.
As a starter, there are currently 10.9 million Filipinos who lost their jobs or now have lowered incomes, unemployment rate is at 10.4 percent–the highest in 15 years, the GDP contracted 9.5% last year.
Taking into consideration that small- and medium-sized companies account for 99% of all registered businesses in the country and provide 60% of the jobs in the country, there is now a book on social media marketing “Thinking Outside the Box” that has been launched, and its for free, to anyone who wants and needs help keep their ventures afloat during these trying times.
Authored by Brian Poe-Llamanzares (Yes, Senator Grace Poe’s son), the book is a way of giving back to most people who kept our economy vibrant despite struggles coming our way. He spent the past year writing “Thinking Outside the Box,” a book on social media marketing.
He believes that by publishing this book and making it free for all Filipinos he would be able to play a role in helping the economy recover.
“You can only give so much ayuda. At some point you have to create jobs or at least help those giving jobs to our fellow Filipinos. That’s why I wrote this book. So that anyone going digital will have a guide to help them navigate their switch to social media.”
Many may wonder, “with what authority does he write?”
Poe-Llamanzares has quite an in-depth knowledge of digital marketing. He took an executive program in “Digital Strategy and Social Media Marketing” at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2018.
He was also an early investor in TruFan a social intelligence platform that recently acquired Social Rank. He is also an investor in STOBZ Media and Digital 360 agency.
Brian’s most recent venture is serving as the lead investor and marketing director of Alike Inc. which he helped grow to become one of the country’s top premium digital media publications in less than one year.
Giving Back
With more and more businesses are switching to online selling in order to survive. Poe-Llamanzares saw this and realized that the world’s largest social media platform “Facebook” doesn’t come with an instruction manual.
He saw this as an opportunity to give back and share everything he learned from his studies and experiences as an entrepreneur.
“There’s no guidebook for medium to small enterprises that need to use social media in order to make sales and survive this pandemic.”
When asked why he made it free, Poe-Llamanzares argued it is for the future of the country saying, “how could I charge for something so essential during this crisis? Anyone can download the book for free! This is my investment in my fellow Filipinos, isinulat ko itong libro para sa bayan.”
Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are growing, but Facebook remains the dominant platform for Filipinos and acts as an anchor for all other platforms and businesses which is why Poe-Llamanzares chose to focus on this platform in his book.
This book is a must read for anyone looking to make the switch to digital sales and marketing. “Thinking Outside the Box, Facebook Marketing” is available for free on his website: www.brianpoellamanzares.com