“Boost with Facebook” Teaches Local Businesses How to Grow Online

More than 230 local business owners gathered at the Avalon Events Center

FARGO, N.D. — Amanda Rydell has co–owned her vintage rental business for a couple of years.

But her two business partners aren’t lifelong friends or former colleagues.

“We were friends on Instagram, and then we just realized how much of a passion we have for the same thing, and then all connected and put our business plan together and started from there,” Rydell, co-owner of The White House Co. said.

Their love for anything vintage brought them together online, but Rydell says social media is just as important to their business model now as it was when they first started.

“Social media’s kind of always been a big impact in our business. I think it’s a great way to reach out to customers, and just to show things that we’re doing that can really interact with showing off our business and the things that we can do,” she said.

That’s exactly what the “Boost with Facebook” event is teaching local businesses.

Using tools like “Ads Create,” and Messenger, Facebook stresses that it can help companies reach people who matter most to them.

Some of those attending are experienced entrepreneurs, while others are new to the game.

“I was a teacher for 12 years. I taught high school biology and physics here in town, and was a home brewer and saw where the market was kind of going and decided to throw my ring in, or my hat in the ring,” said owner of Prairie Brothers Brewing Co. Don Kenna.

Kenna has owned the only brewery in South Fargo for two and a half years, and says without social media, his business wouldn’t be where it is today.

Now, he’s on stage with a Facebook expert, teaching other small companies how to grow online.

But social media marketing aside, some say being in Fargo has benefits on its own.

“Fargo is a small–big city, so it’s growing a lot and there’s a lot of opportunity to be involved in things that you really don’t get that opportunity in bigger cities,” said Scoop N Dough Candy Co. owner Josh Ulrich.