Nearly 210 million people from around the world are connected to a business in Australia, according to new Facebook SMB research.

Facebook has released research statistics about the performance of Australian small and mid-sized businesses (SMB) on its platform. It has also introduced new tools which it hopes will enable SMBs to better target audiences and convert sales.

More than one-in-three Australians SMBs on Facebook built their business on the platform, and 46% say they have been able to hire more employees due to growing demand from Facebook; 61% say they’ve increased sales because of the platform and 59% believe it allows them to sell products or services in other cities, state or countries.

Social media skills are highly regarded for employers, with 62% in the study saying digital and social skills are important when hiring a new employee, more than where an applicant went to school.

The new tools for growing businesses include language matching capabilities and multi-country lookalike targeting.

• Dynamic-language optimisation enables businesses to place multiple languages within one ad set, with Facebook matching the right language to the right user.
• Multi-country lookalikes will enable businesses to find next best customers in a combination of countries of their choosing. Previously, advertisers could create an international lookalike to find best customers in one country.
• Multi-city targeting enables targeting to cities based on things like population size and selected region.
• FBIQ Cross-Border Business Insights Finder will provide comparative country data based on post-campaign performance across Facebook, Instagram and Audience Network platforms.

Worldwide, there are 1.6 billion people connected to a business on Facebook, with nearly 1.2 billion connected to a small business in another country. Almost 210 million people from around the world are connected to a business in Australia. The top five countries include USA, UK, Canada, India and Pakistan.

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Further reading

• Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon are your biggest threats, not disruption »
• Facebook ANZ head of marketing on engaging in real and mobile ways »

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