By Parisa Zagat, Policy Programs Manager, Facebook

Today’s stop on our Facebook Community Boost tour across America is Des Moines, Iowa, where we’ll be from June 4th to June 8th sharing tips, tricks and trainings with small businesses and the community on everything from How to Find New Customers with Facebook to Getting Creative with your Mobile Phone and Instagram.

Giving DMACC Graduates a Boost with the Facebook Digital Marketing Certificate

While Community Boost in Des Moines will last for about a week, we’d like Iowans to have access to training and resources long after the event ends. That’s why we’re happy to partner with Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) to announce a new Digital Marketing Certificate Program. DMACC joins Central New Mexico Community College to be the first two institutions of higher education in the country to offer this program, which will include courses in digital marketing and social media strategy for enrolled students.

In a survey of the Des Moines community, we learned that having these digital skills is an important part of business growth, hiring decisions and competitiveness in the job market for both job seekers and managers.

Over 9 in 10 (94%) small business managers believe creating a social media presence for a company is important to growing a business, but less than 3 in 10 (27%) believe that their skills in this area are excellent 92% of small business managers believe creating content that renders well on a mobile phone is important to growing a business, but only about 1 in 8 (13%) believe that their skills in this area are excellent 90% of small business managers believe an individual’s digital skills are an important factor when hiring, but only about half of managers (52%) prioritize where a candidate went to school

We hope that this program will offer DMACC graduates an added boost to compete for jobs in the digital economy.

Supporting the growth of Iowa businesses and the economy is important to us. We’ll be hosting Des Moines Community Boost at Franklin Jr High School – just 20 miles away from Altoona, where we broke ground on a fourth building on the 400-acre site in May 2017.

Brice Towns, Site Manager for the Altoona Data Center, will be offering keynote remarks at Community Boost kick-off at 10:00 am on Monday, June 4th. He’ll be able to share more about how we hope to continue to support the Greater Des Moines community – whether it be through construction or full-time jobs, our Community Action Grants for area nonprofits, civic programs and schools, or our trainings for small businesses and communities who hope to grow and thrive on Facebook.

Come join us and register for free or find the latest city announcements, news and program schedules at facebook.com/communityboost.