As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook has rolled out new ways and tools to help find and support small businesses. In a blog post, the company announced the introduction of a new “Support Small Business” sticker on Instagram.

Businesses can be mentioned in the sticker which will, in turn, give followers a preview of what the page is about. Whenever the sticker is used by accounts in a certain geographic location and added to Story, it will be added to a shared Story by Instagram. Followers will see the story along with other businesses that have been added by others.

The “Support small business” sticker can help businesses reach new customers and stay connected to the people that they serve. When businesses are mentioned in the sticker, they can repost the content to their stories or message people who tagged them. Businesses can also use the sticker to shout out other entrepreneurs in their community.

Apart from this, all business pages on Instagram have access to a “See COVID-19 business resources” section at the top of their profiles which Instagram says contains tools and resources to help navigate this pandemic period.

Parent company, Facebook has also added similar tools and features. There is a new Businesses Nearby section which aggregates latest posts from businesses within a certain geographical location. This can be from 1- 500 miles within. People will be able to see working hours, send a message, make a booking and choose delivery or pickup options.

Support can also be shown for small businesses by adding the hashtag #SupportSmallBusiness in Facebook posts. Creators on Facebook also have the option to tag a post with “in support of” so as to validate the businesses. Facebook has also added a dedicated Business inbox on the Messenger app so businesses can quickly engage easily with customers.