DURHAM, N.H. - If you're trying to decide whether your business should venture into social media, the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center has a new online course to teach you the best ways to capitalize on it.

An outreach program of the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics, the NH SBDC has launched the online course "Social Media for Small Business," announced today at Small Business Day at the State House.

"Social Media for Small Business" is one of more than 20 online courses that are part of the center's e-Learning for Entrepreneurs program funded through a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration to help businesses in distressed areas of the state and underwritten by Public Service of New Hampshire.

"Two years ago the NH SBDC adopted a proactive strategy to reach as many entrepreneurs as possible, 24/7, with the launch of its e-Learning program," said Mary Collins, state director of the NH SBDC. "Today we are thrilled to add this dynamic new social media course to our range of tools designed to help move New Hampshire businesses forward in the global marketplace."

The course defines social media and describes how businesses can take advantage of four major social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and YouTube. The course is hands-on and walks students through how to use social media tools and build an effective Internet based marketing plan. Like all of the e-Learning for Entrepreneurs courses, the course is designed to be taken during one or multiple sittings. Students can pause the course at any point and restart it later.

The NH SBDC's e-Learning for Entrepreneurs classes are available online, any time, at no cost to New Hampshire entrepreneurs. Classes are offered in finance, marketing and business management. Each course is comprised of animated slides accompanied by voice-over narration, PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, toolsets, and access to a comprehensive knowledgebase.

More than 2,700 e-Learning for Entrepreneurs classes have been taken. The addition of "Social Media for Small Business" brings the total courses directed specifically to New Hampshire entrepreneurs to three, including "Starting a Business in New Hampshire" launched a year ago and "Financing a Business in New Hampshire," posted six months ago.  These courses have been taken 560 times and 120 times, respectively.

Other sponsors of NH SBDC's e-Learning program are the NH Division of Economic Development and the University of New Hampshire.        

The NH Small Business Development Center provides confidential business management consulting and educational programs to New Hampshire's small businesses. The NH SBDC is the only New Hampshire agency that has full-time certified business advisors providing one-on-one, long-term, management consulting to small businesses. NH SBDC is a cooperative venture with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the State of New Hampshire (DRED), the University System of New Hampshire, and the private sector. For more info on NH SBDC, visit www.nhsbdc.org.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.

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