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Have a barber or hairdresser you regularly visit because they go that extra mile to give you the best service? Or a corner store grocer who gives you great discounts? Often small businesses are more than businesses, they touch and impact our personal lives. To honour such small and local shops, Meta, previously Facebook, has started a new campaign on the social media platform.

With #LoveLocal, Meta is calling people to offer space on their Facebook cover and Instagram profiles to post a photo of a small business they love and support this holiday season.

#LoveLocal brings together local influencers, content creators, and communities to support small and medium-sized businesses or SMBs across the region.

As part of the campaign’s teaser, Meta partnered with various prominent public figures and content creators in the mena region such as Mohamed Henedy, Faisal Al-Saif, Fatima Zahra El Ibrahimi, Chef Leyla Fathallah, and Hadia Galeb, to join the #LoveLocal campaign by changing their Facebook cover photo or posting on their Instagram feed “Space for rent, only if you #LoveLocal”.

This is the second year of the #LoveLocal campaign. Meta launched the initiative in 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim to support businesses, particularly SMBs, during difficult and unprecedented times. This year, the social media campaign has returned in partnership with the creative agency TBWA\RAAD.

Derya Matras, VP Middle East, Africa and Turkey at Meta, commented: “SMBs are a key priority for us at Meta as they are the heart of our economies and communities. Going into its second year, our #LoveLocal initiative captures our commitment to bolster the recovery of local SMBs across the MENA region. Through our consumer activation on Facebook and Instagram, we were inspired to see the creative engagement of content creators, celebrities, and communities across the region sharing their personal stories and experiences with SMBs, reflecting the campaign’s tagline ‘’It’s Not Business, It’s Personal’.”