Google can now add a launching pad for female entrepreneurs to their long list of accomplishments. As reported today on their blog, they recently began a program called Women Entrepreneurs On The Web, or WEOW. The program was created specifically to help women in India find a voice and teaches their students how to use web-based technologies and apply them to their businesses.
The program is divided into five groups of study, or “circles”, which were created with different levels of web knowledge in mind:
- Building an online presence: creating a website, a YouTube channel, and a business page on a social network like Google+
- Collaborating effectively: tools like Gmail, Calendar and Docs
- Connecting with customers: hosting Google+ Hangouts, creating and distributing targeted offers and discounts
- Promoting organization: online product demos, creating viral videos on YouTube, advertising through AdWords and AdSense
- Tracking and optimizing your online presence: Google Analytics, Google Alerts, ripples on Google+, the +1 button, webmaster tools
More than 300 women have signed up for WEOW to date, and Google hopes to up that number exponentially in the near future as word of mouth spreads.
As part of the launch event, Yolanda Mangolini–head of diversity and inclusion at Google Hyderabad–spent a day with 30 female entrepreneurs talking about the program and what it means for them. Below is a video from that meet-and-greet.