Facebook launches program to lure small businesses

Facebook is hoping to make more small businesses their friends.

The social network launched an initiative called Facebook Fit, a series of "boot-camp" like events to help smaller business leverage online tools including Facebook Pages. Other companies participating in Fit include mobile payments service Square, LegalZoom and Intuit QuickBooks.

"We'll talk primarily about trying to make things simple and easy," says Dan Levy, Director of Small Business at Facebook, adding that more than 25 million small businesses host active Facebook Pages.

The Fit events will include panels from local businesses and breakout sessions coordinated by Facebook, Square and other companies. The program starts June 3 in New York, and appear in four additional cities: Miami on June 9, Chicago on July 10, Austin on July 24 and Menlo Park -- the home of Facebook headquarters -- on August 5.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923.