Facebook Inc. came to the city Friday afternoon to give small business owners a crash course in marketing on the social media platform.

More than 450 people attended the free conference at the Omni Hotel, part of a nationwide small business tour by the social media giant. It was the company's first stop in Connecticut.

No business is too small to be on Facebook, said Janelle Mungo, events and promotions manager for Facebook Small Business. Ads begin at $5 a piece and can be targeted with extreme precision based on a user's location, age and interests.

"You can get right into the page of the exact costumer you are looking for and you can do it with very little money," Mungo said.

Most local business owners said they had Facebook pages but weren't familiar with the company's advertising options. But with more and more people on the platform — nearly 2 billion active users — Facebook has become too big to ignore, they said.

Joyce-Lyn Altieri, owner of Flair for Hair, a hair salon in North Haven, said her business is already active on Facebook, but she wanted to learn more to really "dive in." Altieri has owned the business for 26 years and said she's gradually moved her advertising online.

People used to find her business through the newspaper or by driving by, but increasingly it's been Facebook, Instagram and Yelp. Her stylists each have Facebook and Instagram accounts they use to post pictures of the cuts they give.

Janice Barsalou of Wallingford runs her own bookkeeping and business consulting outfit, JRB Bookkeeping Service. She said she came to learn more about how to sell a service, not a product, on Facebook.

"How do I share my service and show what I have to offer?" Barsalou asked. She's gotten notifications on her existing page about taking out ads and boosting posts, but didn't learn what any of it was about until Friday.

Chip Adams of West Hartford came looking to learn how to use Facebook to drum up business for two of his side gigs: making appearances as Santa and a pirate.

"Everybody is on Facebook," he said. "It's a whole new way to reach a targeted audience."

Sue Rapini, executive vice president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, said there's been growing interest among her members about digital advertising and using Facebook for their businesses.

"We all have Facebook, and we're pretty good at the personal side of things, but we may not be using it to the best of our abilities for business," she said.

More than 65 million small businesses are on Facebook and 80 percent of users follow at least one small business on the platform, according to the company. Business owners listened to a presentation outlining all of Facebook's advertising tools before hearing from a panel of New Haven-area businesses who talked about their use of Facebook.

Mike Offen, an advertising technical consultant with Vivial, a digital marketing firm in Milford, came to New Haven Friday afternoon looking for potential clients.

"With a fairly moderate investment ... you can really boost your local reach," he said.

People are "addicted" to Facebook, checking it multiple times a day, Offen said. If local businesses aren't on Facebook, he said, their customers may wind up shopping with someone who is.

Sen. Chris Murphy, who helped organize the event, talked about Facebook as a place for small business owners to have conversations with their customers, comparing it to how he uses it as a forum for his constituents.

"To me, as a member of the Senate, I'm discovering the power of this tool every day," Murphy said.