5 online tactics small businesses are stacking right now

Back in 2014, one of my social media posts got 3 million shares.

And how much do you think I earned from it?

Answer: a big fat zero.

My problem was that although I’d cracked the art of going viral, I had no follow-up in place to make it all worthwhile.

I launched my spoof news website, WalesOnCraic, with no real plan.

I soon had all the traffic I ever wanted - over 1 million visitors in its first seven months.

I even wrote a book about it.

It became the #1 blogging book on Kindle for over three years.

(You can find it here but don’t bother buying it - it’s ten years out of date!)

But the more visitors I had to my site, the more I had to fork out for bigger servers.

I was losing money.

And it wasn’t only until a few years later that I figured how I could make it profitable.

Your small business can grow and thrive - providing you have a plan, a purpose, and a way of capturing and nurturing leads.

Your social media posts can go sky-high but unless you’re able to capitalise on it, it’s all pretty much a waste of time.

One of the clients I ghostwrite social media posts for was in a similar position this time last year.

He’d created an online magazine.

It looked great.

‘Where’s the revenue coming from?’ I asked him.

‘Ah,’ he replied. ‘That’s my problem.’

He’d created a supply but hadn’t checked to see if there was even demand.

We worked together on 5 tactics, which I’ll expand on below. But he’s now making a four-figure profit each month from advertising.

Here’s what we implemented:

#1 We posted memes to build virality

We created our own memes that struck a chord with the people we were aiming to connect with. Choose your audience and create memes just for them. It’ll make them feel special.

#2 We forged long-term trust

In fact, we never tried to hard-sell to anyone we came across online. We chatted, exchanged ideas, and provided free value where we could. Trust has to be earned and it’s in these areas that it’s built.

#3 Provided social proof

If you’re like me, you may head to the reviews on Amazon before even thinking about buying anything from them. If someone’s got some good words about what you do, capture them and use them to let others know that people found you useful. Build a catalogue of testimonials that you can use as social proof.

#4 We showed up every day

When you show up every day, even online, you quietly become part of your audience members’ day - possibly even their lives. Make yourself indispensable to the point where you’re missed if you don’t show up. It all helps with the trust element.

#5 We built an email list

This is where I went wrong with WalesOnCraic, back in 2014. I relied totally on social media. And when the Facebook Police came calling, I literally lost my audience overnight. Getting people OFF social media and ONTO an email list (like this one) is the one single most effective thing you can do to grow your small business online. There are several options open to you - Mailchimp, ConvertKit among others. I use Beehiiv, where you can get started for free but also monetise as you grow.

When it comes to growing your small business online, think about what you’re looking to achieve long-term and then break things down into the more short-term.

More than that, make sure that you are ready to make the most of things should you happen to go viral.

You never know when it may strike!

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Patric

Ps. I’ve recently launched my Pro version of my newsletter.

Every Sunday, I’ll send you deep dive guides, templates, and social media prompts for the week ahead.

All designed to help you grow your local business with social media.