When you think of social media platforms, you may think of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. You probably think of your business and how you occasionally put out great posts and content. You probably have a few hundred or a couple thousand “likes” or “followers.” 

Typically, if a business owner is doing the social media work themselves, they get a few likes and views, do some branding, run a few ads, and that’s about it. Even businesses that hire professional marketing firms don’t usually maximize the platforms’ power. At most, many marketing firms do better with content, tracking, adaptations and ads. So how do these online brands who pop up on your screen seem to be popping up everywhere, dominating your screens, making tons of money, getting tons of clicks, conversions, tons of traffic and dominating the market, reaching hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of followers?

Most of these pop-up brands that take over and go viral are run by kids who aren’t even out of high school. Newer social media platforms are insanely complex on the business end, and these kids are crushing it; it is truly a young person’s game. And they’re doing it without paying for ads. Most marketing firms would kill to have two or three of these kids on their staff. So, what’s their secret? That could be a volume of books itself, but here are a few pointers. Remember, you should consistently put out engaging content throughout this process.

Who is your customer? And what do they like?

Start by making a list of what your average local homeowner wants and what they are interested in, and make a detailed list. Some examples could be a grocery store everyone goes to, a local deli, locally famous family-owned restaurants, dog park, gym, movie theater, fire hall, dog pound or humane society, coffee and donut shop, bar, high school or minor league baseball team. 

Make a list of what most homeowners in your area are interested in. Once you get that list, start “liking” each one of those business pages. Don’t send them any corny messages; just “like” and follow them for now. Most local businesses will be shocked to see that another local business started following their page. Follow this up by “liking” some of their posts and pictures, start leaving positive comments on their posts and repost their posts. They will take even more notice and might even do the same for you.

Local citizens who already follow these other businesses will notice your comments and likes, and many will piggyback and start liking and following you. And your audience will grow.

Join Groups

Now do the same with local groups online. Search for Facebook groups for your local community and join them. There are local Facebook groups for almost every community, gated community and subdivision. I’ll bet there’s a group for the neighborhood or county you live in right now. 

There will be local support groups, local church groups, local groups for high school alums, local groups for nature walk meetups, local youth groups, local community organization groups, etc. Join them all and do the same process as described above. Find out who the group’s admins are and start “liking” things they say and leaving positive comments on something they say. You will begin to stand out. Some of these groups can easily have over 100,000 local homeowners in them.

Influencers

Make fun of the term all you want, but online influencers are a huge part of society online. They are the modern celebrities for the younger generation. Since you’ve gone through every popular local business and online group and “made new friends.” You will start to see who the influencers are because the social media platforms think you are exactly like the local homeowners where you live. So it will begin feeding you the exact things it provides to the local population. 

When this happens, you will see “influencers” pop up. These people are in the middle of everything, very popular online, and they usually will have videos of themselves doing things, etc. Do the same thing you’ve done before by liking their posts and leaving positive comments, and you will stand out.

The Final Blow

Once you’ve established months of positive relationships with all the popular local businesses for the massively popular online community groups, and many of the local influencers, it’s time to take this to the next level. One at a time, start messaging each of your contacts. Make it very personal: “Just wanted to say that I noticed your Facebook page, I think you have great content, and I love eating at your restaurant.” That’s it — don’t ask for anything. Do this for every business, group admin and influencer, and give it a few months. 

At this point, your business page will be snowballing off the charts. Then, when the timing is right, ask if you could offer a special discount for your services through their page or group. Offer influencers free services for them to talk up your company. 

When you get to this point, you’ve got a lot of time into your page, but you’ll notice that you will start accumulating an unbelievable number of followers with whom you can now advertise for free. Thousands and thousands of local customers and businesses who you can advertise to immediately any time you want, with any message you want for no money whatsoever — just time and effort.  

------------

Anthony Pacilla has been in the trades since he was 9 years old (family business). He started cleaning toilets, mopping floors and putting fittings away in the warehouse. As he picked up skills, he would add becoming a ground man and laborer. When he was ready, Pacilla became an apprentice and then a journeyman plumber. He graduated college with a business and economics degree and immediately wanted to come back to work in the family business. A few years ago, Pacilla became a licensed master plumber. To contact Pacilla, email editor@plumbermag.com.