When Sarah Stock stumbled across the hashtag #smallbusinesschallenge on social media mid-December 2020, she didn’t give it much thought before she followed suit.
By posting five images related to her business, Women Washing Windows, the 38-year-old soon joined a global phenomena that has given more than 130,000 small businesses an opportunity to promote their product or service free of charge.
The hashtag was introduced by social media users as a way to support small businesses through COVID-19.
Within months the trend has been spreading across Facebook groups and other social media platforms, both in Australia and overseas.
The Small Business Challenge involves businesses posting four or five pictures of their products or service to a Facebook group or via their timeline using #smallbusinesschallenge.
Links to a website or alternative social media page are not permitted, ensuring the posts are as shareable as possible.
Anyone who is interested in a particular business can then ask for further details once the post has been shared.
On December 14, 2020 Sarah uploaded five photos of herself and her team using the caption ‘Over 10 years ago I took a chance and created ‘Women Washing Windows’, it has grown to what it is today mostly by the # words below..and I still shake my head when I think how far it’s come’.
Her post included the hashtags #lovewhatyoudo, #stayhumbleandkind, and #payitforward.
Unlike any of her previous social media posts, Sarah says the #smallbusinesschallenge post gained a lot of attention.
“It’s had a massive impact on our business,” she said.
“It’s been one of the biggest posts I’ve had.
“The tag spread our name out there to areas we’d been wanting to reach, and we’ve received heaps of feedback about it.
“It all came about just because I saw another post with it on Facebook one day and followed suit.”
At the time Sarah says she was unsure of the rules or requirements of the hashtag so she used other businesses as a guide.
“I just threw on a picture of our team with our cheesy grins, a couple of recent jobs we’d done, and one of me up a ladder, and we got heaps of comments,” she said.
“The comments received ranged from positive testimonials from former clients, words of encouragement from friends and requests for more information from members of the public.
“It’s been great to get a lot of positive feedback and it’s definitely spread our name a bit further.”
The uniqueness of the business could also be seen as a drawcard, Sarah added.
“Our business thrives off its uniqueness and I encourage more women to get into trades for the same reasons,” she said.
“Whether it’s building or mechanics, I’d promote females in any industry.”
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