We’ve had some really interesting conversations in my membership group for salon owners – “Coffee, Cake & Chat” – around social media, so I thought I would share a little insight for you guys!
When I started in business over 13 years ago, social media was non-existent. We had to reach new clients and stay in touch through newspapers, cards, emails & yellow pages!! Remember the yellow pages when it was so thick? And now it’s super skinny as everything is online. Wow – how times have changed! We also used to have a separate marketing budget as it cost so much to get your name out there. I still believe you should have a marketing budget, but generally it’s nowhere near what it used to be.
Now, a lot of our marketing efforts and budgets are put into social media. Social media isn’t where all of your client base and target audience will be, but it’s where a lot will be hanging out, so we definitely want to focus a lot of our time and effort on that.
Here are some top tips for you to get started:
- Choose two platforms to focus on. Social media can feel like a full time job in itself. Being on all the platforms can feel like an overload. Pick two channels that you feel your target audience are hanging out in the most. Perfect them and spend time there. It’s better to conquer two than give too little of yourself in all of them.
- Make sure your bio is clear. This might seem obvious but I see too many salons and therapists who don’t state clearly what they do. Put yourself in the shoes of someone who doesn’t know who you are or what you do. What exactly do you offer? Where are you based? I don’t want to have to search if someone is local to me; it should be in their bio. Then also make sure your website is linked.
- Build your personal brand. People fall in love with the brand when they feel they can connect. People buy into people not businesses. Show yourself. Even if you’re private, that’s totally fine. Share behind-the-scenes of you and your teams, training sessions, opening stock orders, how thankful you are to your clients for booking. Anything that’s going to show a bit of you, your team and your salon. Your social media can be full of beautiful nails, lashes and makeup. But if you don’t show people your salon and what it looks like, or those doing the treatments, will they trust enough to book in? Possibly not. So show your face and personality and watch how much more engagement you get.
- Tell your following what you want them to do. When you post on a story, think about what you want your audience to do with that story. Is that a swipe up, a poll, ask a question or DM you? If you post on your grid or wall, think about why are you posting. Is it to get new bookings, new clients, share a product or interact? Think about that reason and then tell your audience to do what you need them to do. For example, if it’s a post about aftercare, you want them to save the post. The client won’t automatically save that post so you need to add in your caption “save post”. If you want them to comment, you need to tell them to comment. Always add an action onto your post, otherwise you will be posting for no reason. No one has time to waste doing that!
I hope these few tips help you; we go into a lot more depth in our training sessions but I would love to to know how you all get on. And I’ll just leave you with this thought: “remember social media is called social for a reason…”
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