Gone are the days when first impressions were made with a firm handshake and a confident introduction. Today’s businesses, be it from any industry, is judged on how impressive their online presence is. Social media has become the unofficial portfolio for professionals as well as organisations – especially, those from the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle industries. So, if you are not yet taking full advantage of the virtual world to grow your business, it’s time to join the bandwagon.
Why do you need a social media presence?
The short answer is – It’s free and highly engaging. Today, information is at your fingertips and it doesn’t take too much effort to get a full overview of any business. If you are a beauty/Hair professional or a salon owner, you need to be ready with your business information at the click of a button. Building and maintaining a website is great – the truly interested clients would even take the time to visit it. But, what about the potential customer? How would they search for your website, if they don’t even know about you?
Here’s where the magic of social media comes to play. Consider Facebook as your informal website – even with all the recent not-so-beneficial algorithms, a Facebook page for your salon or professional profile is worth the hype. To get into the timelines of your target group, you can always dip into the vast marketing resources within the social network. Instagram is the next big thing, and according to some reports, is already taking over the popular vote among millennials. Next, on your radar should be Twitter – it’s more current and requires a completely different ball game. Then you have your Pinterest and Youtube – good to venture into if you have the time and resources, but for a beginner – not an absolute necessity.
How to get the best out of your social media business profile?
If you already have a Facebook page and Instagram profile for your business, good! – We’ll get to improving that later. But first, for those of you who are yet to take that first step, here are a few important points to keep in mind:
- Pick your Platforms: Facebook and Instagram should be enough for round one. But you can always consider Twitter, Pinterest, and Youtube. At least, just get the profile made, so that no one steals your business name. Talking about names…
- Lock in on an easy-to-find handle: ‘@<your_business_name>’ is your best bet to get maximum recognition and engagement. But, just in case you have a common name to work with, try a few variations that can be consistent throughout all your social media platforms.
- Visual Language: Make sure you have your brand logo set as the profile picture and an aesthetically designed cover image to accompany it. Your posts can also be designed to reflect the brand colours so that it gives your social media profile a cohesive visual impact.
- Be consistent and accurate: The golden rules of social media engagement is posting regular useful content. Make sure you decide how many posts to be put up in a day and when to publish them – this brings uniformity to your content generation. Use tools such as page insights to understand when your followers are online and schedule the posts accordingly. Your followers would know when to expect a post and this, in turn, would maximize engagement.
- Spend a little: With new marketing policies and algorithms used by major social media networks, it is becoming more and more difficult for business profiles to reach their target audience. The only way for newbie pages to catch up with the competition is to have a social media marketing budget. You may start small and strategically invest in your most impactful posts.
- Quality over Quantity: Posting 10 random posts with no strategy cannot be as engaging as two well-crafted error-free posts that are actually useful to your followers. If you cannot invest enough time in your social media activities, do not hesitate to hire an expert. Social media managers can ensure better results with focussed strategies.
As a salon business or a beauty/hair professional, it is only natural to put your work on display. But, do not restrict your social media posts to just one type of content. Variety is what will keep your followers interested. Tends, in-salon events, client testimonials, celeb endorsements, trends, inspirational words etc are just some of the salon social media post ideas you can use.
