Business - Social Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Get
Social
Social media can be quite the minefield; there’s always a new trend to be following, or a new update to be downloading. However, when used correctly, it can be a handy tool for boosting your business.
Having an online presence can help you tap into that audience that you may not have reached yet; a particularly good advantage for those whose salons are based in a remote or isolated area that doesn’t receive much passing-trade. It also helps you to engage with your current clients, showing them promotions and special offers whenever they’re running, and even give them a bit of insight into your personal life if you wish.
Your main target when posting to social media should be to create a constant flow of content that will allow your audience to interact, whether that’s through a comment, share or like. The more users that interact with your posts, the wider the audience they will reach.
Content can include many things, but discussing your latest offers, treatments and new-in products gives potential new customers an idea of what to expect from your salon, whilst keeping existing customers up-to-date. It’s also a great reminder for them to book in for a treatment!
Hit the target Many social media channels use algorithms in which they decide what
posts should appear in a user’s newsfeed – and in what order. For example, Facebook will display posts that are relevant to that particular user, so if someone hasn’t engaged with your posts in a while then chances are, your posts won’t appear in their newsfeed.
“Here at High Definition, social media is at the heart of everything we do, and this should be the case for every beauty business, whether you’re part of a large salon or mobile therapist,” explains Laura Robinson, PR, Events and Content Manager at High Definition Beauty Group.
“Treat social media as you would other areas of the business and make the most out of the scheduling tools that are available to help you plan content in advance. Keep your eyes on industry trends, new products and innovations to share with your followers so that they look to you to lead the way with interesting news and information.”
Be time-conscious Keeping your channels updated can be hard when you’re trying to run a busy salon, so signing up for scheduling services such as Hootsuite can help you to manage things a little better – Facebook Pages also offers you the option to schedule your posts for certain times of the day. You should aim to schedule a number of posts at the times when your audience are most likely to be online.
“There are certain times of the day we find posts work better,” says Mary-Claire Barron of Asu Nail & Beauty Supplies.
“For instance, before 8.30am, we would have our first post so it will reach our followers whilst they’re on their way to work or before they leave for work. Gone are the morning papers; the first thing we do in the morning is log on to social media to find out what has happened in the last 12 hours since we logged off. The next post we would usually aim for between 12pm-3pm lunch hours, again this is the next time people normally check their phones/social media. The third post of the day will be between 6pm-7.30pm after work hours and then lastly we would normally post again between 9pm- 10.30pm.”
“Create a social media calendar to include events and promotions,” says Paul Gerrard, Communications Director at Gerrard International. “For example, new colour collections in stock – as these will affect the content you post. As well as promoting your individual business, it’s important to be interactive and have direct communication with your customers to enable them to get the information they need – differentiate your business from other Spas and salons by offering top tips and Q&A’s. As a business, we believe that nothing can replace direct communication which is why we, at Gerrard International, invest heavily in our valuable team of area managers, trainers and customer care. Nevertheless in time-starved conditions it is becoming increasingly important to offer customers everything they need through online and social media means as well.”
Understand your
audience To help get a better understanding of exactly who you’re reaching out to on social media, you can use online tools such as Google Analytics or Hootsuite’s Insights. These handy websites will show you the age, gender, and in some cases, location, of the audience that engages with your posts the most. This will help you cater any campaigns and product offers to that particular audience.
If budget permits, you can also use Facebook’s option to ‘Boost’ your post, which then allows you to tailor your post to a specific audience.
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If budget permits, you can also use Facebook’s option to ‘Boost’ your post, which then allows you to tailor your post to a specific audience. “When boosting posts you can be very precise in whom you
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iStock.com/mactrunk
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