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would like to see your posts,” says Marsha Abrahams, Managing Director at Boost Beauty Solutions. “You can select an age range, sex, location and even specific interest to target. Alternatively you can select an option called ‘friends of friends’ which means it’s shown to people who know someone who already likes your page and this can be more engaging.”
Boosting your posts is a particularly good idea for seasonal offers; think about offering promotions on your tanning treatments in June, or your retail options at Christmas. Spreading the word about these promotions through social media is likely to boost your trade.
Which one? So with a number of platforms available, which one would be the best for your business? “That depends on your audience,” says Laura Woodhouse, Digital Marketing Executive at Sweet Squared. “For us, Facebook is the most popular amongst our customers, however Instagram is growing very quickly. We use Facebook pages and groups to communicate directly with customers and inform them of products, news, events and more.”
Image-orientated social media platforms are becoming increasingly huge, with Pinterest and Instagram moving to the forefront of the favoured social media platforms in recent years. Ciara Wilson, Owner of the Salon Shop, Cork says you should be posting lots of pictures as evidence of the top service you provide.
“Your salon should be showcasing the work that it is most proud of on all forms of social media,” says Ciara. “Whether that be fun holiday-themed manicures or gorgeous bridal parties, pictures provide an outlet to show what you can do. Once in a while, a feel-good post can engage your customers and you can use specific quotes or pictures that you feel defines your brand.”
Likewise, Twitter is great for connecting with any brands you supply in your salon, by mentioning them in your tweets and using hashtags, you may find yourself being retweeted to their audience. However, with this platform, you’re limited to the amount of characters you can use,
One of the positives of having an online presence is that it’s so easy and convenient to connect with your audience. Unfortunately, this also means they can make complaints or negative comments with just the click of a button.
so it’s therefore better to keep the updates short and sweet.
If you have time, or a budget to hire someone to look after your social media channels, then getting yourself known across all platforms would be extremely beneficial. However, if your business is on the smaller side and it’s you who will be monitoring these channels, then you’d perhaps be better to focus on just the one channel.
Dealing with negativity One of the positives of having an online presence is that it’s so easy and convenient to connect with your audience. Unfortunately, this also means they can make complaints or negative comments with just the click of a button.
If the situation arises and you’re met with negativity online, whether that be someone complaining about a service you provided or making personal comments, it has the potential to be damaging for your reputation and your business. It can be dealt with in a number of ways, and although your initial reaction would be to defend yourself, this can sometimes make matters worse – an argument in plain sight on your social feed for all of your potential customers to see is just as damaging as the comment itself.
Deleting the comment from your feed and dealing with matters in a private message is a great way of solving things. However, don’t assume it’s private – the messages can always be saved and used against you in the future, so deal with the complaint exactly as you would if it were
offline, remaining calm and professional at all times.
In summary All in all, social media is a very handy business tool to have – and what’s more? It’s free! If you find you don’t have the time, then set aside an hour before or after work, or even at the weekend, and set up some scheduled posts for the week.
Letting people know exactly what’s going on in your salon is a great way of getting in potential new customers or re-booking existing ones, and even on weeks where you’re not running promotions, you should be reminding clients of the services you provide. Remember the key is to engage your customers, so any posts that will encourage clicking on posts, liking, or sharing are great posts to upload.
If your clients are happy for you to do so, you could even take ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of their treatments to share across your social channels to show your customers the benefits of your treatments.
Responding to your clients’ online feedback looks good to others who are browsing your social feeds – it shows that you’re connected and keeping up-to-date with your customers’ needs. Just remember to keep things professional if you receive any negativity.
L
Whether you decide to get social with just one channel or all of them, utilise it in the right way and you could see your business booming.
Get trending! #IBGetSocial
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Image ©
iStock.com/zakokor
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