Social media engagement is one of the most coveted forms of feedback amongst B2C businesses. It makes your brand look trustworthy to new customers. But how can you use social media marketing to boost your beauty, nail, or hair salon?
Hair & Beauty Salons: Why is social media so important for salon marketing?
As a salon, your social media is often your first point of contact with customers. Many people don’t want to call up and make an appointment anymore when it’s easier for them to message quickly while they’re on their lunch break, on the bus, watching a boring movie with their other half etc.
If you don’t have an active online presence, you could be losing new business to another local salon that does. While your customer is there, they are going to take the time to scroll through your newsfeed, check your albums, reviews etc.
Compared to high-involvement purchases, hair and beauty treatments are relatively low-cost (unless you are offering aesthetic treatments). However, it’s rare a customer will walk off the street into your hair or beauty salon without at least looking at your Social Media, like your Facebook page.
1. Posting pictures of your work
This is the most obvious one but possibly the most important social media tip. Showing examples of your work will communicate to your customers exactly what they should expect from your service.
The kind of work you do will enforce your brand. Who are your ideal customers? Cater your content to them, and you could entice a potential client.
Make sure your photo is high-quality, well-lit and flattering. In your industry, anything that looks dingy is an immediate no-no!
With clients’ consent, you can post transformation pictures to show what is possible and inspire prospective clients to treat themselves.
For many salons, this can work well as a complete strategy on its own. You can, as they say, let your own speak for itself. However, if you’re thinking of spicing up your social media profiles a little, why not try these fun ideas?
2. Stylist & Technician Profiles
Do you have stylists and techs that offer different styles? Consider putting together an album for each stylist or tech to showcase their unique style. This way, you can match up your clients with their ideal hairdresser
3. Rewards and competitions
Running competitions as part of your salon’s social media strategy can be a great way to boost engagement on your social pages.
Haircare bundles, a free cut and blow-dry, or even a pamper day can get people excited. be more likely to interact with your page and boost your social media presence!
4. Promote your personal brand
Including snapshots from life at the salon, your team, and your lifestyle as the salon owner can be a great addition to your social media – but only when done well.
A haircut, a fresh set of acrylics or an eyebrow wax can change someone’s outlook on life that week so they’re going to want to come and get that boost from people who are living the life they aspire to.
In short, sprinkle some Pinterest-esque lifestyle pictures in your newsfeed, and you’re away. But be careful not to overuse this one; there’s a fine line between aspirational and obnoxious.
Make sure all social media content of this nature is high quality, as dud pictures can ruin the brand image.
5. Infographics & Top 10s
There’s no need to hire a graphic designer; with online design platforms like Canva, it’s incredibly easy to produce on-brand infographics for your social pages.
Consider putting together infographics that include:
- Hairstyling techniques
- Recommended products
- Mythbusters
In your day to day, you will likely hear similar questions from clients. You can turn these questions into the content!
6. Set up a blog
Setting up a blog can be a great way to fill your news feed with owned content. A blog can make your salon business look knowledgeable and trustworthy.
If you are planning to write the content yourself, a blog is quite high involvement and is only viable if you have time and inspiration to write one post no less than every ten days to keep fresh content flowing.
However, there are plenty of platforms where you can hire content writers to produce articles for you! They range in price and requirements. Some will charge based on whether you want 500, 1000 or 1500 words, while others will offer packages of several blog posts at a fixed length.
Blogs can be a visual platform, so remember to use imagery and graphics in your posts. Not only that, but don’t forget to use the “greased chute” presentation.
While you might feel the need to present your work in large blocks of text as you might in a formal piece of writing, a way of quickly increasing readability and engagement is to
Once you have your blog set up and your first post out, you can start sharing your posts to your social media channels for your Facebook followers!
7. Use location hashtags
Another good social media tip is to let your followers know where you are! While having followers across the country, or even the world, location hashtags can help you get seen by your target audience in your local area.
8. Showcase the experience of coming to your salon
When clients come for hair and beauty treatments, they are coming for an experience. Consider making a social media post about the little things that make your salon special. Do you offer beverages with their haircut? Maybe a complimentary glass of prosecco! What about your wash basins? Do they have padding to make sure your customer’s treatment is comfortable? Ergonomic chairs? Music?
More Tips for your Salon Social Media Marketing Strategy
What is the voice of your hair or beauty salon’s brand?
Brand image is so important in the beauty industry as you work with other people’s images. So, who do your clients aspire to be like? Imagine your social media persona and write like them.
Install Grammarly
Spelling and grammar mistakes can be a huge red flag to potential customers.
Make sure every post you put out is spelt and punctuated perfectly! An app like Grammarly can be useful whether you are just popping a quick post on social media or writing a full blog post!
Consider the types of posts your followers engage with most
Do your followers like your blog posts? Videos? Photos? While a variety of posting is good and can maintain interest, there’s nothing wrong with leaning on an old faithful. If your customers like to see before and after photos, then make that 60 or 70% of your social media marketing strategy. The primary thing customers will be looking for in your posting is quality and relevance!
Be on multiple social media platforms and review sites
Get your salon on both Facebook and Instagram! But also, make sure that you’re on all the main review sites. If a page for your salon exists, make sure you claim it and interact with reviewers, both good and bad.
If you are managing your bookings list online, you can send review requests to customers automatically, increasing the chance that they will respond.
Equally, you can hand your clients branded thank-you notes with a QR code to leave a review before they leave your salon!
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