5 Ways To Increase Your Social Media Following
When you’re running a busy salon, there are so many things to do, it can be an absolute mission to keep up. So it’s no surprise that your social media gets dismissed as a waste of time.
It doesn’t need to be though if you treat it as an additional way of communicating with your existing clientele and building upon that.
Here’s 5 tips to help you stay on top in that noisy space...
Understand Your Audience
In a time where numbers are touted like ‘medals of honour’ on how big your following is, it’s easy to lose sight of what social media is ultimately for.
To share what you’re doing with people who are interested.
The first thing you need to identify is exactly who and where your target audience are. A following of just 50 people who are really invested in your salon, your products and what you’ve been doing are going to be far more valuable than thousands of thumb scrollers. Genuinely interested followers are happy to stop and notice what you’re posting and be part of your story. They’ll share the posts with relevant people and will want to help you to succeed.
Use Hashtags
Even invested followers will need your help to notice you. With thousands of posts available to them at any given point, it’s easy for them to not see you’ve posted something they’d love.
Use hashtags to keep them posted (see what we did there?!) and in the know on your activities. Don’t be tempted to use the big hashtags as you’ll just get lost in the volume of posts being used by them - stick to local ones and smaller industry-based ones plus using your own hashtag on all posts. Choose which hashtags will really complement your strategy. Spending some time initially looking into what’s being posted under each one, will reap great rewards as that alignment will mean you’re speaking with a voice that’s wanting to be heard
Use Analytics
Analytics may feel like they’re all tech and something that’s an utter pain to be spending time looking into. But imagine you have 50 followers - they are all potential customers. If you could get them all in a room telling you what they love this would be priceless info to build upon.
Knowing that one loves hair colours so wants to see your latest styles, one loves crazy cuts so likes your more daring customer pics or one had a hair disaster in which you shared how Colour Reset saved it is all immensely valuable.
Using your analytics to see what’s been working well and using this insightful information steers you on where you can increase activity on the type of posts being well received.
Engage With Your Audience
Don’t treat the social media as just another chore to complete. See it as a chance to talk to your customers - your posts should be treated as an invitation to chat, to share, to engage with the people who are happy to come in and pay your bills.
Create your posts with interaction in mind. For instance, instead of posting a great picture of a customer changing their colour drastically with a ‘look at we did’ post, ask questions your followers can answer such as ‘who’s going blonde this Spring?’ etc so that they want to share their intentions and opinions with you.
Tag Other People And Pages
It may feel counterproductive to include other salons in your posts but let’s face it - there’s plenty of room for some healthy competition so include them in your posts if they have a good social media routine. This collaboration means you’ll benefit from them sharing your activities to their audience too - all free exposure.
Tag your customers in posts you think they’ll like - treat them as your friends who you know well having an ‘I saw this and thought of you’ mentality and tagging them. When your followers see you doing this regularly, they’ll know just how much you value and include them and will be happier to be part of that rather than scroll on.
The most important point is to be consistent. Even if it’s only one post per week which you can stick to, doing this and doing it well will build a nice foundation to start with.
And remember, with Colour Reset in your salon, you’ll have an endless supply of stunning before and after images that will be bring new clients to your door!