Start-up and well-established salons, spas and clinics alike need to stay on top of trends, and believe us when we say that social media is essential to building a hair and beauty brand. Successful modern salons promote a lifestyle as much as a hairstyle!
Many salon owners may feel overwhelmed by the idea of using social media platforms to market their business due to the time investment required, but social media enables you to connect with new customers, build brand loyalty and create a community of advocates for your business.
Why is social media important for salons, spas and clinics?
Not only do active social media accounts assist with social proof of your brand and business, but many of your customers will choose to use social media to interact with you and book their appointments. If you’re not present on social platforms, you’re probably missing out on business.
Social media is the modern word-of-mouth marketing in an age where everything is digital, even conversations with friends. And , with so many salons killing it with their social presence, boosting their branding and business goals through social media, anyone not going social risks being left behind.
Younger salon and spa clients, especially Millennials and Generation Z’s, want to go to a salon that follows the latest trends but also where they recognise their values. As much as with any other brand, they want to connect with the people behind the brand, and that’s why it is so important to create a relatable identity for your business.
Social media platforms are free and can be used to show off your products and services, with the best and most popular platforms for salons, spas and clinics being Instagram and Facebook.
Here’s how to build your salon, spa or clinic’s brand on social media.
Use Instagram to showcase and inspire
Instagram is about aspirational imagery, and that lends itself wonderfully to the storytelling element of salon, spa and clinic services. Instagram posts with lengthy captions suggest something worthwhile is being said and will get higher rates of engagement. This is a great way to show off a new product, service, style or introduce a new member of staff and showcase their work.
Connect with your clients on Facebook
While Instagram is more of a visual platform, Facebook enables you to post articles, links to your website and online booking page or online store. Facebook is great for building a community, posting videos, photos, surveys and more.
A healthy mix of videos and photos with thoughtful captions that will entertain, inspire or educate your followers will help increase your social media profile and naturally promote you on the feeds of your followers and in the “suggested follows” recommendations.
Don’t worry about over-posting; two or three posts a day won’t overwhelm your followers but it will build your feed and optimise the social algorithms. Obviously posting multiple times a day can be time consuming, so it’s important to organise yourself with a content calendar for social media to plan your content in advance.
Use video to build trust and authority
Visual content is the future, specifically videos, and this is where salons, spas and clinics really come into their own on social media. We’re not talking about hiring a videographer, either. There are so many opportunities to create great videos for your business, and all you need is a smartphone and a ‘can do’ attitude.
Think about what your brand stands for and the voice you wish to curate. Choose words, tones and looks that accurately describe your values and make them synonymous with your brand across your content.
You and your team are experts. How can you use video to inspire, entertain or educate your target audience in your field of expertise?
How-to videos like teaching viewers how to re-create a look at home, or aftercare for a specific treatment, are great for building an audience and educating your clients. It may seem counterintuitive to give away these tips, but it’s actually more likely to win new customers.
People don’t go to the salon or spa to get ready for work or to fix their hair for the weekend; they go for an experience. Giving them something to help between visits builds trust and loyalty that will be repaid with bookings.
Always end your posts with a call-to-action where possible to encourage the engagement that ultimately builds the brand as your audience is identified and catered for.
Brand for your target audience
Entertaining and engaging is precisely what your brand should be if it’s to appeal to potential clients. Followers become clients when they trust a brand, are invested in the story behind the business, and are entertained, inspired or have learned something new.
If you want your audience to be in it for the long-haul and to emotionally (and financially) invest in your brand, you’ve got to create authentic content that’s focused on building long-term relationships, instead of turning a quick buck.
Great content will engage an audience, and that may be a share, a comment, or tagging a friend. The more engagement you get, the more informed your social media strategy becomes. That’s because you’ll be able to see the analytics in your social media accounts of what content is getting the most engagement and reach, and what’s not.
The more you know about how, when, who and what is gaining traction on social media, the easier it becomes to create more successful content in the future, as you begin to learn what your audience likes to see, and what they don’t engage with.
Armed with this knowledge, it’s important to do more of what works, and less of what doesn’t!
Build your brand on social media
If you’d like to know more about making your salon, spa or clinic stand out on social media, check out our other articles about this topic.
Read next:
- Facebook best practices for salons and spas
- Take control of your social media with these free tools
- Salon Marketing – How to promote your salon, spa or clinic
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 25 Sep 2018 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
