The Facebook marketing landscape has changed over the years. Businesses no longer appear in the newsfeed as much as they did before the algorithm adjustments, and it’s now much harder to get noticed.
However, this doesn’t mean Facebook is dead, nor does it mean Facebook isn’t a great platform for reaching your target audience. You simply need to adapt your approach.
Every day that your salon, spa or clinic isn’t utilising social media is another day that you’re missing out on connecting with existing clients, creating loyalty, reaching a new set of potential clients and boosting your presence in their minds.
Social media is all about engaging with your clients using a different, much larger medium – going beyond the salon chair. Social media is an extension of your brand and offering, and it’s where many of your clients are spending their time.
To help you get noticed on Facebook, we’ve put together some best practices that will get you on the path to social media success. Just remember to have fun – enjoy yourself and your clients will too!
1. First step: start with an objective
The key to a successful Facebook post is to start with an objective. What do you want this post to do? Drive online bookings for your salon, spa or clinic? Get your clients to like, comment or share? Approach it with a clear objective and it’ll be much more effective.
We’ve found that the most valuable content on social media – the content that gets the most interactions and engagements – is either educational or entertaining.
Not sure what your followers are keen on? Think about this: would you share or engage with this content?
Facebook isn’t a place just to post advertisements. It’s a social platform and an online community. Make sure you’re posting content that actually provides value for your audience.
2. First impressions count
We may not like the idea of judging a book by its cover but that’s exactly what happens on Facebook. Think of your Facebook page as an extension of your brand, the look, feel and your tone of voice – do your clients know it’s you?
Get it right with these tips:
- Use a clean, bold cover photo that is consistent with your salon branding. Check out Canva.com and use their Facebook cover photo templates to create the perfect photo.
- Make sure you fill out all your business information, like your ‘about’ section. Don’t forget to add a link to your website and all your contact information to make it easier for people to get in touch.
3. The anatomy of a perfect Facebook post
Wouldn’t it be great if you knew that the post you just published had the best chance of maximising likes, shares and comments? Well, it turns out there are some key ingredients that you should include if you want to increase your posts chance of success.
Use photos and videos
People love photos and videos! It’s been proven that posting a photo or video will increase engagement and help to stop the perpetual scrolling, so make sure you’re including high-quality, engaging visuals with every Facebook post.
Hook people in 130 characters or less
You have 130 characters of text before Facebook displays the ‘read more’ button and people need to choose to read more in order to see the rest of your post. Therefore, you need to either say what you want to say in 130 characters or less (including spaces) or hook them into wanting to learn more by hitting the ‘read more’ button.
Make your posts conversational
There’s nothing worse than having a conversation with someone and they’re just talking about themselves. To prevent your Facebook posts from being a one-sided conversation, try asking your followers questions, host Facebook Lives with question and answer sessions, and think of creative ways to get your followers talking. Facebook is a social platform, after all!
4. Mix up your content
It’s important to diversify your content to keep your followers engaged. Use images, videos and make the most of Facebook stories. Running competitions is a great way to grow your followers and will get your brand featuring on the news feeds of friends and family members of your current clients.
Here are some content ideas to try out on Facebook:
- Client Before and After posts and videos
- The latest hair and beauty trends
- Profile your salon’s stylists/therapists
- Any awards or events you and your team have entered/won
- Any promotions or specials you’re running
- Tips to keep client’s hair/skin looking beautiful after their appointment
- Watch what other businesses like yours are posting for ideas – particularly if they’re in another town. You don’t have to think of everything!
5. Boost and benefit
Your followers won’t see every post you make. You’ve got to pay for that privilege! Fortunately, it’s a whole lot cheaper than taking an ad out in your local paper. Use Facebook’s ‘boosted’ posts.
Boosting your posts means that they’ll reach a wider audience – either your current followers or a targeted audience you choose, e.g. Women aged 25-35 that like hair products in Wellington. You can set a boosting budget and let it run until your budget runs out.
However, it’s important to understand your reason for boosting your Facebook post before doing so. Boosting will enable your post to get in front of a wider audience and will be shown to people most likely to engage with your content by liking or commenting on it. If you want to drive website traffic or encourage people to take up an offer, we recommend running Facebook Ads instead.
6. Are your followers engaging? Find our with Facebook Insights
You don’t just have to rely on guesstimates to see how your audience is engaging with your content.
You can use Facebook Insights to check the performance of your posts, learn what resonates with your audience, and figure out how to optimise what you publish to your audience to grow your reach and engagement (engagement is all that good stuff: shares, likes and comments).
Look at your best performing posts for the month and analyse what made them successful. Then, use that information to replicate it for future posts.
7. Keep it fresh
Only start a Facebook page if you know you can maintain it. A steady flow of content will make sure people don’t think your salon, spa or clinic has fallen off the end of the earth!
But what’s steady? Research compiled by CoSchedule said one post per day is recommended for Facebook, which should be very manageable for salons, spas and clinics.
8. Use Facebook to drive online bookings
Offering online booking gives your clients the freedom to make an appointment at their leisure, regardless of your opening hours. According to Kitomba customer data, more than 50% of online bookings are made outside of normal business hours.
Facebook’s ‘Book Now’ button will let your clients link to your Online Booking page directly from your mobile or desktop Facebook page. Adding booking buttons to Facebook is easy. Follow these step-by-step instructions on how to get it installed.
9. Manage your page on the go
Download the Facebook Page Manager App on your phone and you can use it to update and respond to your followers while you’re on the go. You can also track your progress and page growth all from your phone.
10. Advertising on Facebook
Want to take your marketing efforts to the next level? Advertise your business on Facebook!
Find out 5 reasons to advertise your salon online, and read our guide on how to get started with digital advertising for your salon, spa or clinic.
Learn more about marketing your salon, spa or clinic
For more marketing tips from industry experts, visit our salon marketing guide.
Read next:
