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How To Build a Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio
Business
2019 GUIDE
vetted tips from insiders, data and more
How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
5 Easy Steps to Build Your Social Media Plan INTRODUCTION
If you’re reading this, you already know that Facebook and Instagram are a daily part of life for clients if you’re in the salon or spa industry. While we know social media is the most powerful network on the planet, here are some stats that will still blow your mind:
• Facebook has 2.4 billion monthly active users and Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users.
• 83% of Instagrammers say they discover new “services” on Instagram. (source) • 1 in 5 page views in the United States occurs or starts with Facebook and Instagram
(Infodocket 2012).
And finally, what we haven’t mentioned but all know is true: of all types of inspiration, clients are coming to Instagram the most for inspiration in beauty & fashion — ummm, we’re looking at you, salon and spa professionals!
Our industry is constantly evolving with new products, techniques and beauty professionals are going to new heights to offer fabulous client experiences. If you’re in the beauty industry, it’s important to keep up with these trends.
With social media being the #1 marketing tool for a salon’s business, it’s changing everything about the client experience from the way they discover you to how they interact with you. The best part — it’s free. But you’ll need to know how to work it.
“When used properly, social media can market your talents and services better than any other form of advertising.” —Behind The Chair
“Social media is a double-edged sword for businesses. Being a beauty professional and gaining client share is definitely getting more competitive but once you get good at it, you’re golden” —Amanda J, Silver Stud Hair
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
In this guide, we’ll share a simple 5 step plan on how you can improve your social media presence if you’re a beauty professional in a salon or studio. It’s no longer enough to post something and hope for the best — more and more, successful professionals are carefully thinking about their strategy and turning to tools out there to inspire new followers, turn them into clients, and enhance the client journey in their salon or studio. We’ll show you how.
By the end of this, you’ll be on your way towards thinking about how you can ace the quickly changing social media landscape for your salon or studio business.
How this helps you: This is a huge market on the web. If you use social media marketing efforts on Instagram and FIacebook well, you can have huge returns to show for it.
5 Easy Steps to Build Your Social Media Plan
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
Whether a client is asking you for a color correction, 10mm lash fill, a restorative facial or even a deep tissue massage, you’ve got a plan for how you’ll treat them. Social media is no different.
Every successful social media strategy starts with a plan. What will you be using Instagram and Facebook for? Set your objectives for what you want to achieve for your business and create a strategy that’s easy to follow consistently every week.
We know your schedule is hectic and being consistent is hard, so that’s why we suggest starting small and getting into a rhythm to block off time to do this. Make it a calendar hold.
If you’re using a tool like GlossGenius, you can easily commit to this every week by making a personal calendar time block, repeating as often as you like. Set it for 15 minutes: during this time, clients won’t be able to book and you’ll be serious about committing to your strategy. The most successful social media gurus do this through their GlossGenius schedule and we’ve seen it happen!
Your objectives should align with the business goals you want to meet. Here are 4 objectives salon and studio owners should integrate into their social media strategy:
1. Heighten Brand Awareness 2. Reach New Clientele 3. Turn Followers into Clients 4. Increase Client Retention
Step 1: Determine Your Goals
“It wasn’t until I put this in my GG calendar that let me repeat this block that I became serious about driving my social media strategy. Something about having it blocked off on my calendar made me serious about it.”
—Kelsey Morris, Hairstylist, GlossGenius Member & Sunlights Balayage Educator
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
Pro Tip: Before setting goals, understand where you’re currently at. The analytics that matter the most for these goals above are: number of clients, number of new clients, and your rebooking rate. These are numbers you should know off the top of your head, every day. Do you have an easy way to access these exact numbers? If not, we have a tip for you.
How GlossGenius Can Help: GlossGenius provides easy-to-use Analytics & Reports that were designed with salon industry business experts, helping you focus on and understand the numbers that matter for your business. When thinking about your social media goals, you need to know your business’s numbers first so you can plan and understand your growth from there.
FBBDP
Step 1: Determine Your Goals
With any tool you’re using, check to see if you have easy access to important numbers like the number of clients, number of new clients and your rebooking rate. GlossGenius automatically calculates those business insights for you, and even covers ones like average ticket, average retail per visit, average gratuity per visit and more.
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
We work in a visual industry where image is everything! Your branding is what represents you and what makes you, as a creator, unique. Across all platforms, it’s important to maintain brand consistency so that when clients visit you, they know who they are coming to.
Let’s do a “brand” inventory check to see what you need to first tweak. This can be done in less than 1 minute. Across Facebook and Instagram, are the following pieces of information for your business consistent (i.e. recognizable and similar)?:
Your Business Username: Your username/handle is an important piece of your business profile, and it’s also what your users will use to find you. Use a recognizable username, such as your name, your studio name or your name + specialty.
Your Profile Photo: Whether you have a logo or a photo of you, make sure your main profile photo is recognizable for clients to know that it’s you or your brand.
Your Bio: Your business name and services offered should be the same everywhere. Any important info from how to book to your location should be clear. Have a branded hashtag? Place it in every platform for clients to remember and use it.
Your Images: How you showcase your client work is essential to marketing your business and is a powerful way to establish your brand. Keep your filters and photo styles the same to create a consistent portfolio across social media.
Your Voice: Your brand voice is your personality and what you stand for. This is what will create connections with your followers and potential clients. Keep it consistent.Source: Instagram @peridothairstudio
Step 2: Maintain a Consistent Brand
"The beauty industry is a visual industry.” —Caisa Airmet, Digital Communications Manager at PRAVANA
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
How GlossGenius Can Help: We understand that everyone has their own style when it comes to branding. We offer simple
and easy solutions to make your brand uniquely yours. From a completely customizable booking site to social templates for filling those last minute openings, GlossGenius provides
features that will wow your clients so they’ll want book you again and again.
Source: Instagram @gracebridalmke, Facebook @gracebridalmke, GlossGenius gracebridalmke
Step 2: Maintain a Consistent Brand
Grace Bridal knows what it means to represent a brand consistently. Here, we show her using the GlossGenius social media booking and custom website to pull it off.
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
When you scroll through your Instagram or Facebook feed, what catches your eye? Between everyone’s photos of their vacations, families, and new hairdos, there is a lot of noise. Taking the time to curate the perfect post has never been more important! To engage your clients and to attract new ones, follow the guidelines below to be strategic about your posts.
• Quality Photos: It all starts with the actual content you’re choosing to share. When clients scroll through their feeds, make sure that your posts have good lighting and beautifully showcase your work. Make that extra effort to get the perfect shot. Whether that means getting natural lighting or investing in a ring light -- all it takes is good lighting and a phone to get that award winning shot! If you’re doing a before and after, make sure you’re doing it against the same wall. If you don’t, you’ll take the focus point off your work, and it will lose some of the “wow” factor.
BAD GOOD
VS.
hair_by_kristy
Tennessee hairstylist. Press “call” in the button below to book. #hairstylist
hair_by_kristy
Photo source: Instagram @markobeauty
Step 3: Strategically Curate Posts
Notice this example doesn’t have strong lighting and all of the backgrounds are different, distracting from the work.
Notice this example has strong lighting and all of the backgrounds are consistent, enhancing the work.
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
• Strong Caption: This is where your brand voice and personality come in. When writing your caption, think about how you can serve your audience, give them something to relate to, and an action you want them to take when they’re finished reading, such as booking.
WEAK CAPTION STRONG CAPTION
VS.
• Prime Times: Know your prime times and when your audience is online. You can do this on your Instagram and Facebook business page by heading to your page insights. Research from millions of posts suggests that the best time to post is between 2 - 3 PM Central Time. And the best days for engagement are Thursdays (2018 Instagram Report).
• Tags: Make sure that all relevant accounts are tagged in the photo and in your caption so you can also show up on their profiles or even be re-posted. Accounts you should always tag include: the client featured, leading media accounts for your industry, feature accounts for your industry, and any local media outlets or communities.
Step 3: Strategically Curate Posts
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
• Hashtags: If you have a branded hashtag, always include it in posts for followers to see. Other hashtags to use to help you get discovered include location based hashtags, local media outlet hashtags, and any popular industry hashtags. Here’s a formula to stick by with location based hashtags:
#where you are + what you do
For example, a hairstylist located in New York should hashtag #newyorkhairstylist. Hashtags are like a Google search. Use hashtags =like #utahhairstylist #quickextensions #hairmakeover so clients can find you— don’t focus on using them to get more followers.
Notice one thing: all of these tips we’re sharing are centered around attracting new clients and getting more to be aware of you. It’s not necessarily about getting more followers.
Are You Actively Building Your Portfolio Every Day? Building a beautiful portfolio requires constant dedication. It can slip with a busy schedule. One thing we’ve found is to make it part of every client visit to take before and afters photos. That way, you can refer back to each and every one of your specific client needs. Whether you’re using a separate tool to do this or one like GlossGenius that puts all of your before and afters into each client file, make it part of every client visit! If you’re not familiar with GlossGenius, we make it easy to never forget to take your client photos.
Best of all, easily share your stunning work on your booking site and build an online portfolio to show off your work with a few taps. With the ability to take photos and build a client portfolio right within the app, you’ll never forget to take those transformative before and after pics!
“Instagram isn’t about getting followers; followers don’t pay your bills. It’s about getting clients in your chair; that’s what pays bills. So make your portfolio what you feel showcases your best work!”
—Riawna Capri, celebrity hairstylist and co-owner of Nine Zero One Salon (@ninezeeroone)
Step 3: Strategically Curate Posts
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
How GlossGenius Can Help: Making your business stand out online is more important than ever. If you don’t have one or want to upgrade yours, GlossGenius makes it easy to have a beautiful and customizable online booking experience for your clients. With the website gallery feature, you’ll be able to attract clients and give them the confidence to book with you.
Step 3: Strategically Curate Posts
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
And if they find you on social media, they’d prefer to never even leave their browsing. So what do you do? The easiest and most effective way to book more clients online is by having a “Book Now” option on every platform. GlossGenius offers this feature and more on both Instagram and Facebook so your clients never have to leave the platform when they want to book.
If you’re in a client’s shoes, you’d probably care about whether or not something is EASY for you to do and gives you BELIEF in the service provider. 56.4% of clients said that they might consider booking with another business if there aren’t easy booking options available. What that means for you is that it’s important for your business to offer easy booking. If your clients are coming from Instagram and Facebook, you need to level up and play in the space!
Because social media is changing so quickly, there are few tools that offer a complete solution. Fortunately, GlossGenius is one of the few tools that offer a complete, all-in-one system and setting up social media booking is very easy with their newest features. If you’re using GlossGenius, here’s how you can easily implement this across Facebook and Instagram:
• On Facebook: You can publish your specials & availability right to the news feed, accept bookings and get insights on your business in addition to having the “Book Now” button on your business page.
• On Instagram: You can add the “Book Now” button right in your Instagram Profile where they will be led to your stunning GlossGenius booking site and book your services in just a few steps!
Step 4: Offer A WOW Experience & Make it Easy for Clients70% of clients prefer to book you online
Put yourself in the shoes of a potential client — you want easy right?
How You Can Easily Level Up on Social Using Technology
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
Linking your business to Instagram and Facebook will help you offer clients an unparalleled personal experience without requiring a lot of time from you to always be available for their texts, calls, and emails to book with you. They can do it without waiting on a response from you, at any point during the day.
FBBDP
Step 4: Offer A WOW Experience & Make it Easy for ClientsMake it personal without spending more time
“In a salon studio there is no personal storefront, so instead I use technology and social media to draw in potential clients.”
—Ayla Davis, Studio Owner in Willow Glen, Behind the Chair
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
Remember that the client experience doesn’t end at checkout, especially if your clients follow you on social media. Your social channels should be used as a way to build lasting relationships to help repeat business and maintain customer loyalty. Nurturing these connections can also mean gaining new client referrals!
Here are some tips to help build & maintain client relationships on social media:
• Engage Often: Follow your clients back, like and comment on their photos, and celebrate life’s moments with them — birthdays, graduations, engagements. Doing this will create a deeper personal connection that can make you a permanent part of their lives.
• Respond Quickly: Think of your social media as a customer service channel for your business. Being available and responding in a timely manner will show your clients that you’re listening, can develop trust, and even increase your business with them. In fact, studies have shown that consumers are more likely to purchase an item or service after receiving a response on social media!
Being responsive on social media is the #1 action that drives consumers to make a purchase!
Step 5: Build & Maintain Relationships With Clients
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
• Run Exclusive Promotions: Make your clients feel extra special for being a part of your online community. Run exclusive promotions on your services or host contests/giveaways for your followers only.
• Show Them Love: Aside from liking their content, show your clients love with messages of gratitude through your posts, sharing their reviews, throwback photos to their appointments, or share posts with them with a simple “this reminded me of you!” These simple gestures can help personalize their experience with you.
How GlossGenius Can Help: If you don’t have an easy way to build relationships with clients, we can help. We know that clients are everything to you which is why we help with client management. From taking notes on every appointment to being able to share client reviews, GlossGenius offers multiple features to keep your client relationships personal and to keep them coming back (yes, we have a feature to keep track of that too!).
$149 $35
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Step 5: Build & Maintain Relationships With Clients
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How to Build A Social Media Plan for Your Salon & Studio Business
“Being in a salon studio, I have found social media to be the most effective form of marketing,” says Heidi Christensen, Studio Owner in Cinco Ranch West.
Social media is making it easier to engage existing customers and bring on new ones. It’s a double edged sword. As a salon or studio owner, finding a tool that will help you unify both platforms for clients to easily book and engage with you through all social platforms is key.
For salon & studio owners, Facebook & Instagram are the giants of social media which is why GlossGenius is an official partner that offers features to get you booked even faster and elevate your client’s experience. Setting up direct social media booking through a platform like GlossGenius will wow your clients and set you apart from the rest, helping you gain new clients in an increasingly competitive environment.
To experience social media with GlossGenius & more, you can download GlossGenius in the App Store or Google Play Store. Get started and begin booking more clients through social media today!
5 Easy Steps to Build Your Social Media Plan
CONCLUSION
SPECIAL OFFER FOR READERS! ($30 VALUE!)Download “GlossGenius” via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and create an account with the promo code “SOCIALBOOK” for a $30 Visa gift card with your membership. Limited time only. For first-time members only.
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