Social media for salon owners

1. Why should all hair and beauty salons have a social media presence; what impact can it have?

The modern-day consumer makes their buying decisions based on lots of factors and social media is becoming a significant one of those. Having a thriving social media presence that showcases your salon, its work and client testimonials can seriously influence someone’s choice. The most prominent and consistent your presence, the more likely you are to catch someone as they’re thinking about changing salon and win new customers.

2. Briefly, how can you use social media to build brand awareness?

There are many ways that social media can work to build brand awareness. Posting great content such as a high-quality video of a fresh manicure will entice engagements such as likes, comments and shares. These engagements then signal to the social networks that your content is interesting and relevant to people in your audience so more people are likely to be shown the content.

If you’re looking to take your Facebook marketing to the next level, paid ads can be very effective at building awareness to a local audience for just a few pounds per day.

3. Can salons be negatively affected by poor or ineffective social media use? Any examples?

Inconsistency of brand and low-quality content are the most likely ways to damage a brand online. Having a social media account that is inactive or has different branding to other accounts can be confusing for users. Low-quality content that seems to lack care and attention to detail could be perceived as reflective of the salon’s overall attitude to quality. Coming across as professional, with an eye for detail, is paramount.

4. What are the top 3 things for salon owners to be aware of when creating a social media strategy and why?  

When setting goals for social media, ensure that you think about metrics that will genuinely help your business – such as collecting reviews for Facebook or Google, generating web traffic or taking calls and bookings for the salon. Focusing solely on fan and follower numbers means your marketing might not actually be growing your business.

High-quality content is king. It’s really important that images and videos you share online look professional and display your salon and its work as you want. It’s far better to have a content strategy that revolves around quality rather than quantity.

Incorporate your customers into your social media. Your customers are your best salespeople so mentioning them in posts, sharing their content and encouraging testimonial pictures should be the cornerstone of your strategy. Being one of your customers should look like the best thing ever and make someone want to be a part of that community!

5. Any warnings regarding social media use for salons – what are the main pitfalls you’d advise salon owners to watch out for, and why?

Make sure you have a plan for any negative comments or reviews you may receive on social media. These can happen at any time – some might be justified, others completely random and uncalled for. What is important is that these are dealt with in a professional manner and that they don’t blow up and become a serious threat to your reputation. If in doubt, apologise for the way the customer feels and offer to speak with them on the phone. People are usually much more reasonable over the phone than behind the keyboard and it should be possible to have them remove their comments.

Salons, just like many other businesses on the high street, can benefit from social media management but they need to ensure they have a plan in place and avoid the pitfalls!