Hey there, Salon and Spa superstars.
Welcome to Salon Swagger, your go -to podcast for all things commission -based
salon and spa ownership.
I'm Bri, one of your hosts, and I'm here with the lovely Chandra, my co -host.
How are you?
Hi, doing good.
Awesome, awesome.
How's your day been?
It's been good.
It's been a little crazy morning, but it's a Monday, so it's always going to be fine.
Isn't that funny?
It's Mondays used to be my favorite day as a salon owner, but not anymore.
Like it's not that way anymore.
Cause Mondays we used to have off all the time, but the world changes.
Yep, now it's like the busiest day of the week.
Well, today we are going to dive into the colorful world of social media.
So I think this is going to be a really, really cool episode.
I know for me, social media is one of those things that I wanted to kind of not
get into for a very, very long time, right?
Like I just wanted to stay in my little comfort zone and do it my way.
But unfortunately, we have to have social media as a business owner, right?
Yep, unfortunately, yep.
So if being a salon owner wasn't already hard enough, now we literally have to
become a master at social media if we want our businesses to grow.
Unfortunately, those days of the traditional, I don't know, word of mouth
marketing, they've become somewhat non -existent.
Or even if you get word of mouth referrals, the first place that they're
going to go is...
Social media, right?
That's what they're going to check out first so they can learn about you, about
your salon, about your technicians, all of those things.
And if you aren't representing your business well online, then the chances of
that new potential client coming in are going to be very, very slim.
Would you agree with that?
yeah, a hundred percent.
Definitely.
Yeah, it's really funny because I was doing some research and I was looking at
the number of salon commission salon and spot owners that are over like the age of
35 and it's like upwards of 85 % of them.
And so I know why social media is so hard for us, right?
We've been doing things our way for such a long time.
And I'm going to be honest with you, half the time I still don't even understand a
lot of the social media lingo, like the hashtags and the...
especially now you've got so many platforms like Facebook, I can work that
somewhat okay, but now you've got Instagram and you've got TikTok and you've
got X or Twitter or whatever the heck it's called.
There are so many things out there and learning how to use them all can be
extremely, extremely frustrating.
So I thought this would be a really, really good episode to do to maybe get
people out of their comfort zone just a little bit and make them realize how
important social media is to the growth of their business and
how it can actually be fun if you'll just give it the chance and use it a little
bit.
Yeah, for sure.
So in the beauty industry, not being relevant in the social media space, it can
literally make or break you.
It really, really can.
People don't seem to believe us when we say that, but it's the honest truth.
I know for both of us and our studios, social media, it was a huge part of the
way that we built our client base.
But not only that, it was a great way or it is a great way for us to gain new
employees or new talent.
I use it all the time for that.
People always see it on the client end.
but they don't think about it when it comes to attracting new talent.
And so for those of you out there that are not using your social media to attract new
talent, change your mindset because it's a great way.
It's a great way.
Social media is important because it gives us a direct line to our current and our
potential clients to where in the past, if we're just doing that word of mouth, we
only have access to our current clients.
We don't have access to those potential ones.
It's a platform where we can showcase our work, share our expertise, and connect
with people that are interested in exactly what we have to offer.
It's not just about posting pretty pictures.
It's really about creating a presence where your clients can see your passion
and your skills and your personality and a million other things.
When you learn to post regularly and when you learn to engage with your followers,
you are actually building relationships.
And this is where my mindset had to shift because I looked at it as I'm just posting
pretty pictures.
What is this really going to do for me?
Right.
I never looked at it in the aspect of it was building relationships and these
relationships, they're crucial for client attraction and for client attention or
retention.
Sorry.
New clients are going to discover you through things like posts, through
hashtags, through shared content.
While existing clients, they're going to stay engaged and they're going to stay
loyal because they feel connected to you.
Social media really just helps keep your business top of mind, making clients more
likely to return and recommend others to you.
In short, it is a powerful, powerful tool that can boost your visibility, boost your
credibility, and ultimately boost your success.
So,
I just mentioned a few things about client retention.
So can you share a story of how social media helps you and your employees retain
clients at your studio?
Yeah.
So we have a lot of situations where the clients will come in because they saw
something we were doing on social media.
So our existing clients, a lot of times they want to come in and try the services
that they're seeing us doing on our social media channels, or they want to purchase a
product of something that they saw us do a product tutorial on.
And so for our client, our existing client retention, it helps so much because these
people keep coming back over and over again, because they want to try all of the
new things.
that they see us doing on our social media.
And for new clients, they want to come in and sometimes they just want to meet our
staff.
Like they see the stylist on there, they almost think they're like a local
celebrity because they come in and they'll be like, my gosh, I saw her on your videos
and I saw her on your videos.
And they want to come in and have that experience that they're seeing us post.
And so I think it definitely brings in new clients all the time, just from seeing the
things that we're doing.
And like you said,
It really builds a community.
So it's kind of like you're building a community for your salon or spa and those
people want to be connected to you in person, not just online.
So it definitely helps keep that retention rate up and it brings in a lot of new
business.
Yeah, definitely.
It definitely helps.
I love that people can see personalities through social media, you know, and really
kind of get to know.
I have noticed a difference in people that find us on social media.
They already feel like they're part of the family before they ever even step foot
into our door.
I mean, we have clients that come in that are brand new and they're like besties
with the technicians that they've never even met before.
So it's really, really, it's really, really neat to see.
The cool thing about social media is it's really a digital storefront that is open
24 seven, giving those potential clients a peek into your world.
And we forget about that.
It runs all night.
People book appointments with us in the middle of the night all the time now to
where as eight years ago that didn't happen as much.
You know what I mean?
With the right strategy.
You can use social media to reach a wider audience than you ever even thought was
possible.
And you can turn curious browsers into loyal clients almost instantly.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah.
absolutely.
We, yeah, I would have to say something funny really quick that when you were
saying that our online booking, when we look at our analytics from our online
booking, almost all of them, like the highest percentage is after midnight.
And it is, it's people like searching, looking at our videos in the middle of the
night and then clicking to book online.
So it's really funny how that works.
Yeah, 100%.
I remember when I was doing some analytics and I started looking at it, that's why I
brought that up a second ago because I was shocked at the amount of requests that
came in like two o 'clock in the morning and I'm like, what the heck's going on
here?
But it is, it's all from that social media and it's really, really cool.
I feel like social media pages are like the online face of our business.
They reflect.
our personality, they reflect our values, they reflect our culture, they reflect all
of these things.
So when people visit our pages, they should immediately, immediately get a
sense of what your business is all about.
We have to start posting content that looks good, that feels consistent, and
create that strong and memorable brand identity because without that,
people are going to be confused.
I like to, when I'm talking to my team about it, I always say, think about
decorating like a window in a boutique.
You know what I mean?
You want everything to look inviting.
You want everything to look cohesive and it all just needs to flow very, very well.
Your feed on your social media is going to be the same way.
It's going to help people recognize your brand.
It's going to help people remember your brand.
And it's going to make that lasting impression that keeps them coming back for
more.
With that being said, how do you make sure that you have that well curated feed that
people recognize?
They know without a doubt, this is Chandra's brand.
There's no question about it.
Yeah, I mean, we do try to keep all the posts very cohesive.
And we try to have a very laid out, like structured posting schedule, right?
So we make sure that we're putting in the pictures of the hair when we're doing the
pretty hair pictures, all of them sort of have a similar look.
The background is kind of similar.
The shots are fairly similar.
We try to change it just a little bit here and there, but for the most part, when you
see any of the pictures on our feed that are like a hair picture.
There's a similarity to them that looks like our brand.
And then any of the videos, we try to do the same thing where we try to keep a
similar personality coming through in those videos.
So sometimes we might post a funny video, but it really helps to show people like
that we are fun, we're fun, we're a fun place to come, you know, so and so it's
just making sure that you're keeping that fairly consistent.
So you're not just kind of posting a bunch of random things all over the place.
and it looks disorganized and chaotic.
So you wanna make sure you're posting things that kind of go together.
So if you have a cover for some of your stuff, have a similar cover on your videos
or on your posts that all look somewhat consistent.
That way when people do come, they might see our videos, right?
If they're scrolling through their own feed and our videos pop in, they can
recognize, this is from Ohana, like this is from her salon.
So they stop and watch it because they know it's our content.
So definitely making sure that you are keeping that consistent look amongst all
of your posting.
That's what we do.
Yeah, I agree with that.
I think consistency is obviously important.
It's key, right?
You have to make sure that you're doing all of that.
Even when it comes to your posting, you have to post regularly, but you don't want
to overwhelm your followers.
You have to kind of find that sweet spot that works for you, whether that's daily,
bi -weekly, monthly, weekly, whatever it is.
And then timing, consistency with the timing of your posts are going to be very,
very important.
You have to figure out when your audience is most active.
This is going to just help ensure that your post gets the engagement that it
needs.
Now, with what you said earlier, I want to make sure that people don't misinterpret
because variety is important.
Variety is the spice of life.
So you want to mix up your content with before and after photos, client
testimonials, behind the scenes peaks, introducing your team and technicians.
You want to show your audience the magic that happens in your salon.
Like Shandra was saying, it all needs to look consistent, but you've got to have a
variety of different things.
It's the only way to keep your feed interesting and showcase different aspects
of your work and of your business, especially if you have a big team.
Yep, for sure.
So what are some of the things that your team that you post to make it variety wise
besides some of the things that I mentioned earlier?
Yeah, I mean, we try to create some sort of schedule, right?
Like we know we need before and after photos.
We know we need transformation photos.
We try to make funny videos.
We try to make culture videos.
We try to make videos that are team oriented.
So let's say like if some of our team members are doing something really
amazing, we want to showcase them on there.
So we try to, we always mix it up and have like a variety of a lot of different
things.
We post product tutorials.
We post.
you know, maybe something from a manufacturer, video from a manufacturer,
just to kind of keep some of that cohesiveness with our brand.
And so it's really about making sure that you have kind of create a list, right?
That's what we do.
We know we need a list of all these different types of posts, and then we
start making sure we create those on a weekly, monthly basis so that we have that
content to be able to change it up.
So it's not the same exact thing every single time.
Viewers are getting different types of content from us.
every time we're posting.
Yeah, and we're definitely going to get into that in just a little bit about how
they can create kind of a social media marketing plan because that's very, very
important.
It's kind of funny.
Social media, honestly, is kind of like a marriage in some ways.
It's a two -way street if you think about it.
You have to make sure that as the business owner, you're responding to comments and
you're responding to messages and all of those things.
but you have to do it in a very timely manner, right?
It's that two -way street.
It takes back and forth.
You can't wait a week or two to respond to somebody.
That's just not going to do you any good.
You have to make sure that you are on the ball when it comes to your response times,
you know, commenting back, all of those things.
You have to also make sure that you show your followers some love because when you
do that, they're going to return the favor.
So,
For those of you out there thinking you can simply just make a post and forget it,
that's never going to be the way that your business is going to grow.
Without interaction like this, this is the only way, this interaction is the only way
to make people feel valued and to make them feel more connected to your business,
which is going to boost loyalty and engagement.
And so it's really, really important.
So keep in mind, it's kind of like dating.
You got to flirt a little bit.
You got to go back and forth.
You've got to respond and you've got to do those things.
With that being said, Chandra, how do you make sure that you are communicating, that
you are, you know, showing people on your feet love, that you are responding, that
you are doing all of those things?
Yeah, I mean, we respond immediately to anything that comes through.
So I have access to all of our social media.
So if somebody makes a comment, if somebody likes a photo, we always reach
out and kind of show them love back.
So either I do it myself when I get those notifications immediately.
And we have some people on our team too that help us with our social media.
So if I'm not like getting to it right away, they know that and they're
immediately commenting or reaching out to that client.
We get a lot of appointment requests through our social media messages.
And so we have to stay on top of that all the time.
So if we'll even have maybe our front desk, if they've got downtime, go back
through, make sure everything's been responded to and create kind of a process
so that you know, okay, if I didn't check at this hour, I got to make sure that if
anything came through that I didn't miss anything because like you said,
It's all about building that community, right?
They want to talk to you if they're commenting or if they're sending messages.
And so if you're not responding, they're going to kind of lose faith in your
business and think that you don't care.
And so you've really got to make sure that you are hitting those right away.
And like we talked about those algorithms a little bit earlier, the algorithm knows
if you leave people sitting.
And so you want to make sure that you're having that engagement back and forth so
that, you know, those social media channels know that you're somebody who's
responding and they will help.
push your posts a little bit further when you do engage with people online.
Yeah, 100%.
So we know that it's important for us as business owners to post, but I think it's
important that we talk about getting our clients involved a little bit too.
It's important to get your clients to share their salon experiences, to tag your
salon or your spa.
And then you, as the salon owner, you can repost their content and that's going to
help you build a community and kind of showcase those real life testimonials.
This is super, super important.
It not only provides authentic content, but it also makes your clients feel
appreciated and involved in the process.
And this is just going to strengthen their connection to your brand.
This is something that we do all the time.
It is a non -negotiable for my technicians.
So, and I know you're the same way.
So do you want to talk about that just a little bit?
How do you encourage your clients to get involved?
Yeah, I mean, we, we just ask them, really, we, we tell them, you know, post
this tag us, we might do contests with people to try to get them excited about
wanting to tag us in their posts.
And they get excited with it.
Sometimes they'll even do little selfies with the stylists.
Like the, the team members will get excited about it and be like, here, let's
take a photo.
And then they'll tag it in their social media and we'll share it.
people get.
We do it so much that we've, you know, once in a blue moon, I'll say we've missed
something and the client gets upset.
Like, you didn't share my post because they're so used to seeing us do that.
And so we want to make sure, you know, we are always doing it.
So we encourage it.
And we've kind of fostered that sort of culture of sharing those posts and getting
clients excited about it.
Because when we're excited about something we did on them, they're extra excited
about it.
And they want to tag you in that and post your work as well and share your stuff.
So we...
We always make sure we're kind of going back and forth and sharing that in our
stories and talking about, this amazing client.
Look at like, and, new clients will see that and they'll, you know, want to come
in for it too.
So definitely encourage that, do contests or get your team excited.
Cause that's where that's when they do it.
It's the excitement.
So if your team's not excited about it, then the clients aren't going to be
excited about it either.
So having that excitement going is key.
Yeah, definitely.
I agree with that 100%.
It's a great way to build just trust all the way around and build credibility.
So I feel like we kind of armed people with kind of some posting best practices.
Now, I think we should move on to an area where a lot of people get very confused
and that's capturing effective content.
So how do we go about capturing those eye catching photos and videos that are just
going to make your social media
pop just a little bit.
I would say one of the number one things is going to be lighting.
Lighting is everything.
Natural light is going to work wonders.
You have to learn to play with angles and compositions so that they highlight your
work.
And you've got to remember to use clean backgrounds so that you're keeping the
focus on your fabulous creations.
I don't know how else to put it.
Make sure everything is tidy, right?
I have gone through social media pages and I'm like,
my gosh, that's a chaos.
That's a mess.
And it looks very unprofessional.
And one thing I want to say really quickly, and I will wait for the hate, but
ring lights are awful.
They are not the best for creating content.
They can create really, really harsh shadows and unnatural highlights.
I can almost always tell when someone has used a ring light.
I don't know about you, but.
Yep.
have natural lighting in your space, try using some diffused, soft diffused
lighting to create a more flattering natural look, because this is going to
help your work look at its best, more authentic in my opinion.
So what type of lighting do you use at your studio?
we really do use most natural light.
We do have a lot of windows, but our window area is kind of shadowed.
And so it's not a great place to take photos.
So we always open a door.
We open our front door or we have a back door, we walk clients over there.
And we always open that door to get that natural light in.
That is 99 .9 % of the photos that we post and they come out phenomenal.
You can see every...
accurate color in the hair.
You can see all the hairs and make sure they're all in the right place.
And at night, sometimes we do them at night, right?
So you don't always have that opportunity for the natural light.
And 100 % agree with you, Bree, ring lights, no go for us either.
They always come out bad.
And I think they do make the color look weird sometimes.
It doesn't even look like the accurate color that you're trying to show when it
comes to hair color, things like that.
And so we...
You can get a lot of really great standup lights on Amazon that are a full light.
They're not just a little ring light with the shadows.
And if you place like two or three of them around your client, you can really start
to capture this, a similar lighting to what it looks like when you're in a
natural light.
And so I would recommend looking for some lights that are not with the ring, with
the shadows and things like that.
And, doing your research a little bit to find things that will work for your
business, but natural light hands down is the best.
but.
Yeah, if you don't have the access to that, then definitely get some other
lights besides the ring light.
Yeah, I was on the same page with everyone, you know, I saw ring lights and
studios everywhere, but I used to do photography.
And so we used box lighting for everything.
And I had all of my box lighting still.
And so at times when we were capturing content or doing certain things, I would
take my box lighting up and we were so impressed with that, that we never bought
another ring light.
Like they, they suck.
I'm sorry, but they suck.
Sorry.
I'm sorry.
All right.
So aside from lighting, we've got to talk about editing.
And there are many great apps out there that are going to enhance your photos and
videos and things like that.
You've got Lightroom, Canva, InShot, Cap...
I mean, there are so many out there.
It's not even funny.
But people, just make a few tweaks.
These tools are only there to help polish your visuals and make them more appealing.
Editing...
can be overdone.
It is so easy to go overboard and over editing.
It can make your images look unnatural.
It can distract from the real beauty of your work if you're not careful.
So you want to make sure that you're sticking to subtle adjustments that
enhance rather than transform your photos.
So aim for more of that natural look that stays true to what your clients see and
look like in person.
This honesty is, it's your, it's just, it's honest, right?
Like people bring in photos all the time and I'm like, that's Photoshopped, like
for inspiration pictures.
If you aren't honest with your work, you're not going to be able to build trust
with your audience.
So what apps do you guys use and how picky are you on editing of the photos?
Yeah, we actually don't edit any of our photos, none of them.
We don't edit any of them.
We do use CapCut for videos for when we're editing any kind of reels and things like
that.
We usually use CapCut a lot.
And actually, Instagram even has some new editing tools that work really, really
well for editing videos.
But.
As far as photos go, we are very transparent and we don't edit any of them.
We don't even adjust the lighting in the picture because I think you can tell.
And when you do start looking through a lot of, when you start noticing the
unedited photos versus the edited photos, it really starts to make your feed look
bad because people can see that, see right through that and they can tell that that
doesn't look accurate.
It looks weird.
And so we actually, we don't edit any of our photos.
But definitely videos, if you're shooting reels, sometimes you have to edit.
But even the videos, we don't aesthetically edit anything.
We just edit certain things to make the videos speed up or things like that.
But aesthetically, they're all raw.
I love it.
I think that's so, so, so important.
So we've talked a little bit about the lighting, right?
The apps that you can use for your videos.
We've talked about over -editing.
Now I think we need to talk about captions.
So creating compelling captions on social media, it involves a few key strategies to
ensure that your posts are engaging and that they're memorable.
This is very, very important.
Please do not leave the caption empty, whatever you do.
Don't do it.
Yeah.
let's talk about captions for just a second.
Let's talk about what you put into a caption, why it's important, and how you
can engage your audience with these captions as you're doing that.
So go for it.
Yeah.
Caption is super important.
I mean, the way that I kind of view it is we should, you have to keep them kind of
short.
They shouldn't be like a whole big old paragraph of something.
Definitely keeping them sort of short and to the point.
So if you're describing your photo, let's say, you know, you could put a fun name
with a, for example, if it's a hair color and it could be like, you know, mocha
swirl brown or something like that, like make it fun and kind of engaging, but
don't, don't make it sound robotic.
You definitely want to make it sound like it's coming from you.
I know a lot of people are using a lot of the AI platforms and things like that.
And sometimes we'll use those to get an idea of what to post if you're having like
a day where you're blank and you're like, I don't know what to call this or what to
say.
You can use those platforms to kind of give you ideas, but definitely change that
to sound more like it's your brand and coming from you.
And make those captions have sometimes a call to action.
Like that's, you know, if you want to get engagement from people, like engage with
people, ask them like, you know, would you love this hair color or try to get
engagement for people to comment or to leave a message to you for something.
so having a call to action, there is another really good, tool that you can
use.
And I also think having keywords.
So don't, don't go crazy, but like if you put Bollyage into your caption, that helps
the algorithm know what you're trying to promote and trying to say.
So make sure your captions also include what your picture's about.
Don't just put like, look at this amazing, you know, mocha swirl on my client or
something, but outputting like a balayage or look at this beautiful highlight or,
you know, stuff like that is going to get you more engagement because it's going to
tell the algorithm what it is people are searching for.
And those posts will have those keywords in there.
So really, you know, try to keep it short and simple, try to keep it, you know,
sounding like yourself and.
do a little bit of description and add that call to action.
Like that would be my biggest, you know, key things to add into those captions.
100 % social media users, they often skim through content very, very quickly.
So you want to make sure that your message is clear and it is impactful without the
unnecessary fluff.
That is the way that I always phrase it when I'm talking to my employees, because
so often I go through captions and it's like fluff, fluff, fluff, fluff.
And I'm like, I don't have time to read all of that.
I don't have time.
Literally you have one and a half seconds.
two seconds tops to grab the attention of whoever is scrolling through.
So it's got to speak volumes very, very quickly.
Something else that you want to think about is those researching those popular
hashtags in your industry.
Make sure you're including those in your captions.
Now I am not going to lie to you.
Some people say don't use more than five because it will mess up the algorithm.
I have been to a million social media classes.
Some people say 10, some people say 15, some people say five.
I don't know what the real answer is.
So just research the best you can and figure that out.
But you've got to grab their attention very, very quickly and don't put a bunch
of fluff in there.
So I want to talk really quickly about highlighting clients on social media.
I think that's a really, really fantastic way to showcase our work, to build trust,
to engage the audience.
So.
How do you go about creating compelling client highlights?
Like, what do you do?
Let's say before and after photos.
We know that those are good, right?
To visually demonstrate the change and things of that nature.
Testimonials, those are good.
What is maybe an outline of how you guys post those things or how you make those
work for you?
Yeah.
So we kind of set those up so that we kind of tell a little bit of a story sometimes
too, for that client.
And so that helps also get some engagement as you're kind of telling a little bit of
a story through that transformation of their hair.
And so when you're kind of outlining that, you want to make sure you're capturing a
really good before, you know, maybe capturing a really good after as to why,
how does that client feel now?
Like make sure you can put that in there.
If they feel like really amazing and really great.
You want to include that stuff in your transformation because people really feel
that coming through in your social media post.
And so they want to feel like, I want to feel like this person.
They're so excited and happy now.
And so you want to make sure you're outlining your posts so that it's not just
a plain old like, look at this transformation before after done.
Like you want to get those clients engaging with it as well and get them
sharing it as well.
we just did a makeover story that was really kind of a fun idea.
I can share with you guys where.
We did a contest where we took in some clients, people nominated clients for, or
just people, didn't have to be a client, but someone for a makeover.
And cause we're trying to get more creative with those transformations.
And we told her story online and it got so much engagement and she had really was
very deserving of that makeover.
So trying to be creative too, and coming up with ways that you can get engagement.
from the people that you're working on in that chair that day, or from an audience
of strangers to kind of feel compelled to want to click on those photos and want to
click on those before and after videos.
And when you outline it that way, I think it makes a really big difference where
it's not just a plain old, here, look at this change I did that day.
You want to have it be somewhat compelling.
And we try to do that with most of our transformations.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I actually meant to tell you because I know that like I kind of gave you that
idea of the, you know, drawing and stuff like that.
I saw that on your social media and I thought that it was so heartwarming.
And I meant to mention that to you, that is awesome.
And I commend you for doing that because it was phenomenal, but it worked well for
us and people just have to learn to think outside of the box, right?
When it comes to those things.
So,
Yeah.
doing with your large team is amazing.
And that was very heartwarming.
And I think that you guys are going to get a lot of engagement further on and you're
just going to be able to build off of that moving forward.
So it was super amazing.
Just want to throw that out there really quickly.
All right.
So now we've got the content.
Yeah, it's so fun.
The first time that I did it, I did it for Mother's Day and I wanted all moms are
important.
don't get me wrong, but I wanted to provide a single mom with something.
Or I just, you know, a lot of times they don't get the self care and the self love.
And so we did it.
I'm telling you girl, I sat there for hours reading the nominations and I went
through five boxes of clinics.
Like it was that heart wrenching when I did it like seven years ago.
So very, very cool, very, very great way to kind of build something.
And we used to do it every year.
We haven't done it in a while, but definitely glad you tried it because it's
awesome.
So now that we've kind of got the content creation down, it's time to develop what
Chandra was talking about earlier.
And that is the social media marketing plan, because that's really what's going
to tie everything together for you.
It's the only way to get consistent, right?
So first things first, you have to think about what do you want to achieve with
your social media?
That's going to be one of the first questions to ask.
Is it brand awareness?
Is it client bookings?
Is it product sales?
Like what is the main things that you want to achieve?
And then you have to identify those clear objectives when it comes to that.
So you want to set specific and realistic goals that are going to guide your efforts
in that.
Knowing your main focus is going to help you to be able to tailor your content and
your strategy to meet those targets effectively.
So we always at the Beauty Biz Agency,
Talk about smart goals, right?
Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound.
I think I got them all there.
But those things are going to ensure that your targets are clear and that they are
trackable.
All right?
Because posting on social media is just not something you do.
It should give you data.
Every decision you make in your business should be trackable.
It should give you some sort of data.
so that you can make decisions moving forward.
With that being said, let's first talk about the goals that you set for your
salon and how you track those when it comes to social media, and then we'll talk
about a content calendar.
Yeah, so we actually have gotten to a point where we do set a lot of goals at
one time.
And I think, you know, in the beginning, if you're just starting out, just focus on
one or two.
But what we do is like, we have engagement as a goal.
We want to hit a certain amount of engagement or increase by a certain amount
of engagement.
And so for instance, we might create, we'll sit down and brainstorm content.
What's going to be the most content to give us engagement on social media?
So we might think of.
some funny videos.
These aren't necessarily gonna be videos that are gonna bring in a ton of clients
or going to boost other parts of our social media, but they might give us
engagement.
People will comment, people will share, people will like and all of those things.
And so we set those goals and then we create, okay, well, how much do we wanna
increase this by?
Let's say we wanna increase our engagement by 10 % with this post.
And then we'll measure it by...
We track it, we track it on our social media channels, like the analytics are on
there.
You can look in Instagram or Facebook and you can see exactly how your posts are
performing.
And so we track those specific posts that we're working on for that goal.
And we see if we're hitting those numbers, if we're getting that engagement, because
if we're not, then we're doing something wrong.
So then it's time to kind of back off and be like, okay, how do we adjust these
videos or these posts so that we're getting that engagement that we're trying
to reach?
And so definitely, you know,
for stuff for engagement, things like that are good.
We'll set goals for say, you know, bookings, like we're trying to increase
the amount of clients booking online.
So then we might create some posts that are geared for services that will put the
call to action for online booking.
So we can track that.
So if we post something and we're showing a specific service, then we know that
people are booking online when we can see that those analytics are going up as we're
running those posts.
And so you really want to create, set those goals and then,
Create how you're going to track on, like you were saying, like making sure, okay,
don't let it go too long because if you're creating a bunch of content that's not
working, you want to change it up before you waste a bunch of time on a lot of
those posts that don't work.
So creating those goals and really tracking them, making sure they're working
and staying on top of it is what's going to be the most successful when it comes to
trying to reach any goal that you're setting for your business.
But that's how we do it.
Yeah, I would agree.
So let's just put it in perspective just a little bit.
Let's say that you are looking for post engagement.
That's what you're looking for.
You are a KPI that you're tracking is sales revenue and then follower count.
You want to be sure that you're tracking all of those different things, right?
So those three things you're paying close attention to.
You also want to be sure that as you're going through and tracking this stuff,
that you look out for red flags.
Like if you are posting consistently the way that you're supposed to.
and you have zero new clients that are coming in, you've got to look at that and
see what's going on.
If you have a sudden drop in follower count, you've got to look at that and see
what's going on.
I don't mean like three followers, right?
But like a drastic drop in follower count.
If you have a really, really low engagement, you've got to look and see
kind of what's going on and make some moves, make some changes.
The one thing that I will say is as you start adjusting or making those changes,
be very, very careful because if you change too many things, you're never going
to know what actually worked and what didn't.
So be conscious in all of those decisions that you're making as you're tracking.
But I think Chandra said it best, if you are not tracking your social media right
now, think of about two or three main goals or main KPIs that you can track,
start there and then work your way further in depth.
Now,
Let's talk about a content calendar because it can be your best friend.
This can save a lot of stress if you plan your post in advance to ensure that you're
having that balanced mix of promotional and value driven content, right?
It's going to help you stay organized, consistent.
You want to be able to have a little bit of everything.
It's going to make you...
Stay on top of things the way that you have to with social media a lot better.
There are some tools that you can use like Trello, Google Calendar.
There's all kinds of stuff that'll help you like visualize it and see it and make
sure that you're staying on top of it.
But this is an area that I see commission salon as well owner struggle with when it
comes to social media.
And,
They just, they don't want to plan things out.
So how do you go about planning yours out or creating that content calendar?
Yeah.
So we use a Google like spreadsheet.
We use a Google sheet and we, cause then we can share that amongst our team as
well.
So they know, you know, we're trying to get content for this or this, and they,
they need to also be responsible for shooting it.
So we use that Google spreadsheet and share that with them.
And then we create a calendar of posts we need.
So we know we need X amount of transformation posts per month.
We need X amount of fun videos per month.
We need X amount of pretty hair videos per month.
We need, you know, we come up with a.
You know, we need product tutorials.
We need this many, we need this many service tutorials.
And then we start laying them out on that calendar.
So we know, okay, you know, this week we're going to post a transformation, a
product tutorial, a fun video, a team info post or whatever that looks like.
and so we start creating that calendar for the whole month and then we share that
with our team.
So we know that we need to capture those videos from them while they're working or
if they have downtime or whatever that looks like on their end.
But they're very clear on exactly what we need.
And so you have to plan it out for a month like that, at least a month ahead of time,
because if you don't, you're not going to have any posts and then your, your content
is going to start getting inconsistent.
And you want to feel like you're ready.
You know, if you've got all this stock of posts sitting there, ready to go, then
it's easy.
You just pop them in there this day and you know, kind of get that done and you
don't have to be stressing about it all the time.
So that's, that's kind of how we do our calendar.
And it works really, really well.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, so I agree with that.
I would highly recommend for those of you that are towards the beginning of the
year, try to come up with somewhat of a plan for the 12 months, then break it down
into quarters and come up with major things throughout those quarters, and then
break it down to your 30 day content or content calendar.
It's a great way to do it.
But as you get into it a little bit further in depth, you'll be able to do
that.
And then it becomes a breeze.
It really, really does.
It's like anything else.
All right, we have to talk about this really quickly before we get done for the
day.
But one of the areas that I see people push back on all the time as we're
coaching owners of salons and spas is getting their teams involved.
We have to allow our teams to get involved in this process because it can be a huge
boost to our online presence.
People are so scared to get their staff involved because they don't
trust them, they don't maybe like what they're going to post, they don't, I don't
know.
But commission salon and spa owners are terrified to allow their team to get
involved.
And I think that they are doing themselves a disservice.
I think that our team members can help us out tremendously when it comes to this.
You have to set clear guidelines.
I can't talk.
To help maintain that consistency and the professionalism, you want to make sure
that everyone understands how to represent your business online, including things
like the type of content to share, appropriate language, how to engage with
followers.
That is something that they have to be trained on, but they have to be involved.
So how do you go about making sure that your team is involved with your social
media posting and social media in general?
Yeah, I think in the beginning it was a little hard, you know, because I felt like
I was pushing them up a hill sometimes trying to get them to do it.
But after a while we really just created that as part of our culture.
Like I don't really even have to try anymore.
They're excited to make those videos or to do those posts.
And we did the same thing.
They have a very kind of a guideline that they have to follow.
Like, and in the beginning, if they send me, if we get hair photos that are...
questionable, like that's tangly or it doesn't look nice, you know, we won't post
it and we'll work with them to train them on the best way to do it so that it looks
good.
But I don't even, I, I'm not a social media person.
I don't even really like social media.
I wouldn't be on it if I didn't have to be.
So I rely on them.
I need them to come up with those content with that fun stuff.
And they come up with some stuff that I think is hilarious or amazing.
And I would have never even thought ever to post.
And so once you start giving them that little bit of leeway and loosening up that
rope a little bit, they can start getting really creative and start putting out some
really fun content.
And you just keep it within the guidelines that you want because especially the newer
generations of stylists that we have coming in, that's their world.
They know how to do it better than anybody.
So if we give them that job and say, Hey, you want to do social media videos there?
They think it's fun.
They think it's exciting.
I don't have to keep pushing anybody up the hill anymore.
And so I think if you can start really creating that, letting them be creative,
letting them come up with some posts or giving them that opportunity to have their
own ideas, then it becomes easy.
You don't have to be stressed and you have to trust them.
That's, that's number one.
Like you can't hang onto that.
Like, I don't want them doing this, or I don't want them to have access to these
things because you've got to be able to trust them and know that they're going to
do a good job.
So train them, give them the guidelines and then let them run.
Well, and I don't think it's just about trusting them on what they're going to
post.
It's about trusting them in general, right?
So many commission salon and spa owners are scared that their employees are going
to start building their own brand by being able to post on social media, right?
They're building their own brand that they're going to take with them, but that
is why your culture is so important.
So without building your culture, nothing else is going to matter.
So,
whether they're posting on social media or not for you or with you or whatever, if
your culture is not intact and amazing, things are going to happen anyway.
And so it's time for us commission salon and spa owners to open up a little bit, to
hand over a little bit of trust, to believe in our team as much as we want
them to believe in us.
It's time to revolutionize the way that we think.
And I mean, crap happens.
It's life, right?
People quit jobs every single day.
People leave jobs every single day.
It is what it is.
We have to do the best that we can do to build our brands and give our teams
everything that they deserve.
All right.
With that being said, today was a journey.
Today was a journey.
We talked about the importance of social media, best practices for posting,
capturing effective content, developing kind of a marketing plan.
getting your team involved.
We talked about measuring the success some.
I feel like we've given people a lot of tools to take their social media game
really to the next level.
So now all they have to do is put these tips into action.
They need to start planning their next post, involve their team, keep an eye on
those analytics.
And don't forget, if you need more guidance, you can always reach out to the
Beauty Biz agency because we're here to help you every step of the way.
Now, before we wrap up, Chandra, do you have any final tips or words of
encouragement for our listeners who are just starting to ramp up their social
media efforts?
I think just start doing it and don't kind of be afraid of it or be anti -social
media.
Cause I definitely was and still sometimes can be, and it hinders the growth of the
business when I am not focused on that.
So it had to become a part of my life and a part of what I do on a regular basis,
even though it wasn't something I really wanted.
So I think.
I see a lot of salon owners kind of put it on the back burner and try to ignore it
and pretend like it's not there.
But in this day and age, like in the way that things are with technology, if you do
not have a stellar presence on there, it's going to hurt you and it's going to hurt
you really bad.
So definitely just embrace it and start doing it.
That's my best advice.
Yeah, I agree with that 100%.
I mean, I was honest at the beginning of this.
I was the same way.
Like I hate social media.
I don't like any part of it.
And I will be completely honest.
There are even times where my team will post something and I'm like, what are they
like?
What are they thinking?
What are they doing?
However, I mean, it's never, you know, horrible.
I'm just like, it's not something that I would have ever posted or put on there.
Maybe it's a trend on TikTok that they know about that I don't.
And so I see it and I'm like,
crap, crap.
But the engagement is insane.
And so we have to be able to allow them to teach us just a little bit because that's
what it's all about.
So I mean, that's a wrap, guys.
Thank you so much for kicking it with us on Salon Swagger.
Now go out there, create some killer content and make some boss moves because
that's what's important.
Do not forget to subscribe to our podcast for strategies.
interviews with industry experts and these amazing in -depth discussions that Chandra
and I have.
If you have any topics that you would like us to cover in future episodes, you can
reach out to us.
Chandra, how do they do that?
Reach out to us on social media, like we've been talking about.
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
Send us a message if there's anything you would like to have us do an episode on.
We would love to do that.
You can also reach out to us by email at admin at the beautybizagency .com.
Yeah, definitely visit our website, www .thebeautybusagency .com.
We have some amazing free resources and some strategies that you can implement
immediately to level up your studio.
With that being said, until next time, keep slaying those business goals with
style, sass, and a whole lot of swagger.