One of the most successful niches in the social media market is salons hair salons, day spas, and medspas. Why? Salons earn the majority of their business not through advertising, but through customer referrals. Salon patrons are loyal, and are more than willing to share their positive experiences with friends, family, neighbors and others. Social Media by definition is the connection of people through technology. The wild success of sites like Facebook is based on people finding and connecting with current friends, old friends, family and with those that share similar interests. For businesses that rely heavily on word of mouth, social media marketing is a natural. Why Social Media? When you consider the possibilities of rapid word-of-mouth advertising through social media, the benefits are clear. However there are additional benefits of social media marketing that not only make it smart marketing, they make it essential. 1. Cost Social media marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing there is. There is no cost to establish an account on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. There is no cost to post your messages. You should, however, be sure that your presence on social media sites looks professional. Your social media presence is an extension of your brand, and should represent that at every turn. Make sure your graphics match your brand s look and feel, and make sure that you have a reliable person (or persons) in charge of keeping up with it. 2. Speed One of the beauties of social media is the speed at which your information can reach your audience. Not only is it fast it s instantaneous! Think of the possibilities for your salon. Say your city just experienced a snow storm (as I am experiencing at the time of writing this article!) and you know business will suffer. Why not entice your customers to brave the elements by offering a Snowed In Special? Your customers close by are probably a little stir crazy. And they are probably spending a lot of time online. Invite them to your salon for wine, refreshments and some snow day discounts and you could turn an otherwise dismal day into one of your best! 3. Hitting Your Target Traditional direct marketing has always been hit or miss. Ads are effective only if your intended audience sees it at a time when they are receptive to the message. That s a big shot in the dark. Because social media marketing is highly opt-in, meaning that people have given you their permission to provide them with information, it has the unique ability to squarely hit your target market every time. While you may not be reaching thousands of people who may or may not see your message, you can be sure that the majority of your social media connections whether you have dozens, hundreds, or thousands will be seeing your message. 4. Reach Word-of-mouth marketing in the traditional sense talking to your friends at the store, a party, or at work has always been successful. But it has also been slow. If I have a great experience at a salon and go to work the next day with a great hair style, I may see 3 or 4 people that I speak to about it. But if I come home from that same appointment and jump on Facebook and post my hair style elation on my wall, I am effectively telling more than 100 people about my experience. Additionally, I will be inclined to Like the salon (become a fan) and recommend that my friends Like them as well. The viral reach is far and fast! 1 Copyright 2011 Digidaze, LLC www.digidaze.com
What Social Media Tools Are Right for Me? For salons, day spas and medspas, there are four social media avenues that are effective. Below we rank them in order of importance, and discuss the benefits of each. Facebook Simply put, Facebook is a must for salons and spas! Not only does Facebook allow you to connect with customers on a personal level, it also allows you to provide a comprehensive business presence. Many people think that Facebook is just about posting info to your Wall, but it s so much more. A Facebook business page allows you to create a mini website where you can provide as much information as your clients need. You can add tabs navigation for things like Specials, Directions, About Us, Reviews and more. You also have the ability to create photo albums and upload before and after images, event images, photos of your location and more. Facebook even includes apps for event invitations, discussions and much more. In the example below, the medspa has added tabs for Specials and Events, and has included an image of the event invitation. There is also an expanded profile image on the side. 2 Copyright 2011 Digidaze, LLC www.digidaze.com
Twitter Twitter is a great way to quickly get bits of information out to your audience. If you re running a new special, announcing an event, carrying a new product line, or changing your shop hours, Twitter provides the ability to get the information out quickly. Use it as a supplement to Facebook, and link back to your Facebook page from your tweets! YouTube Your customers most likely love looking at videos of procedures hair styles, hair color, massage therapy techniques, medspa treatments and more. And your manufacturers may even have these videos available for you to use. Creating a YouTube channel featuring videos of what your salon has to offer is a great supplement to your website and your other social media efforts. You can even add links to your salon or to items you sell online, and tie it into your other social media efforts. You can get thousands or even millions of views! 3 Copyright 2011 Digidaze, LLC www.digidaze.com
Blogs Your customers are hungry for information. From new products to new techniques, people are always looking for new ways to stay beautiful. The manufacturers that you carry no doubt have a library of information available to you on their products. Why not differentiate yourself from the competition by repackaging that information in the form of your very own salon blog? It takes a bit of work, but the benefit of being the local subject matter expert, and the added benefit of linking your blog back to your website and Facebook pages, makes blogging beneficial. What Makes Social Media Succeed or Fail? Just because you create a Facebook page or Twitter feed doesn t instantly make it a success. Just like any marketing medium, you need to have a plan, and execute it professionally. Here are a few things that can make or break your social media efforts. What You Say Being successful in social media means giving your followers information they want and need. By virtue of spending oneon-one time with your customers at your salon, you know their interests. You know what they look forward to. Gear the social media information that you release around their interests. Are they deal seekers, or would they rather know the latest trend no matter what the cost? Before you begin your big social media push, get a sense of what your connections will respond well to. How Often You Say It Successful social media marketing requires a balance between communicating too often, and not often enough. Social media channels are all different in frequency tolerance levels as well. For example, you could tweet messages 10 times a day and not be seen as an over-communicator. But post 10 wall posts per day to Facebook, and you ll see fans fall off quickly. The more you use social media channels, the better your sense of what frequency is right for your audience will be. For Facebook, somewhere between 1 and 7 times per week is good. For Twitter, a higher frequency is best. Somewhere between 1 and 3 times per day is good. How You Respond to Feedback Because social media encourages interaction, you must be prepared to take the good with the bad. If your salon provides excellent service and has a loyal following, your chances of receiving negative feedback are less. But because of the ease and immediacy of social media, you will, at some point, get someone who complains. When it happens, take the high road, and avoid being defensive or combative. On social media, a kill em with kindness approach is the best. Others monitoring this public conversation will see that your response to an issue is done with professionalism and client care. How Do I Start? To get started on any social media channel you need to set up an account. Accounts are generally free, and require little more than a valid e-mail address to start. For Facebook, once you have an account established, you can go to www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. There you will have two options to create a Community Page or an Official Page for a Local Business. From there, the system will walk you through filling in information, and provide the opportunity to customize your business page with photos, tabs, and 4 Copyright 2011 Digidaze, LLC www.digidaze.com
more. Once you establish your presence there, you can work on getting people to Like you ( become a fan). At your salon, encourage your clients to look for you on Facebook. On your website, add a Facebook icon. Take whatever opportunities you can think of to promote your page. Then, once you have at least 25 fans you can claim your very own Facebook vanity URL. For example, if your spa s name is Spa Magic, you can claim the vanity URL facebook.com/salonmagic. This makes promoting your Facebook presence on fliers, business cards and other places even easier! For Twitter, when signing up for an account, the system will walk you through personalization. There are pre-made themes, backgrounds and color palettes, or you can opt to upload you own images. Again, keep your salon brand and look & feel intact! Once you have established an account, you will need to go and out and find people to follow. The more people you follow, the more people will follow you. Encourage your customers to follow you on Twitter on your website, in your salon and on print materials with a Twitter icon. For YouTube, after signing up for an account, you can customize your Channel with information, themes and colors, playlists, and more. Uploading videos is easy, and you can tag them with key words so that YouTube users can easily find them. Don t forget to promote your YouTube channel on your website, in print and at your salon. Setting up a blog is almost as easy as setting up Facebook. There are free blog tools out there like WordPress and Google s Blogspot that allow you to choose your blog name (e.g. www.digidazeyap.blogspot.com) and set up your blog. As with others like Twitter, you can upload images, choose your theme and colors, and choose what information to display and where. Then it s simply a matter of uploading content on a regular basis. Blog entries don t need to be as often as other social media sites. Weekly blog updates will do. Remember with a blog, it s not about promotion, but about providing people with information that they want. Need Help? Digidaze helps salons, day spas and medspas get established and keep up with the social media brand. For more information, visit www.digidaze.com or call 1-855-digidaze. 5 Copyright 2011 Digidaze, LLC www.digidaze.com