Social media is one of the best ways to connect with people, but just because you know how to connect with your mates and scroll, search and tag like a champion doesn’t mean you know how to communicate your business/brand effectively. 

So let’s get started on my TOP TEN TIPS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR SOCIALS:

1. Start a professional business page/account different to your personal socials

Why? Because it’s your day job! Be professional. The audience you’ll be targeting will be following to want to know your skills, inspiration and work, not what you watched on Netflix (unless it’s Glow Up obvs..), and ate for dinner.

2. Form a plan/strategy

Without a plan, you have no clear goal for what you’re trying to achieve. Why are you on socials? What are you trying to achieve? Is it to connect with other like minded brands, create a look book, show off your skills, get a job, all of the above?  Give some thought to your strategy, without it your content will be aimless and not be consistent.

3. Choose a platform

Not all platforms are created equal. Typically, in the beauty industry Instagram would be your number one choice as it’s visual, but don’t discount Facebook. It’s still number one for connecting people worldwide. Pinterest is also a social platform worth considering for creating mood boards. A lot of people are on Pinterest creating their own boards searching for unique content including wedding hair, formal hairstyles, longhair looks etc.
TikTok is the newest kid on the block allowing users to make short, looping videos with special effects and musical overlays and it’s booming with more than 500 million monthly active users - most of them young adults. If you’re very creative, and making video content, this could be a good option for you.

4. Know your audience

Who do you want eyeballing your account? Is it potential clients, industry peers, local businesses? Always remember to think of them when your creating your content.

5. Creating branded and consistent content

Now you know who, what and how you’re doing things, it’s time to create content. Things to consider are branding. Do you have a logo? If so brand your content. You can do this easily on programs like photoshop or Canva. If your content is worth sharing, people may repost, if they do make sure they know the original source – being you, you star ☺ . You also want to create a look and feel to your account so people will recognise your work. If you’re taking photos of your work try to find a consistent spot, in salon or at home with a plain wall. Draw attention to your work with a clean plain space. With consistent content you will portray a professional branded image.   

6. Choose your TOV (tone of voice)

Just because your account is professional doesn’t mean it can’t be playful. In a creative industry you can choose to be informative as well as injecting your personality in your copy. Rather than just reporting: ‘Look at this blonde colour I did today’ choose your wording to reflect why you chose that shade. i.e ‘inspired by change of the weather in Melbourne, I wanted to add warmth and freshen up my client’s creamy blonde tones highlighting her skin tone…’

7. Focus on quality over quantity

It’s more important to create quality content on a couple of key channels than it is to have a presence on every single network. The same can be said on building a following. Concentrate on how many people are engaging with you rather than how many ‘likes’ you are getting. You could have 60,000 followers but if no one is engaging or commenting on your posts you may be missing the mark or may as well have a bunch of paid bots liking your content (this is a big NO btw) or pose questions in your copy to engage your audience with your brand and opinions. They will be more likely to be interested in what’s coming next from you and pause their scroll for you.

8. Build relationships with your audience

When people engage with your content, it’s a great idea to engage back. You have to give love to get love. This helps to build trust and form a loyal following. As followers share and like your content, you rise in the social algorithms and gain new, free, exposure (this is hard to do as most platforms encourage paid advertising). You also nurture relationships that can develop into sales over time.

9. Tag and comment on that account

Using a new product, inspired by a hairstyle from your fave stylist, reposting a public figure that you are crushing on their style? Tag them. Comment. Your tag and/or comment will come up in their feed. They may respond or even repost your work. This will give you added reach and exposure and a maybe even a thrill!

10. What the hashtag?

Hashtags work by organizing and categorizing photo and video content and are an effective way to get more eyes (and engagement!) on your posts.

A post with at least one hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag. So it really is worth creating a hashtag for your account/brand if you want to grow your account.

Here are some popular hairdressing hashtags you can use. Note you can only use up to 30 on Instagram. Try to categorize them for your content so if your showcasing a blonde you could use: bestblondes, blondehair, balyage, highlights, sunkissedblonde, creamyblonde, summerhair and be sure to create your own hashtag for your brand: ie.pivotpoint

#hair #hairstylist #hairsalon #hairgoals #hairinspo #hairenvy #balayage #foilmefoils #instahair #colourists #colourcorrection #haircrush #hairextensions #beauty

Most of all remember to be consistent in posting and commenting. Aim to spend at least five minutes a day on your account. This is called Community Management. If you find you have periods of inspiration capture it and schedule it on a social media platform ahead of time. There are scheduling platforms such as Later, Hubspot and Hootsuite which offer a free trial. Social Media is a slow burn. You need to build trust. If you don’t see instant results keep creating. Quality content takes time and thought. Also be nice online, no one respects a troll. Good luck.