We all know that social media is no longer optional for businesses of any size. Consumers are searching Instagram instead of the newspaper now, and all of us have to adapt to this new way of marketing. Some organizations have taken to social media with ease, they’re grasped how to create meaningful content that adds value and understands the importance of interacting with their audience. On the other hand, many organizations are still learning how to thrive online. What is the difference between a thriving organization and a struggling one when it comes to social media? Let’s explore!
Not Another Salon
This salon based in London has amassed an incredible following in a short amount of time. They currently have over 262,000 followers on their Instagram page. So how did they do it?
Not Another Salon has fully grasped the concept of branding. Every piece of content that they post adds value to their brand and is in-line with what they want to put out into the world. They are a salon known for vivids, blondes, and personality. They’ve successfully branded themselves as a safespace for all the misfits and weirdos of the world by creating a no-judgment policy and putting their own wacky personalities out there on social media.
They also have engagement down to a science! This salon often receives hundreds of comments per post, but you will always see them replying to most comments. This simple act of acknowledging your audience and making them feel appreciated for their feedback is a huge part of what they do so well.
Blushes Salon
This salon aims to serve a similar audience. Their target audience is women who don’t mind spending a large chunk of change of their hair. The two lead stylists of the salon often win awards for their high-fashion and avante garde work, and yet that feeling doesn’t translate to their social media presence. With just 542 followers, this company has a lot of room for improvement on their social strategy.
Personality
When I head over to their Instagram page, the biggest thing missing is who they are as a business. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, people want to buy from people, not businesses. On social media, that means showing who your team is and what you care about. Their social strategy should include photos from around the salon such as stylists working on their clients, stylists learning together, happy clients and their new hair, and anything that adds a more personalized feeling to their business.
Content
Blushes creates STUNNING hair art, but that’s their competition work. When browsing through their socials, I can’t find any of their everyday clients. As a potential client, I want to see people like me and not just runway models. Their social strategy needs to include the work they do on the day-to-day as well as their gorgeous competition work. Right now, they aren’t speaking to their target audience by not featuring them.
Engagement + Adding Value
Most of the content on their account don’t have any comments on them. This is happening because they aren’t currently creating a call-to-action on their posts. They can remedy this by asking questions to their audience, seeking feedback, or encouraging conversation. By creating posts that add-value to your audience, you’ll encourage engagement and communication.
Blushes are great potential for creating a booming social media presence. They create beautiful work and just need to learn how to showcase it a bit better. To create a social strategy, I would first recommend that they sit down and get to know their target audience. Who do they follow? What content do they find engaging? What do they want to know about hair? By answering these questions, they’ll have a foundation to form their branding from. After that exercise, I would have them take a day to create content. Snap photos of stylists working on their clients, ask their clients to tell them their favourite part of coming to the salon, get stylists to take a photo with their favourite product and ask why they love it.
Once they’ve created a small content bank, it’s time to post! I suggest sitting down and laying out your images in a way that looks visually appealing. Sit down together and write out captions for the photos. Add value by educating clients on home-care, products, services, and the people who work at the salon. Finish off each post with a call-to-action such as “do you agree? Comment below!”, “what’s your favourite product for post-colour care?”, “Did you know this before?”, or “What is the BEST part about coming to the salon?”.
By creating content that engages your audience and adds value, you’ll naturally encourage likes and comments. With a min-makeover of their profile, Blushes could learn to perform just as well as Not Another Salon.
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 
The first account knows its audience and understands how to keep them engaging. Just the hair transformations alone intrigue me! For the second one, you get a completely different feel from the first. It almost makes you feel closed off in a way, it doesn’t make me want to engage with them and follow.
I think your strategy for them is spot on! Those are great questions for them to be asking themselves with the number one is how do they get their audience to engage with them.
I was intrigued by the photos in “Not another Salon” and switched over to Youtube to watch a video. If I had to choose I would go to the first salon to get my hair done. They’ve marketed an atmosphere and the client leaves looking good and feeling great. The environment is relaxed playful and unique.
You have listed good pointers for the second salon to achieve a social media presence.
I love the comparison between the two salons. You can definitely see the difference in how they are marketing themselves and engaging with their clients via social media. Based on first look, the first salon looks much more appealing and I think that says a lot.