Salon Marketing Priorities – Stop Making Fun of Your Clients on Social Media

Attract and Engage New Clients on Social Media with 9 Salon Marketing Priorities

We’ve all seen those posts by hairdressers, stylists, estheticians and salon owners with “funny” memes making fun of salon clients for cutting their own bangs, not tipping enough, not understanding layers, color fixes and so on. But those memes which feel so therapeutic to hairdressers are annoying – if not insulting – to prospective clients. Not annoying prospective and existing clients should be high up on your list of salon marketing priorities.

SO KNOCK IT OFF, ALREADY!

New research from Sprout Social reveals consumer sentiment about what brands should and shouldn’t do on social media based on a survey of more than 1,000 US consumers. Use these salon marketing priorities to strengthen your overall salon marketing plan. Here’s what they said:

9 Salon Marketing Priorities Should Drive Your Social Media Strategy

1 YOU SHOULD DO MORE SALON MARKETING VIDEOS

83 percent of consumers say that using video clips for brand marketing is cool, vs. just 17 percent who say it’s annoying. Your videos don’t have to be Oscar-worthy productions, either. Try to record a 1-2 minute video every week on your smartphone. These videos can simply demonstrate or explain how to do something (style, blowout, shampoo, condition, up-do, curl, protect hair color, how to talk to your hairdresser – the options are endless!).

Upload it to your own YouTube channel, then post it on social networks and embed it into a blog post on your salon’s website. This is not only great for social engagement, it’s also helpful for driving website traffic and improving your salon website’s search rankings.

2 YOU SHOULD RESPOND TO MORE CLIENT QUESTIONS

83 percent of consumers say it’s cool when brands respond to customer questions on social media. It shows you prioritize client care and helps educate not only the client who asked a question but all those social followers who read the answers.

Nor do questions need to originate on social media. If a client asks you a good question in the salon, post the question and answer on social media as a helpful tip for your followers. Bonus points for you if you take a client question and turn it into a short question/answer video for your YouTube channel, blog and social shares!

3 YOU SHOULD JOIN CONVERSATIONS

If you went to a party would you stand around completely silent simply listening to what everyone else had to say? No! You’d listen and contribute to conversations. 68 percent of consumers say it’s cool when brands join conversations.

You can join conversations with social followers by liking and commenting on their posts or responding if they ask a question (like if they’re reaching out for a local recommendation of some kind). You can also join conversations by commenting on the posts of brands, trade magazines and other beauty industry pages that you follow, and share interesting posts of theirs with your own social followers.

4 YOU SHOULD TALK ABOUT TIMELY EVENTS

66 percent of consumers say it’s cool when brands talk about timely events. These could be community events that you share with your social followers, news stories, industry trends and so on. If something is important now, or happening now, your social shares show that you’re in the know and make your salon a more valuable resource – and often an expert source of information – to your followers.

5 YOU SHOULD BE USING GIFS

58 percent of consumers say it’s cool when brands use GIFs; although 42 percent say it’s annoying, so it’s important that you use them appropriately. What is a GIF? It’s an image file that supports both animated and static images. Here’s one:

Think stickers, cute kittens with sparkly stars or Snoopy doing his dance of joy. GIF images can help you get the attention of social followers with a little bit of built-in movement. Sites like GIPHY let you create these type of images; however, since 4 out of 10 say they’re annoyed, make sure when you do use a GIF that you do so in a way that makes sense and enhances the conversation you’re having on social media, instead of just adding to the digital noise.

6 YOU SHOULD NOT BE MAKING FUN OF COMPETITORS

67 percent of consumers say it’s annoying vs 33 percent who say it’s cool when a brand mocks its competitors. The Verizon guy who now works for Sprint (and mocks Verizon) is a great example. If someone needs to point out a bad practice, poor service or lack of quality in a salon, hairdresser, esthetician, technician or anyone else you compete with, let someone else be the one to do so.

7 YOU SHOULD NOT BE USING SLANG

69 percent of consumers say it’s annoying when brands use slang – which is generally defined as jargon and terms that only insiders understand. When promoting your salon or your professional services, use language that anyone could easily understand and save the slang for professional-only audiences.

8 YOU SHOULD NOT BE TALKING POLITICS

I know, I know, sometimes it’s almost impossible to keep quiet about political issues. People’s feelings run strong, but remember that they run strong on both sides of the aisle. 71 percent of consumers say it’s annoying when brands talk politics. An exception to this rule might be bringing political issues that fall under the category of “talking about timely events” to the attention of your social followers. But even then, err on the side of simply raising awareness without sharing opinion, especially when it comes to highly emotionally-charged topics.

9 YOU SHOULD NOT EVER, EVER BE MAKING FUN OF YOUR CLIENTS

88 percent of consumers – nearly 9 out of every 10 think it’s not cool but annoying when brands make fun of their customers. No matter how funny you think a situation, mistake or some other client gaff is, it’s not going to be funny if an individual client feels they’re being mocked or called out, or if your clients think that you’re calling them all out with sweeping generalizations.

You say that your clients are no. 1 but if you demean, belittle, disparage or make fun of them, the reality is that you don’t hold them in high esteem. If they cut their own bangs and made a mess of things – so what? It only raises their regard for the results you provide. Tried doing their own color and missed – your response should be compassion, not derision.

Never put down an individual customer or generalize about your clients in a way that makes them look foolish, irresponsible or unworthy. If you have individual clients that are problematic, consider whether it’s time to “fire” them and work to attract the type of clients you want most so that you’re better-able to control the make up of your client base. But even when that bad client leaves, refrain from expressing your relief on Facebook – it only makes you look bad and makes people question whether they want to risk being on the receiving end of the same type of post.

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