I don’t know what salon owner needs to hear this, but your salon’s Instagram account does not and should not equal or mimic your stylist portfolio.

In the 4 years I have been running my business, the number one mistake salon owners make when it comes to their salon’s Instagram account is that they showcase their stylists portfolio instead of managing it like a business account. There are multiple reasons why you should treat them differently and highlight different areas. Thus you may be asking…

“What’s the difference between a salon Instagram account and an independent stylist’s Instagram account?”

Their audience(s). 

But time and time again I see both salon owners and stylists forget who their target audience(s) are! This is evident every time I come across both types of accounts and all I see are hair pictures after hair pictures, lash extension pictures after lash extension pictures, or makeup before and after pictures.

If you are a salon owner you have four audiences you need to think about when it comes to your marketing efforts:

1. Your current clients

2. Your future clients 

3. Your current employees

   And the one that salon owners always seem to forget…

4. YOUR FUTURE EMPLOYEES

If you are a salon owner, your Instagram account should not only attract dream clients, but it should also be attracting your dream team. But how?

NOT by only ever posting your employees’ work that’s how. 

In today’s world if you want your salon’s Instagram account to stick out and keep your audience engaged and entertained you are going to have to post things other than your employees work. Follow the outline below in order to strengthen your business account in order to win over your future employees.

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What Belongs on Your Salon’s Instagram Account?

1.Salon Culture

Every salon has a culture.Your salon culture is what attracts your dream clients, as well as your dream employees. If I am a new stylist, or a stylist looking for a new home, chances are I’m going to go to your Instagram and other social media accounts to gain insight into the day to day life of the salon.

Your Salon’s Instagram account should showcase your employees in order to envision what life is like working at the salon. People want to see the faces behind the glow up whether that’s hair, eyelashes, makeup, etc.

Now, if I’m one of your customers, I can promise you I’m not following the salon account for hair pictures. If I want to see 300 images of hair, I’ll go to my stylist’s page for that. Clients are following your salon page to be entertained and informed. They want to see what goes on behind the scenes at the salon or if there are any new products or trends they should try this season. 

Future clients are coming to the salon page to see if they can find a new stylist but also see, you guessed it, what the salon culture is like. We also live in a society that cares about aesthetics. If your ideal client is a millennial or gen z, you can bet your butt they will be looking to see if your salon has #instagrammable places throughout your salon.

2. Salon Promotions

Salon promotions are a way to get both your employees and customers excited. Here are some examples of promotions you can use: create a friendly competition among your employees on who can sell the most product, or who can get the most new clients. When it comes to promoting it on Instagram, make it a game to see if customers are paying attention to your salon’s social media account and hide a code word in your captions.If they mention it the next time they are in the salon reward them with a reward or small discount. 

3. Salon Retail

Want to increase your retail revenue? Of course you do. I have yet to meet a salon owner who doesn’t want to increase their revenue and yet I am constantly coming across salon accounts that NEVER highlight products sold at the salon.

You, the salon owner, and your stylists are beauty influencers. When you talk about your retail on your social media accounts, it gives your guest a new talking point the next time they are in your chair. Also lets be honest, anyone who isn’t a hairstylist by trade is always looking for a way they can achieve salon results outside of the salon. Tell them what products they need from the salon that will give them the new Adele blowout look.

4. Your stylist work 

Wait, wait, wait Maddie…you literally just spent the majority of this blog post talking about how I shouldn’t be posting my employees work. WRONG. I told you that’s not the ONLY thing you should be posting to your salon’s Instagram account. You absolutely should be posting your employees’ work on your salon’s instagram account, but you should also be posting their work along with the other content I suggested above. 

Also, for the love of God can we please stop posting pictures with only emoji captions and no call-to-action?! Not sure what I mean when I say call-to-action? Check out this post. 

Are you a salon owner looking for help with your social media accounts? Skip to the end of this blog post to learn more about my services. 

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Now onto our independent beauty professional- the stylist. If you are an independent beauty professional you have four audiences to consider as well, however different: 

1. Past clients

2. Current clients

3. Future clients

4. Future employees/ contracts

As a social media manager I can always tell when a stylist is only ever thinking about their current clients. How? Because they are ONLY posting pictures of their work.

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What Belongs on Your Stylist’s Instagram Account?

1.You 

Like I said above, people want to see the face behind the product. Just like with a salon account, your past, current, and future clients want to see the face behind the brand. They want to get to know you and a little bit about you. 

Don’t get it twisted though, I’m not saying treat your beauty account like a personal account. I’m just saying there is definitely a happy medium. By sharing a few personal facts, or a tidbit your beliefs and morals can be the one thing that is keeping you from attracting your dream clients. 

2.Tips/ Education

You are the BEAUTY expert/ influencer. I can promise you your past, current and future clients are curious to know what products you are using to achieve a certain look. Create educational tutorials or graphics sharing your expert knowledge. Share helpful tips in your captions that make all your customers want to save your post or share it with their friends and family. By educating your clients in clear, layman’s terms, you’re helping them view you as an expert for all things related to hair. This makes it much more likely that they will trust your opinion and expertise once they’re actually sitting in your chair. The fact that you’re providing them with free value in the form of education is also a tremendous draw.

3.Your creative process

Want to build trust with your clients? Start sharing your creative process. Share inspiration and where you got your inspiration for your work. Remember beauty magazines? Think of your Instagram account as the new Glamour magazine. Sharing information about your creative process and about hair in general is another great way to start building trust prior to a client sitting in your chair. 

4. Your work

Your account IS YOUR PORTFOLIO. But my hope is after reading this blog post you will realize that while  you should share a lot of your work, that shouldn’t be the ONLY thing you share to your Instagram account. 

When you are creating content for these two different accounts you need to constantly be thinking about each of these audiences.

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Here are four questions Clients and future employees should be able to answer after  coming across your salon account:

1. What services does your salon/ you specialize in?

2. Where are you located?

3. Why do your clients/customers choose your products/services over your competitors?

4. What problem are you solving for customers? OR What need/desire are you meeting?

If you are able to answer all 4 questions after skimming your account, then congratulations you get a gold star for your Instagram marketing efforts! However, if you are struggling to answer these four questions then might I suggest hoping on a 1:1 Coaching call to review your account together and how to improve it!

For more tips on how to increase your productivity on social media, be sure to follow The Buzzing Blonde.