Guide to Salon Social Media Marketing

There’s no doubt about it, becoming a successful salon owner requires a great salon social media strategy. Social media marketing for salons accounts for a large number of new customers. But if you’re more comfortable styling hair than managing several social media platforms, you might need a few new tips.

Salon social media marketing will help you stay scheduled with your efforts. It will help you track your goals and meet your objectives. Being a salon owner is a hard task, so make life easier for yourself with a cohesive strategy and marketing plans that boost your online presence and keep your appointment schedule packed.

Before you start panicking at the thought of posting dozens of Facebook and Instagram posts a day, we’re here to help. From managing and maximizing user generated content to increasing your followers on Twitter, these tips and hints will get you on the right track.

Jump To The Section You Like

1. What is Salon Social Media Marketing?
2. What Should Be Your Salon’s Social Media Strategy?
3. Social Media Calendar for Your Salon
4. Facebook
5. Instagram
6. YouTube
7. TikTok
8. Best Tools to Manage Social Media in your Salon
9. Salon Social Media Content Ideas
10. Conclusion

What is Salon Social Media Marketing?

At this point, social media for hair salons is an essential part of the business. Did you know that nearly three-quarters of adults in America currently use at least one social media platform?

Social media offers salon owners the perfect way to reach new clients. It can also cement the relationships you have with your current clients and deepen their loyalty.

When you share posts frequently to your salon’s social channels you help build brand awareness. You can reach people and let them know about your services without spending a fortune on direct marketing. On your social media platforms, you can show-off the services that your hair salon offers. You can also use the channels organically, or, if you can afford to spend on advertising, you can reach a wide range of potential customers.

What Should Be Your Salon’s Social Media Strategy?

When using social media to promote the salon you should always set goals and objectives. What you shouldn’t do is spend hours creating salon content for social media with no specific goal in mind.

• Do you need new clients?
• Do you want to keep your current clients interested?
• Do you want brand awareness?

It’s a good idea to figure out what you want first.

Once you’ve figured that out, put in place a strategy that aligns with your goals. You want your hair salon's social media strategy to have an air of authenticity about it. It should show off your skills and cement trust with new and existing clients.

Always explore the social media channels of your competitors, to see how they retain an interest in their brand. You can then make your posts different — your pictures and posts can fill the gaps that other salons aren’t reaching.

Don’t solely look at hair salons on social media either. An excellent tip is to explore the pages of other local businesses in your area — gyms, restaurants, coffee shops — they will give you an idea of what the people in the local area respond well to. You can also build connections by engaging with other business owners.

Before you start posting frantically to every social channel available, it’s worth considering your target market. If you want to attract an older client, you might focus on Facebook or Twitter. To entice a younger market, posting to a TikTok page and sharing pictures on Instagram could be your best bet.

The quality of your posts, pictures, and videos are also essential to the image your brand portrays on social. If your social media channels are full of bad quality photos and weak videos, you could put an audience off your salon if you don’t put the emphasis on posting great, enticing photos and videos.

Be sure to put the focus on your brand. Your posts should have the same look and feel and convey the overall essence of what visiting your salon will look like. Also, make sure you put a laser focus on your salon's specific skill set. If you specialize in color, post pictures that show and cement that skill. Don’t post photos for every haircut and color that’s created.

As you start to build up your page or pages, you’ll begin to get to know your audience better. Track your statistics and build sturdy relationships by sharing content consistently and engaging with those in the comments sections.

Make sure you monitor and respond to all comments — even the negative comments. This is a great way to keep followers coming back to your page. Also, try to mirror the chatty nature of being a hairstylist. Engage with potential clients and customers as you would if they were actually in your salon.

Social media for hairstylists works well when you find what channel works best for you and your audience. Maybe your energy is best spent building up a Facebook page, or maybe beautifully curated Instagram content would work best. Often, just having one social page works best. You’d rather have one platform with good content and photos than five channels that you post to inconsistently.

Once you’ve found a posting rhythm with your hair salon social media posts, you can begin converting followers into regular salon clients. Highlight deals with gorgeous and intriguing pictures, and let followers know how and when they can book in for an appointment. If you’re selling retail products, you can post about these too.

Wanna learn more? Check out our next article on How to Build a Salon Social Media Strategy.

Social Media Calendar for Your Salon

Social media marketing for hairstylists can be pretty labor-intensive...especially if you’re also trying to run the physical salon.

A social media calendar will help you manage your page and you can plan your content in advance. There are many free calendars online that you could use, or a good old-fashioned Google Sheet will work well too.

One of the best tips you could employ is to work to the 80-20 ratio. So that’s
80% to educate
your customer about your brand, and
20% to entertain, promote and sell products.

It will help you scale your posts and it’s also a great way to post quality over quantity. You can plan your post in advance of social media and you don’t have to constantly scrabble to post directly to Facebook and Instagram. Many free online calendars can be set to post automatically.

Facebook

If you’re sharing information about your business on Facebook, keep the posts relevant. Capture attention with vibrant and eye-catching pictures and use pictures that you know followers will love.

People on Facebook love competitions, so share details about contests and giveaways. People love free stuff, so a good giveaway is sure to catch attention. Promote deals and make them seasonal. Perhaps you could promote a discount for Easter or get rid of the excess product with a Facebook-only competition.

If you have the budget, you could boost your posts further. Facebook fans will feel like they’re part of something special if you execute a Facebook-only offer — it will also keep them engaged with your content. You could also make a group that your audience could join, this encourages loyalty and keeps everyone connected and engaged.

Facebook is really visual media, so make sure you take advantage of that by posting gorgeous pictures. Remember, you’re more likely to engage with older customers on Facebook. Younger clients tend to enjoy Instagram and TikTok more at the moment.

Instagram

Instagram is undoubtedly a thriving social media channel. It’s a site that tends to run with trends. To improve the image of your salon, tap into those trends. Reels are incredibly popular at the moment and will extend your reach with ease and you can always post a quick Story if you’re lacking on time.

You will also push your posts further when you include hashtags. Share relevant hashtags when you post and don’t use too many — you might start to receive messages from spam accounts.

Always include your location when you share to let potential customers know where they can find your business. If you work in the hair or beauty industries, you can post some really beautiful before and after photos, which show off your skills.

Offer potential customers incentives by posting promotions and contests. Ask people to like your post and follow you for a chance to win to increase your engagement and gain more followers. You could offer discounts and to take your marketing a step further, you could use an influencer. They can effectively spread the news of the offer via beautiful posts and word of mouth.

Encourage clients to post about you and follow you when they’ve visited your salon and ask them to use your location in the post too. The great thing about Instagram (and Facebook) is that you stay engaged with customers long after they’ve left your salon. Always answer comments and make sure you follow back a regular client.

Boost your business and create a slick and cool bio that succinctly shows off what your salon can offer. Decide whether your Instagram account should be a business account or a personal one — there are benefits to both, so do a bit of research.

YouTube

Though it might seem like a huge undertaking, starting a beauty of hair YouTube channel could boost your salon’s image. Show-off your professional skills and film in your salon, to give people watching an idea of what to expect when they book an appointment.

A YouTube channel will help you build a trusting relationship with potential visitors. You could also invite regular clients and offer them free treatment if they agree to appear in the video. You could post videos using the hair retail products you sell in-store and take pictures to share on your Facebook and Instagram too.

Having a YouTube channel is a great idea for local marketing optimization. A client could tap the video tab on Google and come across your videos...which could then lead to more business.

To keep your YouTube channel relevant to your area, post about the city and invite other business owners to appear in the videos too. And thankfully, you don’t need a lot of equipment to start. You could even use your phone and some simple video editing software.

TikTok

The idea of TikTok might seem a bit overwhelming, considering how fresh the platform is, but if you want to attract young clients, it’s a great place to start. TikTok is a very visual platform that works in a similar way to Instagram Stories. You could post tutorial videos and beauty product reviews and you actually have a chance of going viral on TikTok. Everyone who uses TikTok has a For You page that is completely unique to them. Even if they don’t follow you, if you make a fun video, they could come across your page on their For You feed.

Tailor your videos for the 16-24-year-old market by keeping things short, fun, and snappy. Perhaps you could film a series on ‘90s hair trends or you could do before and after rainbow hair videos. One of the best tips is to talk to your clients via TikTok. It’s where you can really show off your and your salon’s personality, so don’t shy away from that. It’s definitely one of the more fun platforms!

Best Tools to Manage Social Media in your Salon

Running a successful salon or beauty business is no joke, you’re probably going to be busy from dawn to dusk every day. But even though you’re really busy, you still need to find time for your social media presence. It will help boost your website and keep new and loyal customers interested in your work.

To get your social accounts up and running, spend some time choosing your social media management tools. If you use them effectively, they’ll save you time and help get you more followers, and in turn, more clients.

Choose management tools that allow you to schedule from your phone.

Ripl will help you share a good image or two and it will also help you create professional-looking videos. You can do everything on-the-go and you can link people back to your website too.

Hootsuite is another social media management tool that could help you get your channels under control. You can post to various channels and it will also effectively track your statistics, so you can quickly see where you get the most interest.

If Hootsuite looks a bit complicated, you could always try Buffer. It’s an all-rounder management tool that will post to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more. You can, again, link back to your websites and you can track the success of each post.

Using a social tool is a great way to handle your accounts in a slick and orderly way. Take advantage of the free sites before you start paying to schedule though, you don’t want to spend money unless you have to — especially if you're a new business. You might also want to check out our article about salon marketing apps that will definitely help you take your salon marketing to the next level.

Salon Social Media Content Ideas

Want to improve the image of your salon with social media? Use these clever content tips and tricks to get your social channels back on track.

• 1. Create Before And After Posts

  Though it seems pretty obvious, it’s a good idea to remember that people come to your salon to make themselves feel fresh and rejuvenated. As a hairstylist, you can really affect someone’s self-esteem. To let people know just how great you are at your job, show off your skills with before and after photos on social media.

  Before and after shots act almost like an online portfolio of your work, so they’re a good salon use of your time. If you want to take a picture of your clients' hair, always discuss it with them first and get their consent. Assure them that they don’t have to have their face in the photo if they don’t feel like it. Turn this into a series on your channels to get clients interested in your specialist (balayage, cuts, hair-up) skills.

• 2. Talk About Your Team

  Sharing an image or two of your team members will give clients an idea of what to expect when they walk through your doors. You can write small bios and share what each member specializes in. You can link these posts back to your website so that a client can then book indirectly with that team member.

  Don’t just limit it to photos either. Use videos and you could even do a Q&A with various team members. These kinds of posts will create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere before a client has even visited your salon.

• 3. Repost And Utilize User-Generated Content (UGC)

  If you have clients posting about the excellent service they have enjoyed in your salon, make sure you maximize this by reposting their pictures. Always tag them in the post and thanks then for sharing.

  Word of mouth recommendations are still very important, it’s just now they mostly come via social media. These posts will help build trust because they come directly from happy customers. To help deepen this kind of connection with your client, you could also create a hashtag that you can search when they share. This is a fantastic way to enhance your brand image further.

• 4. Use Quotes And Memes

  Of course, you want most of your posts to be directly about your business, but let’s face it, social media can also be pretty light-hearted. Find relevant quotes and funny memes that you know your audience will appreciate. You could post motivational quotes to give your salon a welcoming approach. If you’re posting products and discounts all the time, people will get bored.

  Give people an idea of your personality, so that they can connect with you on a deeper level and become more loyal.

• 5. Use Testimonials

  A testimonial is worth its weight in marketing goals. You can use it on all of your business communication (including on your website) and post them on social media at the same time you’re sharing details on the promotion. When it comes to their hair, most clients are pretty precious. A first-hand recommendation will encourage people through your doors.

  Don’t know how to get a testimonial? You could buy a specific book for people to write in when they’re in your salon or you could use an online template. You could also encourage more testimonials by offering those who leave a review a 10% discount off at their next visit.

For more brilliant ideas make sure you do not miss our Top 45 Hair Salon Social Media Ideas article!

Conclusion

Whether you love Twitter or are addicted to TikiTok, salon social media is essential if you want to spread the word about your business. You can promote your services and give everyone a behind-the-scenes look at your salon. Always be authentic and real on social channels and use scheduling tools to help you stay on top of it.

From promotional videos to even live Q&As (though to need quite a large following to make this work), you can attract the target market your business needs if you use social media effectively.

And if you love these ideas or have some other ideas that you've used in the past to promote your salon business, why not share them with the Zolmi community in the comment section below. We would also be delighted to answer your questions, as well.

Citations

Impact of social media on small businesses https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JSBED-09-2013-0133/full/html

Strategic use of social media for small business based on the AIDA model https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815004000

Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and sustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing https://search.proquest.com/openview/e0b74d55a709768b20dbf57e32696a85/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=38744