Social media is one of the best ways to market your beauty services. It acts as a portfolio for your work, a platform to share customer reviews, a place to show what makes your business unique, and so much more. However, we know that running a successful social media account alongside your full time job is tricky, especially when you don’t have any prior marketing experience. That’s why we got our Social Media Executive, Mary, to share her top social media tips with you.
How did you get into social media?
I left university with a marketing degree and got a digital marketing internship for a start-up in London – I quickly found my love for social and as my role evolved, I was eventually offered a full time position managing social media. The company grew massively in the four years I was there, as did our strategy; what started off as posting cute pictures quickly evolved into monthly planning & briefing sessions with in-depth reporting to inform all future strategy in line with the businesses’ objectives. Whilst I was there we were lucky enough to get recognised as part of Facebook’s SME Council, so my role also included monthly trips to Facebook’s HQ (yes, their offices are as amazing as you’ve heard), to learn more and develop our Facebook paid advertising strategy.
How can I grow my social following?
I get asked this question a LOT, and annoyingly, there isn’t one simple answer. I recommend trying a combination of things, and you’ll soon see your followers grow.
- Start following other accounts – not just anyone, but accounts whose content you’re interested in seeing in your feed, and vice versa. Set yourself a target of following 10 new people every day.
- Start engaging with their content – nowadays, it’s so fun to build e-relationships with people you’ve never met (and probably never will), and follow their journey. As that relationship builds, so does engagement between you.
- Switch up your #s – Instagram’s explore section is a great way to be seen by new people, so tailoring your #s to get your content shown here is a good place to start. Only use #s that are relevant to your content – the algorithm will soon penalise you if they’re not – and don’t use too many. I like to go with between 11-14, or less if it’s not necessary, and I’m always looking for new and trending ones that I think HD Brows could tailor content to.
When is the best time to post on social media?
This is different for every account and their audience! But, it’s super simple to figure it out. Use Facebook & Instagram Insights and Twitter Analytics to see when the majority of your fans are online and inform your posting schedule. Typically, our busiest time for HD Brows is 11am and around 8pm-9pm, so I’ll aim for these times. If I post outside of these times, that’s absolutely fine, but I can expect to see less interaction with the post.
How often should I post on social media?
I don’t think there is really a maximum or minimum here; the algorithm is rumoured to show up to three pieces of content from a brand / business a day, but that doesn’t mean you HAVE to share three times a day – I wouldn’t recommend anything like that. I hit on it briefly below, but sharing when you have content to share as opposed to when you feel like you should share is a good place to start. It may also be worth mentioning that this applied to feed posts, as opposed to stories – these are different and can be more ad-hoc as opposed to planned.
As a company it depends on the different content types and how much you have to say, but I would focus on sharing the content you want to share, and monitoring it. If you’re sharing daily and it’s working for you, then continue. If you’re sharing daily and notice your engagement is dropping off a bit, maybe slow down on the posting.
What’s the best type of content to share on social media?
Honestly, a good balance of different content types is the best thing to post. Break your content down by type; maybe you have some before & afters, informative posts about your salon / services, and graphic-related content. Well, a good balance of all three is a good place to start. By keeping it fresh and sharing lots of different content, you keep your audience engaged.
Another point on this is to do with the algorithm; if your audience stops engaging with your content because they’re used to always seeing the same or very similar thing, then you’ll find that your posts are not prioritised in the news feed. As this continues, it’s a downwards spiral. The more people engage with your content, the more your content will be shown to a larger proportion of your audience, so work with the algorithm, not against it.
What are your social media top tips?
I have a few:
1. Engage with your fans. I cannot stress this enough! No one likes those accounts who post, post, post and NEVER like or comment on your own posts, or reply to comments on theirs. I like to call this ‘community management’, and it’s something we work hard on at HD Brows. We have a dedicated team, who not only ensure that all of your questions are answered, but also ensure we’re looking out for your content, too. We get tagged in 100s of posts every single day, so it takes some time, but we love to share the love!
2. Don’t post for the sake of posting. Have nothing to say? Don’t post. Haven’t posted yet today and need to? Don’t post, (and also check out my answer around how often to post on social media).
3. Monitor your content and see what your audience do and don’t engage with, then replicate accordingly.
How do I optimise my content specifically for channels?
When it comes to optimisation, the best thing to do is really think about each piece of content and whether it works well on the channel you’re planning to put it on. For example, if it’s something with a link to drive users to a website, stay away from Instagram, as you can’t include links here.
Another super easy way to optimise is by size. Making sure your graphics and assets are the right size will not only mean that they look better in the feed, but they’ll also be prioritised more in the news feed and therefore shown to more people. The requirements change regularly, so it’s always good to keep an eye on social media websites (more on this below), but as a general rule of thumb, I like to keep any graphics and assets going on the feed as square, and any story content as a ratio of 9:16. There’s nothing worse than seeing content that’s cut off or not displaying properly, and it’s something that’s so simple to get right.
Anything else?
Remember, social media is CONSTANTLY changing, so your strategy needs to, too. The tools themselves are always implementing new features that you’ll both like and dislike (are we EVER going to see a dislike button?!), so it’s important to be in the know of what these are. Sites such as Social Media Today are really good at keeping you up to date with the latest news in social media, so give these a follow.
Keep your strategy fresh, and don’t be scared to try new things!
Mary x
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