Tips for creating an online presence for your salon on Facebook
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Being a nail technician in modern days is a challenging task. Not only is it hard to be noticed in a crowd of literally thousands of other nail techs, but getting people to trust you and give your services a try can seem impossible. Creating an online presence for your salon on Facebook can be really hard to start as a nail tech when you don’t know the right people. Someone with enough contacts or social status can be enough to give your small business the boost it needs.
But alas if you are like me and had to start the hard way without someone lending you a helping hand, stick around for tips on how I created a social presence on Facebook that works for me and that is growing daily.
1. Create a Facebook page specifically for your nail business
This might seem obvious, but I am increasingly seeing people just using their personal pages to advertise their business or mixing pages for different businesses. Even though you might still be able to successfully advertise your business like this, it is a no-brainer that creating a page used for the sole purpose of advertising your work will be more effective.
Creating a specific Facebook page will allow you to only post content that concerns your business and your work. There won’t be any mixture of personal and professional content. This will in turn create a professional image for your business that tells people you are serious about your work.
A specific page will allow you to customise it in such a way as to create the best possible usability for your clients.
- You can add a review page,
- a cover photo
- And a specific profile picture.
- You can also add options like a link to your website,
- contact information
- And location.
All of these tools will help promote your business and will supply your clients with an abundance of information regarding your business and your work. You can also make use of photo albums to sort your work into categories making it easier for potential clients to look for ideas.
A business page also allows you to create posts concerning awards and competitions that you might have won. Having an award-winning nail technician certainly has a nice ring to it, and will impress potential clients.
Facebook has evolved in such a way as to create the perfect platform for business owners to grow their clientele. A business page will give you access to things like reach determination, audience graphs and more.
2. Invite ALL of your friends
The days of just accepting friend requests from people you know are over. Unfortunately, Facebook only allows you to invite people to like your business page with who you are already friends. So I spent a good amount of time scoping Facebook for people who might fit the criteria for my business. You can do an online search to determine which group of people are more likely to make use of your services if you’re not sure.
In the nail industry, women are more likely to make use of your services, Women between the ages of 18-60 are your target market. I also looked for women who weren’t nail technicians themselves, and who lived in my general area. It does not help to target people from across the world in this line of work.
I think that it’s safe to say, most people do not have a thousand friends. I don’t even believe I know that many people. That is why it is SO important to expand your reach to gain clients for your business. To have a thriving business you are going to have to work with people you’ve never met before and to get to know new individuals. Being a nail technician is not for someone who values their comfort zone.
3. Join other nail pages and nail groups on Facebook with your page
When wanting to join a group or like a page on Facebook you might be asked with which page you wish to complete the option, your personal or your business page. It’s always a good idea to join a page with your business page. This way when you post something on their page or group it will be your business. This will prompt many people to click on your page and to look at your work rather than just being sent to your personal page.
Even though nail pages are predominantly populated with other nail techs, it is a good idea to have other nail technicians also like your page. Not only will having more likes on your page allow more traffic to be sent your way by allowing more people to see your work, but it will also gain your business some exposure. You might even be noticed by nail companies or brands which can mean great things for your business.
4. Join advertising pages with your page
Now, this isn’t the main way that I get traffic to my page but this can also a good way to get your business out there and to gain new clients. Advertising pages will allow you to create posts where you advertise your work and business. You can post specials and deals that you might be running that month.
Note that these pages are as a rule of thumb quite oversaturated so it can be a bit challenging to get many people to see your post before it is lost between the masses. But when done right this can be a good tool to use to not only attract people to your business page but also to gain new clients.
5. Be consistent
Like with any social media platform, consistency is key for the success of your Facebook business page. You have to try to post as much as possible. A good way to gain consistency is to research which times of the day are the best to post on Facebook in your region. If you don’t have many clients I would suggest dividing your posts in such a way that you can post original content at least once a week.
Something that will also help when you don’t have a lot of clients yet is doing nail designs on practice hands or nail sticks so that you still advertise your work even if you’re not physically seeing clients. This is also a better option than posting things like nail memes on your page.
6. Post more original content than sharing posts
Facebook generally does not promote the sharing of other people’s content. Yes, there is such a thing as a post going viral, but if you constantly share other people’s content without creating your own, Facebook is more likely to “move” your posts to the back of the line. This means that less and fewer people will end up seeing your content and your page will get less traffic every month.
This is very counterproductive behaviour and you should generally try to avoid sharing anything that is not your own on a business page. Sharing things like competition announcements that you might have one, etc. is something that will help the growth of your page and, in turn, your business.
7. Encourage people to react to and share your posts
Something that I’ve only started doing recently, but have seen a lot of positive feedback from doing this, is sharing my posts from my business page, onto my personal page. Something that you need to understand is that as soon as someone reacts to your post or even better, shares it, Facebook allows the reach of your post to grow which will, in turn, mean that more people will see your post.
Many of my clients already share their nails as soon as I post them onto my page. If you have clients with a good social presence on Facebook (which means they create a lot of original content and have a lot of friends who will see their posts) ask them to share the post of their nails on their personal page.
Word of mouth is a very powerful tool when advertising your business. I have gotten so many clients through my existing clients posting their nails to their social media. People are generally more obliged to trust the opinion of someone they now and then giving a service a chance rather than just trusting a stranger to do a good job with their nails. I talk more about word-of-mouth marketing here.
8. Make use of hashtags
Believe it or not, hashtags are not only for Instagram posts. Even though Facebook hasn’t incorporated the use of hashtags as much as Instagram yet, many people make use of this and have great success.
Hashtags allow people to type in keywords into their search bar and find relating posts easier. Tags like #acrylicnails or #easternails will allow people to find your relating posts easier. It will also help Facebook to sort through the masses of posts and take out specifically related content.
9. Post quality content
Once again, this should be a no brainer. But I am going to elaborate on this either way. When creating a post it is very important to make sure it is of a high standard. This means,
- adding a high-quality picture,
- creating a good and comprehensive description
- creating hashtags are all ways of making sure your posts are top quality.
Don’t post content such as
- Duplicate
- Spam
- Borrowed
Remember that your posts should not only attract attention but people should feel compelled to share them.
10. Take advantage of Instagram story creation
I love Instagram stories. You can create the most appealing and eye-catching posts by making use of Instagram’s variety of customizing options. You can add descriptions, music, tags and so much more. You can even engage your audience by creating polls.
Instagram stories are great because you can link them with your Facebook account, which means that even though Facebook stories aren’t as great as Instagram’s, you can still take full advantage of them on your Facebook page. Stories are great because they reach a lot of people and stay on your feed for 24 hours.
Social networking is the future of all businesses whether you’re online-based or have a physical business. You have to take full advantage of what our modern society gives us. By not utilising these tools you will be missing out on great opportunities for your business to grow and flourish
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