THOUGHT PROCESS
“Give the people what they want.” It sounds so simple, but many business owners forget this foundational principle when it comes to marketing. Instead of giving their audience what they want on social media, they miss the mark.
ACTION STEPS
Use actionable data that shows what people want from Social Media to transform your Salon Suite’s social marketing strategy.
There are many ways to get it wrong when it comes to Salon Suite social media marketing. You might be MIA (missing in action) for the most part, only posting sporadically. You might be over-doing it, flooding social media platforms with too many posts and turning off your followers. You might be posting consistently, but posting updates that don’t resonate with clients and prospects.
The key to getting it right on social media is to understand what people want from each social media platform to begin with – and then give it to them. A new study from MarketingCharts.com lists six specific outcomes brands can expect from social media marketing, depending on whether they have given the people what they want or missed the mark.
6 Winning Salon Marketing Strategies for Social Media
1. Be Entertaining
Educate. Amuse. Intrigue. Inspire. The word “entertaining” is defined as amusing or enjoyable, but its list of synonyms is much longer: delightful, enjoyable, diverting, amusing, pleasing, agreeable, appealing, engaging, interesting, fascinating, absorbing, compelling.
One of the things to notice about this list is that nearly all of these words are positively charged. People want to be uplifted and it stands to reason that they feel more positively toward brands that inspire positive feelings.
2. Be Irreplaceable
One of the three attributes people in the MarketingCharts study assigned to Social Media was: The one I would be the least able to live without. If your Salon Suite’s social media updates look like every other salon’s social marketing, it’s not irreplaceable. Just as you are defining a unique look and feel to your brand and Salon Suite, you can make your social media marketing one-of-a-kind so that it becomes irreplaceable. And when you marry this concept to #1 above, you have a winning strategy for creating social media profiles that followers will check every time they go online.
3. Be Endearing
The third attribute social media users assigned to Social Media vs. traditional marketing, websites and online search was: The one I spend the most time with. This is where it gets personal!
Think about the people you want to spend the most time with. How do they make you feel? These are the one-of-a-kind people. The entertaining people. The intriguing people. The people that no matter how well you get to know them you want to know more.
How can you translate this into your social media marketing? Think about the characteristics of the people you want to spend the most time with. Are they:
1. Be Entertaining
Educate. Amuse. Intrigue. Inspire. The word “entertaining” is defined as amusing or enjoyable, but its list of synonyms is much longer: delightful, enjoyable, diverting, amusing, pleasing, agreeable, appealing, engaging, interesting, fascinating, absorbing, compelling.
One of the things to notice about this list is that nearly all of these words are positively charged. People want to be uplifted and it stands to reason that they feel more positively toward brands that inspire positive feelings.
2. Be Irreplaceable
One of the three attributes people in the MarketingCharts study assigned to Social Media was: The one I would be the least able to live without. If your Salon Suite’s social media updates look like every other salon’s social marketing, it’s not irreplaceable. Just as you are defining a unique look and feel to your brand and Salon Suite, you can make your social media marketing one-of-a-kind so that it becomes irreplaceable. And when you marry this concept to #1 above, you have a winning strategy for creating social media profiles that followers will check every time they go online.
3. Be Endearing
The third attribute social media users assigned to Social Media vs. traditional marketing, websites and online search was: The one I spend the most time with. This is where it gets personal!
Think about the people you want to spend the most time with. How do they make you feel? These are the one-of-a-kind people. The entertaining people. The intriguing people. The people that no matter how well you get to know them you want to know more.
How can you translate this into your social media marketing? Think about the characteristics of the people you want to spend the most time with. Are they:
- fun and fun-loving
- inspiring
- loving
- upbeat
- interesting
- intelligent
- compassionate
- sensitive and tuned in to your wants and needs – and so on
The same characteristics that can draw people to you as a person can draw social media followers to your brand profiles.
4. Be a Connector
We all know those people who seem to have a knack for connecting us with other people based on common interests, business needs or other factors. By the same token, you should be a connector on social media. But in this case, you should be connecting social media followers with new products and services. The MarketingCharts.com study found that social media is the place where people said they heard about or discovered a new brand or product for the first time.
5. Be Lovable
People also said that social media was the place where they most often saw or heard things that led them to “fall in love” with a brand. Love – that is a powerful word!
Sometimes we throw the word “love” around too easily. Love is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection. Love can be the basis for long term and even life-long relationships. It involves attraction and loyalty and affinity – or preference, as in preferring one brand over another. The good news is that the same characteristics that make people want to spend time with your brand on social media (see #3 above) are those that can make those people fall in love with your Salon Suite’s social media.
6. Don’t be Un-Lovable
People also said social media was the place where they most often saw or hear things that caused them to fall out of love with a brand. This is a cautionary reminder that just because a client loves your Salon Suite today, doesn’t mean they will still love your Salon Suite tomorrow! If you follow the advice laid out in #1-5 above, it’s not likely that you’ll be posting updates that turn followers away. But it’s still important to remember that you should evaluate everything you post online from the standpoint of how clients or prospects might respond, and avoid controversial or negative posts.