4 Tips For Using Instagram
by Caitlin Durning, Meraki Media Management
Meraki Media Management is one of Lipgloss + Aftershave’s Biz Wiz Coaches, learn more about Caitlin and Meraki!
Social media is a gold mine for beauty professionals. From makeup tutorials, hair transformations, and even brow waxing videos, people can’t get enough of this kind of content! The beauty online beauty community has never been bigger, and it’s the perfect market to tap into to promote your own beauty business. However, with countless platforms, a competitive market, and ever changing social media algorithms, it can be hard to master social media marketing. Keep reading to learn Meraki Media Management’s guide to create the ultimate instagram for beauty professionals to help boost your followers, and the ultimate goal, bring you clients!
1. Find your Ideal Client
First off, you need to identify exactly who your ideal client is. How old are they? Where do they live? What are their interests? All this information is key to tailoring your instagram to attract your ideal client. The time and energy you spend on your social media marketing should be directly targeted to someone who is going to purchase your services, otherwise you’re wasting valuable time! A simple start to this is setting a location on all your posts, to ensure it is visible to those in your area. When looking for potential clients, try filtering through the location tags! The same goes for hashtags- did you know you can add up to thirty hashtags in a post? Be sure to optimize your visibility to potential clients by using relevant and engaging hashtags, and find potential clients through hashtags that relate to your services.
2. Create Engaging Content
Once you’re able to identify and reach your ideal client, you need to be able to not only gain, but keep their follow! This is done by creating a feed full of engaging content that makes your followers want to keep coming back to your page. First off, create content based around your ideal client. Clients want to see content they can relate to, learn from, or be inspired by. Offer a variety of posts that keep people interested in, changing up the format and topic with every post. Try posting client pictures with their approval, products you recommend, tips and tricks, videos of you working, the list goes on! Additionally, instagram has a ton of additional features you can put to use to really maximize your visibility on this platform. You can use IGTV for longer videos demonstrating your services, live stories to interact with followers and let them communicate with you in real time for Q&A’s, and IG stories to make polls! Using all the instagram features gives your audience multiple facets to engage with at all times, bringing you higher up in the algorithm, and ultimately, into peoples’ feed!
3. Build a Community
You don’t just want people to follow you, but you want them to connect with you. Your Instagram should be a tool to convert followers into real life clients! Don’t be afraid to send out direct messages to potential leads, or simply thank someone for following you. A great way to communicate via direct message. Respond to all the comments on your posts, as it helps drive engagement on your page and build loyalty with followers. Showcasing your clients on your page is a great way to build up your online community and create a following of real people who enjoy and appreciate your work.
4. Use Instagram’s Video Chat For Consultations!
Finally, make yourself as visible and easy to reach online as possible. Have your contact information clearly stated, post when you have availability, and respond to inquiries on your page as soon as you can. Use Instagram’s Video Chat! This allows you to easily communicate with your clients while being able to see their skin! You can conduct skin care analysis and skin care consultations directly inside the Instagram App. You can create a list of home care products for your client and send them products. You can even use Venmo to accept payment!