Keep up customer communication and be better at social

BABTAC Beauty Broadcast

Keep up customer communication and be better at social

Jasmine Wicks-Stephens

Founder of @theknowncompany and @wearefaace

 

After holding positions at the country’s top agencies, Jasmine took the opportunity to set-up on her own. Known launched with three brands and has since worked with some of the biggest leaders within the beauty industry, supporting them on everything from PR and events, to content creation, social media and design. Having helped many brands, Jasmine then decided to create her own skincare line, Faace, which launched earlier this year and has already received praise from press including Forbes, Stylist, Glamour and The Observer. 

 

Jasmine believes it’s important that you utilize this time to keep the channels of communication open with your customer, so you stay front of mind for them when your doors reopen. She’ll also be covering general social media tips for anyone looking to up their game.

 

What does Jasmine discuss?

 

Whilst your unavailable to communicate with your customers in person, it’s important that you keep those channels of communication open, so that’s why social media is an important tool.

 

It’s been widely reported in the news that screen time is at an all-time high during lockdown, with people unable ‘to leave their homes to socialise with friends and family, people are increasingly turning to their smartphones for entertainment and to stay connected’, says the Independent. 

 

So, I discuss pointers for a better social media approach, with the main focus on Instagram, but I’ll also touch on Facebook too. I’m going to give you some tips for what you can do in the future, as well as now, as this won’t last forever.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/coronavirus-screen-time-phone-use-iphone-a9433251.html

 

My Session

 

Don’t underestimate the power of social 

 

As I mentioned, my background is beauty comms, not retail, so launching faace has been a huge learning curve for me. But the main insight I wanted to share, is the amount of leads that have been generated for me, via the Instagram page. This is where people are seeking out information to learn about my business, and a huge amount of leads have been generated as a result. And it can be the same for you.

 

People are looking at your page as a way to understand what you offer – whether that’s treatments, products or the people there. Don’t underestimate how important this social space is for you communicating, maintaining and growing your business.

 

What makes a good social account?

 

So, what could you be doing?

 

Create unique, ownable content

This is such an important one! Instagram is a place for imagery, and so yours needs to be up to scratch. Whilst it’s tempting to use, stock imagery, especially when used a lot looks really naff. Whilst you might feel your business is small and local, that does not mean your Instagram page shouldn’t be inspiring, as that’s ultimately what’s going to encourage people to engage with you and keep following.

 

So, how can you create content...?

 

A professional shoot

If you can afford it, I would recommend having a professional shoot done as soon as government guidelines let you know that you’re able to. This would mean hiring a professional photographer to come and take pictures of your space, from the rooms, to the detail of every aspect, the treatments, the team, having this premium quality imagery will just make your business stand out. And if you hire someone that’s used to taking quick, social friendly shots, you can get a few hundred done in one day, which would obviously last a really long time and justifying the investment. 

 

Pictures of your clients

Beauty shots do really great on Instagram, whether that’s nail inspo, facials, before and afters, make sure you and the team are taking pictures of all treatments you can. A phone camera is totally fine, just make sure the brightness is turned up. Play around yourselves with positions in the space and positions of hands (getting a mani shot looking good is harder than you think), so when you’re asking the customers to be photographed you can quickly get that shot without being too annoying to them!

 

Now, whilst you’re not seeing your customers, why not get you and the team to play around and shoot yourselves trying out your favourite looks or products to give your followers inspiration to create their own at home looks and rituals, or if not, come and see you for that treatment when they’re next able to.

 

The brands you work with

You’ll like to work with brands that you trust and so it’s highly likely that these are bigger businesses than yours and therefore have a strong social media presence. Use their imagery – post your favourite pictures and products from those partners telling your customers why they’re used by you and why they could be good for them. If you find a lot of your customers are looking for treatments for ageing skin, then talk to them about the things they could do now. Whilst this might feel like effort now for no direct kickback, you need to invest in the short-term to come out better in the long-term.

 

Brands or people you aspire to

It’s fine to post imagery from aspirational people in your industry/celebs/influencers as long as you credit them (tag them in the post and in the caption). If someone would rather you didn’t, they’ll soon let you know, and you can take it down (no harm done). For example, if you see a hair colour technique/hair style on someone that you’re confident you could also create, why not put that up as a bit of inspiration to your followers for when they next come and see you. 

 

Design

Ideally again, you’d employ a freelance designer to create some nice templates for you. But whilst you’ve maybe got a bit more time on your hands download some social media design apps and teach yourself how to use them. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to get the hang of it, and these aps allow you to add in coloured backgrounds that represent the colours of your brand, your logo, nice fonts, which will allow you to create posts that feel professional and reflect your brand.

 

Your brand

So, for anyone that doesn’t know what I mean by that, I mean the way your business looks. Do you always use purple (like Babtac), which fonts have you used for your logo – to be a stronger business, you need to have good branding, and then use this same style for all the you do. It helps you be more memorable to those that you’re working with.

 

Be inspired by the best!

Before you start to develop your content, go and have a look at the gold star companies in your industry and see what they’re doing and be inspired! Nobody knows you, your brand, your business better than you so I’m sure once you sit down and take the time to give it some thought you’ll be inundated with ideas. And if you want to create ideas with other people, why not group chat with the team or some friends, or a niece or nephew – be inspired together. 

 

Revisit what you’ve done before and scrutinise it

 

Have a look at your pages and think about:

You can then consider archiving anything you’re not happy with any emulating what you are in the future.

 

Pre-plan into a calendar

 

Before you pull together all of your posts, consider pre-planning into a calendar. If you want to post 5 x per week then that’s 20 posts per month. Decide what it is that you want your customers to get from your page, e.g.

Then, from there, you can break down those 20 posts into 4 or 5 of each of the above. When you break it down like this, it can make the whole process a lot less overwhelming and can also make keeping on top of your social media a lot easier. In terms of where to have this calendar, you could create it in a word doc, excel sheet or if you want to get a bit more techy, then there’s social media scheduling tools that you can sign up for, add all of your imagery and copy into, ready to be posted. 

 

Your copy

 

Think about how you want to sound to your customer? Is it approachable yet professional? Friendly and kind, non-judgmental, well-educated and informed on your industry? Then stick to this! When you’re writing your captions remind yourself of this tone of voice you want to showcase, and you should always come across well. 

 

Adapt your content from Instagram for Facebook

 

Whilst it’s tempting to just repost everything you do on Instagram onto Facebook, you’ll receive better engagement with your posts if you take the time to consider, whether there’s a better way to share on each channel. For example, if you’ve created a piece of content that has a link, like a blog post, then go in and post it on Facebook directly, rather than just from an Instagram post.

 

What are the main tools you can use on Instagram?

 

The grid – this is the main area where you see the square images. This is where you should be uploading your images to every day (if possible). Here you can write a snappy caption at the top to draw people in (think of this as your news headline),  and then add more detail below if you think the content is going to be of interest to your followers (remember the first points I made about what makes a good social account).

 

Hashtags can be added here. These are the tags using # that relate to the post. Play around with how many and which ones you use to see if they make any difference to your engagement. My top hashtag tips are:

Tip for paragraph formatting on the grid:

Stories – posts on here too as this is a great way to create engaging posts to share with your followers. Create templates for words using apps (like I mentioned before), show images and just play around if you don’t feel confident using. Practice makes perfect and if you don’t like something you’ve just posted then delete it straight away.

 

Highlights – the groups of stories that can be displayed at the top of your main grid page. These are great for saving any stories that you’ve previously shared that would be useful for customers to refer back to – whether that be because they’re inspiring or informative. For example, if your thing is beautiful balyage, then create a highlight called this and repost all your looks here. Whilst you might post on the grid too, this is an easier way for people to see the thing they’re interested in all in one go. People aren’t usually going to scroll too far down your feed.

 

Try not to use too many of these. Several at the most. Revisit these, refresh often. Social media is ever evolving, so what works one month, may not be relevant another – be mindful of this and tweak your page accordingly. E.g. there’s no point showing a story highlight for summer offers in the winter.

 

IGTV (Instagram TV) – for any video that is over a minute long you can post onto your grid and then play it for longer through IGTV. This is a separate app to Instagram that you need to download. This can be a great way for you to speak to your customer, but remember, people’s attention spans are short, especially on social, so if you can say something in a shorter and more succinct way – do!

 

Community management

 

When you’ve posted, it’s not enough to just leave that there. You need to speak to your audience especially now when we’re all feeling a bit disconnected. Ask your followers what they think, what they’d like to know or see from you when you’re posting and then answer them. 

 

Also, follow relevant people and take the time to engage with them. I don’t mean a big celeb like Beyoncé (I mean you can follow for fun), but this isn’t really going to help support your business. Follow other local businesses that you could partner up with. For example are you a nail bar that’s located near a gym – speak to other local businesses and think about how you could support each other with special offers, sharing information on each other’s social accounts or newsletters – now is the time for us to all be getting together to help build each other’s business back up for when the time comes.

 

If a customer follows you, follow them back, engage with their posts and build a rapport via social, like I’m sure you have when they come in and see you face to face. If you’ve been visible to them now whilst they’re on social, then hopefully when your doors are back open, you’ll be top of mind for them to come and see you.

 

Facebook ads (also Instagram ads)

 

I think of social media advertising like old school magazine ads, where you’d see something in multiple places, it would go into your psyche and then you’d eventually purchase (if you were into it). Social advertising is a very affordable way of getting your business out there. It’s also a great way to target people relevant for you – whether that be in your local community, if you’re a business that relies on footfall, or for a particular offering you are selling (say if you retail).

 

This is something I would definitely recommend exploring further as we come out the other side of the current situation. It may seem tricky at first but is something you can get the hang of with a bit of coaching.

 

Other ways to grow

 

Another way to grow your following is to run competitions. This way, you can give something back to your customers in return for them following you. Don’t do too many, maybe one per month at the most as you don’t want to devalue what you do. But what about a free manicure and pedicure, or a product gift. Make sure you add on Ts&Cs, so people know where they stand. You can look at a bigger brands Instagram pages if you’re unsure of how to do this. 

 

If you’re closed, then why not create an at home pamper pack (if you can access your stock and still adhere to government guidelines), or offer a voucher for when you’re back open. That’s also a good way of promoting that you have a gift voucher offering for anyone that wants to support you through these tough times, without directly asking for it.

 

Also, I would definitely consider putting a small amount of paid behind boosting this, as this will take your content to a new audience and give you even more opportunity to grow your community. 

 

Why do this now?

 

Businesses that will survive this will be the ones that put the effort in now. Whilst it might feel really really hard to be motivated, it’s so important that you do something positive towards your company now to give it a better chance of survival! If social media is out of your comfort zone, then there’s even more reason to use this time now to develop your skills.  

 

If you want to check out my businesses and what I’m doing on social, you can visit @wearefaace and @theknowncompany