Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit, just working in your business and start working on it, join us here, where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Britt Seva, and as per usual, I’m really excited to geek out about social media this week.
If you don’t know this already, a really good way to get me a question for the podcast is to leave me a rating or review on iTunes. You can leave me a rating or review, rate the podcast however many stars you feel are appropriate. We read through the comments left and often people will ask questions and I pull those questions to the show.
We noticed there were a lot of trending questions about social media, particularly about things like what is the best way to show up on social media if you want to attract a clientele over the age of 50? What is the best way to show up on social media if taking photos of your guests feels awkward? What is the best way to show up on social media if you don’t want to be on Instagram? What is the best way to show up on social media if you don’t do extensions and blond hair all day long?
All of these are such good questions, and usually when I see a repeating pattern, I try and tackle it. I think that one of the things that makes me unique is that I see social media a little bit differently than I think the average person does.
To me, social media is anywhere that digital conversations are happening about a person, place, or business. So when we look at what is social media, social media is actually quite broad. It is places like Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Pinterest, right? All of those places are social media.
Other platforms that are considered social media would be like Google My Business, Yelp. YouTube is certainly social media. The NextDoor app is social media. LinkedIn is social media. There’s a lot of platforms—Clubhouse recently blew up, like that’s social media.
There’s all of these places where people are having online conversations about persons, places, or businesses. There’s no shortage of places to show up.
So when we look at “How do I show up when this is my situation?”, or “What do I do if I don’t like taking photos of my guests,” or “All of my clients who are over the age of 50, what am I supposed to do?”, I’m going to give you some tips for all of those things.
What I think is important to remember, and hopefully you’ve been listening for a while to the podcast. (If not, welcome! This is something we’re going to talk about a lot more often.) I teach to a concept called the marketing funnel and in the marketing funnel, there’s four levels. There’s the Opportunity level on the bottom. Then we have the Desire level.
Today, we’re talking about the Interest level, which is social media and above that is Awareness.
Here’s the reality: the amount of Awareness marketing you do is going to completely flop if your Interest level isn’t right. The Interest level, meaning social media, is going to completely flop if your Desire and Opportunity levels aren’t right.
And by flop, I don’t mean it’ll be a complete failure. What I mean is you’ll spend a lot of time, energy, and effort that won’t pay off to the degree that it could if you do the system as a whole. This is where I think people go sideways; they’re like, “Well, I’m getting good results, so I don’t need anything else.”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want good results. I want stellar, are-you-kidding-me results, and I don’t want to work that hard for it. I don’t want it to be like, “Well, I could quadruple my income if I work four times harder.” That’s what I mean. I work hard and I’m down to work hard and I have a lot of drive, but I don’t want to work four times harder than I need to. I want to work as efficiently as I can to get the best possible results.
If you feel me on that, if you want to work as efficiently as you can to get the best possible result, what you want is a marketing funnel. It is the fastest, easiest way to grow any business today, period, in our industry, beyond our industry, whatever. I’ve coached the marketing funnel concept to industries well beyond our own and it works every single time.
Getting away from the marketing funnel for a second, going back to Interest, when we choose where to show up on social media, it is based on the research we do that determines the Opportunity level of our marketing funnel. The Opportunity level determines who you’re speaking to and what actions we want them to take.
Then we craft a brand around that target market or that consumer, that dream client, that avatar. Have you heard that movie Avatar? That’s actually a marketing term. You can call it that if you want to. In Thrivers Society, we call it a dream client profile. But what we do is our actions in the Desire, Awareness, and Interest levels of our marketing have to be in alignment with that Opportunity level, or it’s going to flop. This is where people go sideways.
A lot of people think, “Okay, to really make it on social media, I’ve got to figure out Instagram.” Instagram is important. Instagram is the second biggest social media platform—well, no third biggest, I guess, behind YouTube. And then WhatsApp is in there too, but it’s not really what you would use for local small business.
So Facebook is still winning. Facebook is still the largest, fastest-growing. Shocking, I know ‘cause a lot of us think like, “Oh, I’m not on Facebook anymore.” It’s still the largest, fastest-growing.
It’s important to recognize that YouTube is a great platform. For local small business, it’s not super optimized for us. This is why I don’t coach to platforms like Tik Tok or Pinterest or YouTube. They’re great platforms. They’d be great for me as an educator. Killer for the local small business owner, stylist, or salon owner. They could work, but you are reaching a market well beyond anybody who’s going to actually sit in your chair. So I only suggest going on those platforms if you have the abundance of time to spend on them because you can become famous nationwide, but if that’s not going to generate business to your chair, you just have to ask is it worth it to you?
Maybe you can generate a huge following on YouTube or Pinterest or Tik Tok or wherever as a local stylist, but my question becomes, if you spent all of that effort on Instagram or on a Google My Business or on Yelp, would you get four times more clients? We don’t know until we try it because you’re focused on something else. We don’t know.
That goes back to my theory about why wouldn’t we spend our efforts in the area that’s going to produce the biggest result. A lot of this is going to be trial and error.
Let’s answer some of those questions. When we look at where people are showing up today, I like to focus our efforts in social media on Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, and Google My Business. I think it’s the fastest, easiest way to build your clientele. I think those four platforms are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. That’s personally where I would be as a small town stylist today or a big town stylist today. That’s where I would show up for sure.
Now it comes down to priority then. If we know those are the four biggest, heavy-hitting platforms for stylists today and salon owners today and barbers today, and everybody else, where do you focus? That is where the target market comes in because each market hangs out in different places, in different areas.
Then we have to look at who are you trying to serve. For the person who asked me, “Britt, my clientele is over the age of 50. How do I show up on social media for them?”, well, you definitely don’t show up on Instagram because nobody’s there. They’re not there. Facebook might be good for you, Yelp, and Google My Business would probably be good for you.
Now, what you’re going to need is a killer referral program because word of mouth is going to be huge at that demographic level. Here’s the trick: referral programs are actually a loyalty component, but they feed into the Awareness level of our marketing funnel and the Awareness level of our marketing funnel is right at the top.
So you could have the best referral program in the planet, but if you don’t have anything at the Interest level—meaning something digitally and social media to support it—it’s going to be hard because even today’s clientele over the age of 50 has a smartphone and looks at businesses before they invest.
I’ll use my mother-in-law for example. She’s in her late sixties. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t have an iPhone. Doesn’t mean she didn’t do research to find a new person in the new community she lives in to help her out. She did. She Google searched, she went to Yelp. That’s how she finds people.
Now she’s not on Facebook. She’s not on Instagram. So for her, she used these review sites. That’s where she hangs out on social. So if you are looking to attract a clientele over the age of 50, I’m going to be pushing you to Facebook, Google My Business, and Yelp, for sure, without a doubt. Don’t bother with Instagram because nobody’s going to see you there.
Now, if you’re like age doesn’t matter to me, I’m just looking for—I’m a barber and anybody who wants a haircut, I want them to come in and see me. Cool. Great. I want you to show up on all platforms to a degree, and then as we start to see what platform gains traction, then we can harness your focus in that area. But we start broad and then we refine down.
You’ll notice you can mimic the way I show up on social media. I will show up on any platform and give it a try. I will bail out of a platform quick as I got there if I’m finding I’m getting a better result somewhere else, and you should do the same.
If you’ve been following me for some time, you might remember that I essentially got my start in independent education at scale on Periscope. This was in 2015. I really doubled down on that platform. I believe it was in 2016 Facebook Live came out and I announced to my Periscope followers that I was leaving Periscope and going to Facebook Live.
People were mad. They were so mad at me that I was leaving this platform that I had been on for such a long time, but I knew it. I knew it. I was like, “This Facebook Live thing is going to be way bigger than Periscope and I want to jump before the ship starts to sink.” Well, good thing I jumped because I established myself on Facebook Live before Periscope really tanked. Not everybody chose to do that. Then Instagram Live came out and I was able to make that leap, right? So I was able to keep moving forward.
There’s been a myriad of platforms that have come out in the last few years. I’ll always try it and I’ll give it a whirl. But if I’m seeing a better, stronger result elsewhere, I’m not going to waste my time somewhere on getting a good result where I could go somewhere else and get great results.
That’s what I want you to think of with social media. Don’t beat your head against the wall to be everywhere. Go broad, but then refine your efforts and be the places that are producing results.
So what are we looking for as far as results in our industry? I’ll tell you what it’s not. It’s not likes and comments and it’s not a follower count.
If you’re showing up on social media because you really want to hit 10,000 followers, I respect that. I understand that feeling. I get that too. I would rather have $10,000 than 10,000 followers, and if I’m going to get the $10,000 by showing up on Yelp, you bet your bottom dollar that’s where I’m going to be, and I’m not going to question it.
I ask you when you’re thinking about what social media to platform to show up on that you check your ego at the door and check your bank account instead, because you want to be showing up where you’re going to get the biggest bang for your buck.
The other thing, when we look at alternative platforms like Yelp and Google My Business is they are so much easier. So much easier.
How long does it take to write effective captions? Not how long does it take to write an okay caption? Here’s an okay caption: “Killer cut for Marissa yesterday. We did this many foils in her hair. Loved her blow out. She’s going out for a date night tonight. Have fun, Melissa!”
I’m not talking about that comment or that caption. I’m talking about captions that educate, inspire, entertain, are well-written with story and with a hook and with all the things. Because if we want to gain clientele with social media, with Instagram, with Facebook, especially your captions can’t be good. They have to be stellar, especially in today’s market.
I’m actually recording this podcast on the backend of—I had a call with my mastermind today and my mastermind—I’m the small girl in the room. Like my mastermind is big players, big, big players. When I was hearing about what they were projecting was social media. They were like, “Oh, you think social media has been competitive now? You just wait.”
These are people who are on the inside of what’s going on and they are saying it’s going to get fiercer. The competition’s not going to get loosey goosey; it’s going to get fiercer.
Those who are going to stand out and ride it out are those who doubled down on the things that I coach to, like creating emotional connection, showing up in full and going all in.
This is your chance. The train has left the station. You need to get good at writing captions. You need to understand what content performs on social.
And let me tell you not all content performs. You have to show up with the right content on the right platform with the right rhythm and the right caption.
Now why are captions so important on Facebook and Instagram? Because Facebook and Instagram are all about creating emotional connection: entertain, inspire, educate. You can do things like Reels because that can accomplish that as well, right? You can educate, you can definitely create personality, and all of that, too, cool.
If you want to create Reels, instead of writing captions, you can totally do that. It’s six to one, half dozen of the other. A Reel is essentially a story for the most part, right? It’s got a point. It’s got a purpose. You’re trying to teach something. You’re trying to get a message across.
You can story write through Reels. That’s totally great. Or you can story write through captions. That’s great too. But connecting on that level on Instagram and Facebook isn’t optional.
When we write basic captions, all you’re doing is informing. “I loved it when this day happened. It made me feel so happy. Do you want to have a day like this too? Come on down?”
What? You’re not educating, inspiring, or entertaining. You’re literally just informing. You have to pull at heartstrings. You have to get someone to want to get off the couch and take action with you.
It’s going to take more than that and it is getting fiercer. Those loose captions used to work before. Wait till 2022, friends, it is going to get tougher and you need to figure out the game now, as it is evolving. It’s super important.
If you’re showing up on Instagram and Facebook, it’s a matter of showcasing the right imagery that really give a sense of your brand overall. Not just pictures of hair, but like your brand as a whole and then pairing it with the captions that create trust in your marketplace. Brand authority, know, like, and trust factor, all that kind of stuff.
Again, coming back—I promise I’ll get there—the reason why captions are so important is because as the bar has been raised on social media, people have gotten really good at taking good pictures. Have you noticed that like the quality of photos that people are taking for social media? The bar has been raised. Most people are taking better photos now than they were two or three years ago. There’s, I mean, amazing people are seeing amazing photos on social media, but people are still showing up weak in the captions.
When you look at what smart marketers coach to, they tell you to take the gap. You shouldn’t be trying to compete with your neighbor or keep up with what they’re up to. You’re trying to do what they’re not. You are seeing their gap and seizing the day. Captions are the gap. Captions will not be the gap starting next year. It will be too late. So today’s the day you get on the captions.
Now that doesn’t mean that by next year, you won’t have to worry about the captions. That means you’ll have double the work to do because the gap will be tighter in the captions. You’ll definitely have to be doing them, but it won’t be X-Factor; it’ll just be expectation. Get good at captions now while it’s still X-Factor and while it still makes an impact.
Going back to alternative platforms though, because not everybody should even be on Instagram or on Facebook. Let’s say, oh, I was saying the barber who wants to show up more generically everywhere. Sweet. I would want you to be on Instagram, Facebook, Yelp, and Google My Business.
The coolest thing about Yelp and Google My Business is there’s no real caption-writing component. What I like to see is you can do a little summary of what you did on the hair.
If you’re the barber and you’re showcasing somebody, you can say “A fade and a beard trim,” and that’s the whole thing. You’re describing what happened. You can show before and after, you could just show an after, but that’s the whole thing. You don’t have to story write on those platforms, which makes them super easy.
Also, I have several Thrivers who in the last year and a half have all but stopped posting on Instagram. They still show up there, but they’re like, “It’s backburner for me.” They’re all in on Yelp and Google My Business, and they’re like, “I get so many requests through the platform, I can hardly keep up.”
So I coach to those platforms big time in Thrivers Society. I have you covered there. But the key when you’re showing up on any social platform is not to show up all the places; it’s to show up the places that make the biggest impact with the content that is driving your results.
Like I said, the result you should be looking for is not increased followers, increased pennies in your bank account. That’s what you want to be seeing, right?
And here’s the other thing: when we show up on social, we don’t show up on social with content that makes us feel good. We show up on social with content that inspires those around us to take action in our industry.
Now, if you were a blogger, like if your goal was just to share a message, then sure. You could show up with whatever you want to, you could show up just to get a reaction. You could show up just to share your opinions and you might get a lot of likes. You might get a lot of comments. You might get a lot of saves and shares.
But if you want to monetize, like if your goal is not just to like share cool stuff, if your goal is to make money, you need to get really strategic with where you’re showing up, how you’re showing up, and what messages you’re delivering that are going to drive people to take the action you’re looking for them to take right now.
The other thing that’s super cool about social media—and I shared this recently—is that we are in the age of authenticity, and that’s very exciting for me. This is another really cool thing that came out of the pandemic.
It doesn’t mean you get to show mediocre photos. Now the photos still have to count. What you don’t have to do on social media is paint this picture of false perfection and I’m really excited to see that go away. I used to have to do photo shoots for myself six times a year because it had to be like hair, makeup, photos of Brit, blah, blah, blah. It had to feel so perfect. That is gone, which is really exciting. That idea of perfection is gone and now it’s about more authenticity.
When you look at how to show up adequately on social media, video, video, video video. Did you guys see Instagram recently made a statement? They were like, we are prioritizing video in the feeds now more than ever.
It’s not new information. It means they’re doubling down, which is actually a little bit scary because they’ve always prioritized video. Now they’re saying they’re prioritizing it more, which means if you weren’t doing it before, you’ve now got to do three times more.
Video is huge. Why is video huge? You can’t fake it on video. Video is highly authentic. You’re forced to show up as you are, so showing up authentically on social, very important, showing up with what it’s like to be in your salon. I’ve always coached to that.
Please don’t have your feeds be hair, hair, hair, hair, hair. Have it be you!
People say to me all the time, “Britt, I’m not 25 and cute. How do I show up on social media?” Then show up as 45 and confident! Show up as who you are, how you are. When people walk through their doors, they’re going to see you how they are. They’ll love you for who you are. Show up as the beautiful, talented, brilliant, amazing soul that you are. That’s the best possible thing that you can do on any social media platform.
So get out of your head, think about who you’re attracting to your business, how you can elevate their life—not your life—how you can elevate their life through your social channels. Show up on the channels where you’re most likely to make the biggest impact and enjoy it. Social media should be fun, not painful.
If you need a little help on how to monetize your social media, make sure you head to thriverssociety.com. I’m happy to coach you through it, but until the next one, so much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
