#PBLive: PB North speaker Al Tepper on mastering your salon’s social media
Social media can be a minefield at the best of times but those salon owners who take the time to understand the platforms and how they work are reaping the rewards.
Professional Beauty North speaker Al Tepper, marketing and social media expert at Tepfu, is a pro at helping small businesses like beauty salons master the conversation online so they become a core part of the community and can expand their business’s reach.
PB’s social media editor Chris Halpin (left) and deputy editor Amanda Pauley (right) quiz Tepper on the do’s and don’ts of mastering your salon’s social media and how to turn engagement into profits.
What can people expect from your talk at PB North on turning customers into brand ambassadors using social media?
“I can’t wait to share some real knowledge at PB North in Manchester this weekend. Probably the biggest thing I’ll be referring to in my session, and because I think it will be of most value to salon owners, is four-letter marketing. It’s everything when it comes to social media marketing and those four letters are – c, a, r, e.
“If you care about your customers then they will care about you. Everything you do has to demonstrate that you care about the customer, not that you just want their next booking or purchase. If you do this then you’ll be turning your customers into brand ambassadors for your business in no time.”
What areas do you think beauty salons can improve on when it comes to social media?
“The biggest mistake I would immediately jump on is just selling in your feed, pushing offer after offer. I don’t know about you but if I walk into a shop and a sales person just tries to sell to me all the time then I don’t want to be there. It’s the same with your social media feed, if it’s all sell, sell, sell, then clients won’t want to pay much attention to your feed.
“You have to add value to the person who is giving you attention. Your customers will spend time on social, of course, so given that the audience is already there all you have to do to win their business is add value, then you will get their attention.
“The posts that engage and polarise people’s opinions do best – i.e. over the past few years we’ve seen posts asking people what colour a dress is go viral. Beauty is very subjective and people are really opinionated about it, so ultimately any posts that gets customers to answer a question is great. ”
What platforms should beauty salons be investing in?
“Facebook is the biggest player in town. Whether you love or hate it, it has the most people on it, the most attention and the most engagement. However, there are constantly new networks emerging and if I was a beauty salon owner I would be all over TikTok – an app for creating and sharing comedy and talent videos – without any shadow of a doubt.
“The majority of people on TikTok will be of a young age group that some salon owners will think, ‘hmm, will they really come in my salon?’, but it could be the child of someone who comes into the salon and that could be a great opportunity to create an experience for the parent and child to bond over.”
What social media developments should salon owners be aware of?
“One of the biggest changes which I think is really far-reaching is clear history on Facebook and it's already in play in some countries. When you’re running Facebook ads one of the biggest challenges is that you build a list, work really hard to get lots of people and then drop the pixel into people’s Facebook profile – building a really good list.
“Now, Facebook is affecting this by giving everyone the opportunity to clear their history. That means clients can see which pixels have been dropped into their Facebook profile, who is marketing and advertising to them, and more importantly, they can clear it all if they want to – it’s massive. So, don’t just use paid posts to push your services, organic posts for the long term will get you the best value.”
