Principles of maintaining a successful account

Elena Bardakova, PR specialist at Piel Cosmetics

Why you need Instagram

Instagram today is:

• 70% of the audience are women;
• once a quarter, time spent on social networks increases by 12 minutes;
• 85% of the audience are followers of accounts about fashion, beauty and health;
• women actively follow bloggers’ recommendations: where to buy, what to eat, what to wear and where to go.

Before looking for clients, it is important to prepare your page, because Instagram is a visual network.

• • The account name should be concise and memorable.
  • Avatar (main photo) matters too. If you have a logo, use it. If you are a master/specialist/doctor, do not put nails or a beautiful model from a photo bank on your avatar - masters should know by sight.
  • The profile header is a business card. Indicate contact information (how to contact, where you are, what services you offer), your personal hashtags with your work, or the salon where you work. Use emoticons sparingly so that they are appropriate in the text.
  • Saved stories (highlight stories) - create useful albums: “List of services”, “Price”, “How to order”, “Reviews”, “Cases: before/after”. This also includes short master classes to engage users.

Your task is to create a stable association so that you are remembered, recommended, and found in searches.

Why is SMM needed in cosmetology, and what are its features?

Social networks introduce the client to the specialist before the visit

In the beauty industry, people choose with their eyes. Nothing says more about you than your work—a specialist is judged by his portfolio. Clear, beautiful and high-quality photographs are taken in daylight. And don’t be afraid to experiment with programs, select filters, adjust brightness, contrast, etc. For processing, use VSCO, Snapseed, Nebo, Lightroom and other applications.

An important component of the account is video. Such content enlivens the page and increases audience loyalty. In addition, videos are viewed more often and for longer than photos. This means that the level of trust in your personal brand will be higher. So is memorability.

Nothing lowers reach more than the lack of a content plan. A content plan is a pre-designed schedule for publishing posts with already selected content for a certain period.

This tool will allow:

• don’t worry about what to post tomorrow;
• analyze what worked better and what worked worse;
• post a variety of content;
• will create a logically consistent chain of touches.

And most importantly, pre-planned publications will free up time for communication with clients. There is no general standard for the number of published posts, but there is a minimum and maximum value.

• • posts to the feed: business accounts - maximum 2 per day, minimum 1 per day;
  • posts in stories: business accounts - from 1 to 3 per day.

The basic rule: post regularly, but not excessively, users should get used to regular content, but posting too often will get boring, and posting infrequently will lead to people forgetting about you.

Good content plan = quality content + storytelling

For your posts to be read, they must be interesting, useful and lively. People love storytelling. When you don’t just dryly present information, but weave a story into your story. The pinnacle of excellence is unique content. Then you will never have problems with ranking in the news feed. The task of a cosmetologist is to create in people the feeling that the account is run by a person who is well versed in the business, who does not just sell his services, but wants to help people solve their skin and body problems.

An Instagram post should have a call to action. CTA , call-to-action, also known as a call to action , is an element of a publication that motivates the reader to take a certain step. It must be very specific. For example:

• • “Subscribe to Instagram”;
  • “Click link”;
  • “Write to Direct”;
  • “Call the phone”;
  • “Write to What's App or Viber”, etc.

A call to action is necessary to motivate the user to take the next step. Remember that all your communication is aimed at the client. A quick response to questions in direct messages and comments is a mandatory component of profile promotion.

So: social networks are an excellent tool to convey information to a potential client, build his loyalty and turn him into a buyer. To do this, you need to create useful content that demonstrates the results of specialists’ work, answers user questions and resolves their objections.

Instagram is a good platform for business. There are many paid and free tools to attract new clients.

Free promotion

1. Hashtags . These are keywords, tags that allow you to tag Instagram posts on certain topics. It’s better to come up with your own that will make it easy for users to find you. Choose mid- and low-frequency hashtags that have no more than 100 thousand mentions on Instagram. For example, #cosmetologist Kiev #cleaning Odessa. It’s difficult for a new profile to compete with already promoted ones that post high-frequency queries.

How to choose hashtags? There is a Google Keyword Planner service for this. Do not use more than 5-6 hashtags per post.

2. Recommendations from bloggers . This is one of the most powerful promotion tools at the moment. Native (not direct) advertising of you in the form of a recommendation and a mention via @ or with a link to the site. Please note that it works better when a blogger uses your services on a regular basis, rather than once, such publications are more trusted.

How to find a blogger? Use special platforms - exchanges: PublicFast, EpicStars. Feel free to check the blogger’s “decency” for buying subscribers, racking up likes or abusing giveaways using the LiveDune and HypeAuditor applications. Pay attention to microbloggers - these are accounts with the number of subscribers (global) up to 100K, for Ukraine - up to 30K. 82% of millennials trust microbloggers.

3. Customer reviews. Word of mouth also works. Don’t be afraid to share your feedback in the format: video, photo or screenshot of Viber correspondence. Don't forget to ask the client's permission to share their feedback. You can also ask friends and clients to tag your profile in photos.

4. Partnerships: joint activities, co-promotion. This is often used by accounts with related topics (not competitors). You can contact several account holders of hairdressers, manicurists, makeup artists, massage therapists and offer mutual PR: they will talk about you on their page, and you will talk about them on yours. It doesn't look like advertising, but like a sincere recommendation, which is what people trust the most.

5. Promotions, activities. To get people interested in your services, offer them to take part in something interesting that doesn't require much effort but gives them the opportunity to win something useful. This could be a competition or promotion, when you just need to look into a cosmetologist’s office and undergo the procedure with a 10-50% discount. This will increase loyalty and receive new subscriptions.

The simplest contest is to ask people to like the photo and tag their friends, and in return the user can come for a free consultation, receive a sample of a skin care product or a discount on a procedure.

Paid promotion tool on Instagram

1. Targeting. This is an official advertisement from Instagram and Facebook. All network users are fighting for the reach and visibility of their publications. If you advertise each of your publications for at least $5/day, people will know about you. Set up advertising based on geolocation: if you are an offline studio or cosmetologist, then according to your interests and target the city. These are the most basic settings that can be made without leaving the application.

Remember, advertising without further analytics is a waste of money. To find out its effectiveness, use services, for example: BeLiked, FlyStat, YellowGram. Don't forget to view your statistics in the app itself.

Experiment! This is perhaps the most important advice. Instagram is the fastest growing and fastest changing social network. Promotion tools are constantly being improved and taken on new forms. Don't be afraid to experiment and do what no one has done before. The main principle of online promotion is to stand out and not be like everyone else.

And in conclusion, life hacks on how to make your account beautiful:

• • general - Crello, Canva, Freepik, UNUM;
  • processing - VSCO, Snapseed, Aviary, Facetune, Lightroom, QuickShot, TouchRetouch;
  • stories - unfold, over, story art, quik, storybeat, instories, mojo, storio;
  • video - IMOVIE, Splice, Chromic, InShot, SpeedPro, CuteCutPro;
  • chips - Hyperlapse, Instabit, KIRAKIRA+, GlitchArt, 8mm.

First published: Cosmetologist No. 6, 2019