Welcome to this week's episode of Beauty Babble. Today, Suzanne and I are talking about social media strategy. We'll break it down to five ways you can improve your social media presence. Hi, Suzanne. And how are you? I'm good. Thanks. How are you? Good. Suzanne, I know this is a hot topic always. Yes, where do you begin? Good Lord, with all the social media stuff. It's it's very time consuming. You have to be committed to it, right? Especially if you're trying to promote a business. Absolutely. It is time consuming. I think the, and that's a hindrance a lot of the time is because there's only a limited number of hours that we have. And as estheticians that are doing services or lash techs, beauty professionals, basically you're doing your services all day long. You don't want to spend all night. It can be draining and exhausting, so I think having a strategy really helps you be more efficient when you show up online. And so that's what we're going to talk about today, just five tips and ways to enhance what you're doing already. And if you're not doing it, then maybe you can incorporate some of these suggestions into, into what you're doing. Awesome. Shall I kick us off? Yes, please. Okay. Number one is going to be the obvious, which is content. So, high quality visuals and audio. A lot of us have smartphones and I've seen a lot of great quality videos and pictures on social media. I'd say if you're doing a talking video, just ensure that your audio quality is really good, because I think, you know, audiences are more forgiving of lower quality visuals than lower quality audio. And with that, when you are posting something where you're talking, always do the captioning on there. You can do that within the, if you're doing it on Instagram, you can do it within the platform. There's third party apps that will do it for you as well. But that's really important too, because a lot of people actually... And they want good audio, most of the, if they're not listening, they want to be able to know what you're saying, and they need captions, and this happened to me last night, where I was scrolling quietly and didn't want to have any audio on there, but some, there was a post, and I couldn't, I wanted to know what it was saying, but I couldn't because they, it was just talking and no captions and then when it comes, so that's kind of like, I You know, quality wise, but when it comes to what type of content you should post, I would recommend the rule of thirds. You don't want to post everything to be about promoting your business and your services. Book with me, book with me, book with me, doesn't work because you and I were talking about this. You have to build relationships and you have to build trust with your audience online. In order for them to then take that next step to become paying clients and you do that by providing a variety of content. So I like the rule of thirds. So a third of your content would be educational. A third of your content is. Inspirational or entertaining and a third of your content is promotional and that can look something like, you know, educational could be you know, skincare routines or tips for problems in something like that. And you can in those posts like. So I think more importantly, you should mention ways that people can just do it themselves, because then it shows you giving and not asking for something, you know, and then it also shows your knowledge, no? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, exactly. You'll become a go to when somebody has a question about, about something. Before and after pictures are great because they kind of do the telling for you. Or you can do like before and after reels or whatever. And then client testimonials as well. Let people hear from the people who've been getting treatments from you. Yeah, we talked about that too. That can be tough to get. So, it's like you can't give up. You just gotta keep doing it and one day they say yes, and you got it. Oh, cause they'll say... They don't want to hurt your feelings, but they'll, oh yeah, absolutely, for sure, but then they leave, or they're gone, or whatever it may be, just give them something easier, and it's different, different tools, if you wish to help them, the next time you come in, it's like, Hey, you know how you said you would do something, do you mind just doing it here, give them a link, or give them a piece of paper to write it on, and then you just recapped it, right, like, it doesn't have to be on Google that you screenshot that you got it, right, it can be free. In any way or or or verbally record them a video. Yeah, I think it'd be great. Well, and if some people don't want their faces, so audio would be okay too, right? Yeah, I think to like, I like that idea of like, because I'd give them a piece of paper you could also just like if you sign up for if I mean if you don't want them to do it right in front of you, maybe you send them like a survey monkey or something like that where it's That's a great one. So that's, yeah, and it's anonymous you can, it could be part of your aftercare for your client like thanks for coming. Follow up. Follow a follow up, and it can be linked to a place where they can leave a testimonial for you. That's a good idea. Time you build relationships with your clients, right? When you have your regular clients, they become Yeah. You, you have that relationship. So a lot of ti a in those cases, it'll be easier. Yeah, that's what I meant by hand them a piece of paper to write it on. Or video. You're not your new people. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, I think number two is consistency and scheduling. So consistency is key. On social media. And that can be tough if you try to be everywhere all the time. So each platform has a recommended number of times you should post a week for optimal engagement with your audience. That isn't always feasible. It's not always attainable for a lot of us. It's a lot. I think more important than how much you post is to post consistently. So if you're going to post every day, you need to post every day, every week. You cannot not do that. So, maybe you post three times a week. And then you build yourself up. So you have to write, you have to understand how much time it's going to take you. And set, I will post three times a week. It's going to be, say, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I will post every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then you can plan out your month. In doing that, you can then schedule it. I mean, if you have Facebook and Instagram Facebook within the meta business suite, you can do scheduling. It's within the platform doesn't cost you extra. If you do any of the other social media platforms, you can get a third party scheduling app. Some of them are really affordable. So you just kind of have to look around and see which one is going to be within your budget and do what you want it to do. But it is. Going to save you so much time. So what I do in my business, cause you know, I do this for work. I pick a day and I do all my filming in one day. Then I pick a day and I do all the creation of the content. So that means writing the posts, editing, all of that for the month. So it's two days out of the month that I'm dedicating to my social media and then my posts are done. And the only thing I have to do then throughout the month is to engage, which leads us to step three, but I won't go through yet. So I think that in setting a system, you're going to save yourself a lot of time and be more intentional and get better return. So you're saying set a system up, but you should, I mean, for me, I had to schedule in my week when I did this, right? So then if I knew next week was so busy, just with life in general, it could be family, kids, it could be you're on vacation, like, really look ahead. Like when you say a month ahead, that's optimal because then you're done. And once you get into that habit of how it works and you get better at it, it does go faster, right? Absolutely. And it's going to take you time to get to that month ahead. You know, you'll have to figure out your own system, but have that be like where you want to go because getting up every day and thinking, Oh, I need to post something that actually takes a lot more time because the thinking of what you need to post is the thing that takes a lot of time, but when you do your pre thinking, then the posting is not going to be as time consuming. And then, then you're also making sure you get the third, third, third. Exactly. Instead, before you know all you do is reel of. I don't know, nose waxing, and it's another one, and it's another one, and it's an earwax, oh, it's a, you know, so it changes up your content, so yeah, I like that idea. Absolutely. Scheduling, yeah. And it, like, so, there's another school of thought that says, you know, when you're creating content, To create it with what, with the intention of what you want it to do. So if your intention is that you want people to go to your profile, think about that while you're creating your content, what is it that will make them do that? Think about, you know, what it is you want, and then you create your content based on that, but that, again, it takes time to be intentional with your content. So when you carve out that time, I think you will have a better return on your investment. You're still putting in time. Eventually, it'll be less time that you're putting in when you have your system in place. And it's going to be, you know, more bang for your buck, basically, where you're, you're going to get more engagement with your intentional social media planning. Right. Love that. All right. So which leads us to number three, which is engage with your audience. So explain that. Yes. This in my mind is number one, it says the most important thing you should do, but really in the order of, you know, how to frame it, I put it on in the third, because, you know, you're thinking about your content, you plan out your content. Let's say you you've gotten to a system where you've now planned out your content. For the next two weeks for the next month. It doesn't matter, but it's preplanned for you. Then you still have to go on social media and engage with your audience. And by that, I mean, you have to respond to comments. If anyone comments on your posts, of course, you have to respond to DMs. With those ones, a lot of the platforms have automated responses because you're busy, you're doing your business. You don't have time to always respond right away to a message, have an automated message. That says you'll get back to them within 24 to 48 hours, whatever it is you want to say, but that gives that direct immediate response. But to thought, is that reasonable of a response time, 24 to 48 hours that we're in such a society that expect instant. You know what, that's why I recommend that you, you set up at an automated. Got it. Exactly. It sets the expectation. It's like, I've seen you, but I can't respond to you right now. Right. You know, you can be cute about it. You can be like, I'm in with a client. I'm probably in with a client doing an amazing facial back to you within a day or whatever it is. Like you can. That's such a good idea. It could be really, again, you're, you're engaging with your client story I'm doing a whack thing or whatever it may be that you're servicing of your business or with a client right now. Or whatever it may be, you can actually change it up too, right? One month you have one message, another month you do another message, when you're doing all your planning, maybe. I love it, yeah. Like, Christmas time, you can, whatever it is, like, you can really show your personality and make it, like not personal, but like unique to you. Like, it's your message to your, to your clients. That's a big one with with, like, I've seen on social media where you see what people are doing, And there's some things they do, it's like, it's just not me. I can't do that. That's not who I am. So I'm going to still be who I am. But I just love how they are. So I could totally see them have something really funny in their messages. Pretty direct stuff, I would imagine, because some of the stuff that I see and they're joking and, you know, their loudness about it. And that's great. I, I think it's awesome. If that's not who you are, then you can't be trying to be that because it just doesn't come out in the same mannerism. I love that point actually. I haven't, don't have that on the list, but that's a sub point that we should make is to be authentic, to really show up as yourself. Because. You look like it can be a little intimidating when you go on social media. There's some people that have a lot of followers and they're making great content. That might not be you. I think there's enough to go around for everybody. There's a person that is going to jive and click with you. So you have to show up as yourself. And don't try to, I mean, you, you can try things because you have to know what works and what doesn't know, but when you try them, try them from a place of authenticity. So adapt it to you and your personality and how you show up for your people in the treatment room. You should show up for them online as well. Right. I had listened to one podcast with one lady. They said that their, their salon spa is other than I think their facial and of course waxing, it's kind of an open concept and their chair, I believe in there too. Right. And they gossip, and they're loud, and they talk about private things, and everyone laughs, and it's a whole thing. She is that way. So that's who I am. And this is why I post the way, and she's that way, and her, and everything. So what you see on social media, I love this. What you see on social media is what you can expect when you walk into my salon and spa. I love it because imagine she was like polite on social media or, you know, and then they walk in and they get this like, atmosphere. It would, you would be attracting the wrong clientele. Yeah. And she said, I wanna make sure if that person who's very private and, and is not about, that isn't shocked and horrified because , if my clients talk about raunchy stuff and it's like, oh my, like I was like, wow. But at least she's authentic. In everything she does, so no surprises there, and I love that, that's such a, such a great way to, to, to follow up with your own strategies and what you're going to do. It's like an extension of your vibe in your, in your spa, in your treatment, whatever it is, it has to be an extension of it, like this is your, your online presence or your advertise, whatever it is. It has to reflect what you're going to actually be like and provide I think another, another important part of the engagement is besides engaging and responding from your own page in your own account is to actually go and, you know, comment on other people's posts, respond to other likes and engage with the people, the people, whoever it is you follow, engage with them because You are asking people to engage with you. You have to give so you have to engage and that builds relationships. It builds online relationships. It increases your visibility because if you're commenting on somebody's post, then their audience is going to see your comment. Maybe it'll be in. Peek their interests and then they'll see your page and do it again from a place of authenticity where you are engaging with other with people you follow because you want to and that can, you know, that can be time consuming. You don't have to do it every single day, but do carve out some time for that. It is very important. Ironically, the fallout of that is a positive one, because many times I've heard this story where people connect other parts of the province or states or countries, and before you know it, they're engaging together, they're now creating content together, they're cross promoting is what that's called, and hitting a bigger audience, right? So but it all started with just, like you said, an engagement and something. Made it click and it brought in something more, it's like they're going to go to a show like, you know, in another part of your country, wherever it may be, which province or different city, and happen to live there and say, Hey, I'm going to be there. Do you want to meet for coffee or see you there? Are you going? And, and it just, it's connections and relationships in all aspects, basically what you're saying. Absolutely, absolutely. Build your community online, right? We have that. And that's the, that's the uniqueness of social media, you know, in the past when you could only advertise in a newspaper or on a billboard, it was one way, it's a one way communication. Now you can do the two way communication and that's, I think sometimes we forget that when we're just constantly like, I just gotta post, I just gotta post. No, it's even more important to engage than it is to post. I'm going to say, it might not be a popular thing, but I think it is more important. Well, and I'm sure being this in your background, I mean, even though you were in, well, you're still in the beauty industry, but you're focusing on, on that marketing communication side of things that you've learned that it can change. And you have to be ready to change with it. And with that ever world of this immediate things happening, that's why I think it changes so quickly too, because our audiences are demanding different things or noticing different things. Exactly. And I think that's, you know, it brings it back to that authenticity piece where I think If you're building a community, if your followers are, you know, trusting you, they're building that relationship with you, that actually gives you a foundation of a little bit of stability when there is changes and fluctuations, because you've built it on trust and relationships versus surface things. So my, my fourth point kind of lends into this, which is collaborations and partnerships. And by this, I don't mean like, you know, influencer collaborations or anything that costs cause is going to cost you any money because. You touched on it. It could be just commenting on somebody's post that you like and then you cross promote each other. It could also be you go out to your local coffee shop, you take a picture while you're there, or a picture of the coffee and tag them. They now have noticed you, they're going to, you know, comment on it. They might return the favor, whatever it is. Now you've just expanded your audience, but you're also building your community. So you take your in-person community, so your local neighborhood. Other businesses that you could align yourself with and you move those relationships online by visiting the businesses, taking some pictures and tagging them. Absolutely. Love it. Yeah. And I think the, my last point is social media advertising. I don't know how people feel about this, but. I'll tell you that engagement on social media, organic engagement on social media on all platforms has drastically been going down, especially explain what that means organic. Yeah, so that means just from posting and engaging with just from the stuff that you're posting, whether it's. Posting yourselves reels, whatever it is, that posting and having that interaction with your client, with your audience, that's called like organic engagement that is down. And wow, on all platforms, the most is Facebook, like Facebook, it's like 0. 07 percent is your engagement rate, which is so low. So having, if you're new and you really kind of want to start building a little bit of recognition online. I do recommend that you look at social media advertising. It's not that intimidating. It can be as simple as, you know, promoting a post that you've already done. On Instagram, it just says boost post and you can click it. Instagram will, can build an audience for you or you can build it based on, you know, your, your location, your target for your age range for your customers. I would recommend that you play around with that. It can be as little as three dollars a day. So it's, it's really the cheapest form of marketing that has a high return. Even if it's just in reach, just to get your, your name and your, your business out there in front of a lot of people. With that, I think, I think we can add on is that I know some people who have done this. They just hit boost and like, well, I don't know what's happening, but you go back in and look at the analytics. Of it, and it will tell you if you don't understand what those analytics are, you can Google it, right? Because and that's part of the thing is if you are going to go that route, I really do recommend you've got to take that extra step and investigate. Okay, I've had this many people look at it, had this many people comment about it, so what worked and one, one way you do it has nothing, hardly any other one you're like, Oh my God, that one did well, and you don't even know why. Well, that's it, you got to think, well, what did I do differently. And I think it's really important that people analyze, you have to learn your most of the people today in the beauty industry, a lot are doing their own thing. Either renting a room or out of their homes or by themselves and you need to, it's a lot you've taken on and you have to look at it's not just about servicing people if you're trying to build a business. You have to take the time out and do it. I mean, I mean, that was one thing I did was I scheduled out. I mean, if you saw my old agenda, then it was like you wrote it all, I had to write it all down so I could just open and look. I mean, I even put my kids in it because I would forget like, Oh my God, I gotta go pick them up. Oh my God, people would laugh. It's like, I'm serious. I'm so focused. You know, I wear my hat, like, I still use that analogy, like, you know, you're maybe you're, you have a partner, maybe you have kids, your business, you have maybe I don't know, loved ones you're taking care of, whatever it may be, and okay, put your hat on. And when you enter that hat life that you're in right then and there, you have to focus on that and then remove it, throw it away, put it to the side, don't throw it away, put your new hat on. Right. And that, that for me is what kept me. In that structured of planning, so, and if I planned out Monday mornings with the morning that I spent two hours planning my marketing and strategy whatever that looked like, I, that's what I did, and there was no bending that, unless emergency, of course, things happen, but you have to stick to that, and one thing, like I said, over the years was like, people would always, oh, just boost it, boost your ad, and I'd be like, It can't just be that though. There's got to be something more to this right now you become a marketing person on top of your waxing career. I love what you said about booking the time. This cannot be like you have to take it seriously, like this is marketing your business right so carving out that time, if it's weekly, of course, I think, even not just your advertised. Content, every post that you make at the end of the week or at the end of the month, you can go into each platform and you can see the analytics, see what did well, see what didn't do well, don't do the things that didn't do well, you know, do less of those, do more of the things that did well, that's how you, you kind of keep up because Right have a plan, but you have to be agile. You have to change because it's a moving fast moving world that we especially the social media world. You can't just be set in one way. Another question for you. There's time when I went to book pre book when repost was going to go live and it had the recommendation times and sometimes I would look at that and go tomorrow at 11 p. m. Really? So are you saying to, I know it sounds crazy to me, but trust them, trust them because this is their, their what's the word? Algorithms, their, this is what they do well and this is what made them so big is because they know what's looking. So don't look at that if you're, if you're going to go that route. You know, believe, be a believer. I think so. And I think, I mean, if you're using the Meta Business Suite, it has recommended posting times based on your audience activity. A lot of third party scheduling apps will have that too. They will let you know when your audience is most active online. They know. And I would, I definitely always go by the recommendation of the active times, but think about it. A lot of people, I've been guilty of being on my phone on social media at 11 o'clock at night because everything else is done in my day and now I got time to scroll. So I do, I would trust it, but I would also analyze it, go back and see if it works. So, and on that note, because it's so important to schedule ahead, a lot of times it's like, it's happened to me where I want to post something, get it out there right away. And when I look at those, they're saying to wait a few days. At 6 PM, but yeah, but I need this out now. So that's another reason why you'd want to look ahead. So you're planning out getting the right time, the right audience. That's why the last minute stuff doesn't work, and I can say that, yes. Absolutely, but you know what? And the stuff happens. So if you have to do it and you want it out now, that's fine. Repost it again. So you can recycle your content, you don't have to, you know, reinvent the wheel every single time. Share it as a story, you know, just change the way that you deliver that information to, to, to your audience. So much information. It's a lot. And I think the biggest thing is that it's also trial and error. So you need to figure out what's going to work for you and your audience and real, there's these things I mentioned, these are best practices. Everybody follows them in terms of like best practice. You have to adapt it to you and your audience and you see what's working for you and what isn't and you adjust accordingly. Hopefully that helps. It's not a straight answer. Oh, yeah. And no, it's being realistic of what this is. If, if there was an exact, then. Everybody would have that perfect life of marketing and advertising, right? It's not, it's not like that. Exactly. And it's never been. I mean, the world of marketing has never been an exact science. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's it. I only have those five points. But, you know, I encourage If, you know, have they tried something that has worked for them or something that hasn't worked or if they found benefit from any of this, we'd love to hear it. Yes, absolutely. And that's the whole point of of us doing what we're doing is we're trying to give out resources to people because we know things are costly. And, and if you do have a budget that you can work towards to hire someone. Like your self dream, right? Then that comes with time, and maybe you can plan ahead. If you really don't have the time, it's not working for you, then look at how you can put a little bit aside so that maybe you can get a professional person to help you with it, right? But I mean, these forms of what we're doing yeah, this is, this is great. I love this. And I know you've just touched on it. I know there's way more. Oh, gosh. Really, there is. But I think that's part of it. Like, all the information... is available to you online, but it's overwhelming. There is so much information that sometimes if you go to look, it can be a little bit overwhelming. So even if you just pick one thing and say, this is the one thing I'm going to do, even if it's just like, I'm just going to focus on being consistent, then just focus on do what you can. And I say consistency because really You know, start, start there and engage with your audience and then you can build it out and you show yourself some, you know, compassion and grace because it is time consuming. It's somebody's full time job. So do it within your capacity. Yeah, I think too like you touched on that that's someone's full time job out there So if you're a one person entrepreneur and and you're trying to do this and you see others I know some people who are just themselves Doing the work as an esthetician or lash tech or male tech, whatever it is, and there's social media. It's out Standing. You need to talk to them. They spend a lot of time and they plan out. And if they have a cancellation, a last minute thing, they will focus and say, Oh, I've got an hour. I'm going to do this now. And they, they just, they're on task. They don't just sit around. So what am I going to do now? Well, just go my phone, you know, and just, you know, their business. They're, they're thinking, what can I do right now? I got myself a window of opportunity. And I think that's a big part of when you're starting to compare or look at what others are doing. You don't know the, the back behind the scene and when they're doing it. I know one that, I mean, she was busy all day long. So, and then she'd come home, make supper, put the kids to bed, and then she would carve out. At 3am, she would get up because she wanted to work out and do her social and then be ready for her kids. And I was like. Wow, that's amazing. That's dedication. I can't believe it, right? Absolutely. I really love what you just said about reach out to them. I've been, I don't know if you and I were talking about this, but I've been harping on this a little bit about how there's enough to go around for everybody that instead of competing, we need to be collaborating. So if you're a female tech who's doing an amazing job online, don't look at her or him as a, as a Competition. Like competition. Correct. Right. Reach out. A lot of people are more than willing to share. Maybe they're, they're busy and they might not be able to get back to you right away, but you never know unless you try and just say, I love your social I'm struggling, I need tips. You can, whatever it is you, again, from a place of authenticity, but that's how you build relationships and that's how you learn what's working for other people. Cause it could be very unique to your, to your profession, like if it's nails or lashes. And you would need to offer something to them, for sure. So you build that relationship and you build that trust. You know, maybe it's your nail tech, but you see a lash tech doing an amazing, I don't know, I know one that she gave her service for free to work with someone as her mentor. Just in the industry. Yeah, in the industry. So she got better at her technique of what she was doing. It was actually for lashes, but this lady also did facial. So she said, Hey, I'll do your facial. If you help me with my technique. Oh, right. That reminds me, like in person, my friend was a hair. Well, she is a hairstylist, but we used to trade services. She'd do my hair, I'd do a pedicure or something for her. So this would translate to an online relationship too. Yeah, exactly. As long as you live close by. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, exactly. I'd love to hear if someone like we'd love to know if you haven't done this before and you're trying it, let us know how you're doing. You know, we want to keep giving out information in that and we'll pass it along. Or maybe you're a veteran at this and there was something you, you switched up and what worked for you that way, what didn't work for you. I mean, this, this is how we, like you said, as much as we're competitive, right? And we all have our own businesses and that, but at the same time, it's. A professional environment, and you have to build those reputations. I mean, I still have relationships with people that own spas in my town, and We became friends throughout the time and we just kept it professional. We would, you know, make sure our ethics were in line and what we would do. And, and I think that's a huge part when I tell people after the fact. I mean, this was years ago when I owned my day spa that, you know, I would work with other people in the industry and they'd be like, really you guys were like direct to even the product line we carried. And I said, yeah, that's actually, it took, it took a while. for people to trust in that, but then it comes around and you have life, lifetime,, friendships, then you can complain and, about things going on in your business, but, you know, have each other there. Right. . And it was a huge part of my day to day. So, yeah, absolutely. And having the social media side, you just have a bigger audience now, a bigger team, a bigger team out there to, to, you know, put your head on their shoulder. Exactly. Yeah. It can be all over the world. Yeah, exactly. Well, awesome. Okay. Well, thanks, Darine. Thanks for sharing all that. I love that. Yeah, and please reach out if you guys have any questions or comments. Yeah, thank you so much for listening.