Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Social Media Strategies For Hair Salon & Spa

Posted by Anonymous on12/8/2008 at 11:28 AM ET 250 Points
I am consulting for a large, successful, privately owned hair salon and spa in a suburb of Dayton. The owner is interested in utilizing Twitter, digg, blogging, YouTube, social apps, news column, etc., to help publicize the salon and events going on there, and otherwise engage his clients and the public. This is to raise the salon's profile and keep it top-of-mind.

What do you recommend for strategies, structuring, implementation, topics/content, and engagement?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted byHarry Hallmanon12/9/2008 at 8:56 AM Accepted
    You missed two big ones, FaceBook and MySpace. We have several boutique clients and these tools work well. You might be interested in some white papers we written on social network marketing.

    www.octanecorp.com/whitepapers
  • Posted on12/9/2008 at 9:18 AM Author
    Thank you, Harry. Your site(s) are full of very useful information! I immediately found three whitepapers that will help me educate myself and the salon owner.
  • Posted on12/13/2008 at 2:00 PM Accepted
    Leslie, the first question I have is; how does your client know that they need to be using any of those sites and tools? The salon should only be active on Twitter if they know that their current and/or potential customers are there. If not, then it's a waste of their time to be there. The same goes for MySpace, Facebook, and blogs.

    It sounds like your client has the mindset that 'we need to get us some of that social media stuff'. Social media should only be used if a business can commit to engaging their customers via the tools, if their current/potential customers are using the tools already, and if it makes sense give their current business structure and strategy.

    I can almost guarantee that if you today launch a blog, Twitter presence, MySpace and Facebook pages, open a Digg account, and start using YouTube, that NONE of these efforts will be that successful. Simply because you will be spreading yourself too thin by trying to maintain too many pages/profiles. For example, I am a social media consultant, and I almost never use Digg or MySpace or YouTube. But I am constantly engaging current and potential customers via blogs, Twitter, and message boards/forums such as this one. Simply because I have discovered that some tools work well for me in connecting with my target audience, while others do not.

    I think your client and you need to do some research into how your current and potential customers are communicating with each other online, and go from there. If the client has customers already on Twitter, fine, you should be there connecting with them. But you won't know that until you start doing some research and find out where they are NOW. Throwing all the social media sites against a wall just to see what will stick is NOT a viable strategy.

    Mack
  • Posted on12/14/2008 at 3:25 PM Author
    Hello Mack,

    Thank you for the information, and YES you're right - he does need tho know if his customers use these tools, which ones are used, and how, etc., prior to implementation. Those are some of the questions I am trying to help him answer, and unfortunately I do not have that expertise. I would appreciate any clues you'd be willing to share about accomplishing that.
  • Posted on12/16/2008 at 10:08 AM Member
    Leslie there are several free sites that you can use to search social sites to see what is out there, such as Google Blog Search, Twitter Search (www.summize.com) and Technorati. Also, you can go on socnets such as MySpace and Facebook, and search there. I'd search for relevant terms, it could be the salon's name, or specific terms related to your business.

    I would first attempt to decide if anyone is currently talking about the salon itself. Next, I would try to see if anyone is currently talking about the type of services that the salon provides. My guess is maybe not so much on the former, but definitely on the latter.

    Good luck!
  • Posted on12/16/2008 at 11:06 AM Author
    Thanks for the follow-up, Mack! I appreciate you taking the time, and I'll take your advice.

    Sincerely,

    Leslie
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