by Andrew Finkelstein | Jun 5, 2013 | Facebook, Internet Marketing, Leadership, Management, Social Networking, Uncategorized
How could a successful salon/spa owner jeopardize her business’s future – with just one slip of the lip? Easier than you think – especially in today’s world where social media rules the day.
Being a salon owner (or an owner of any small business) tests our patience (and customer service skills) – even on the best of days. But it’s particularly stressful when a client’s kid is crying right in the middle of your salon – and it’s a busy Saturday (of a holiday weekend). In the service business there simply is never a good time to lose your cool – Because if you lose it, the heat could be turned on so high you could lose your business.
So how is this possible?
With Facebook and other social media outlets putting power in the hands of your clients – they can make you or break you.
That’s what happened to M Spa Salon & Day Spa when on Saturday May 25th owner Michelle Mott slipped up click here for the full story.
What occurred next could only be described as a salon stoning – on Facebook.
And here’s where Michelle – probably scared out of her wits when she saw the speed at
which this Facebook Fan Fury became a virtual Tsunami – she ran for cover and took down the Salon’s Facebook Page, failed to offer a response for more than two days after the original post, used her lawyer as a spokesperson, and had the lawyer defend her actions – rather than offering an apology (which finally came on Thursday).
So as a salon owner stay as cool as you possibly can – and if your salon is caught somehow in a social media tsunami – try to stay cool, calm and composed as best you can– and respond quickly and positively.
And for heaven’s sake don’t get your attorney involved on the web.
by Andrew Finkelstein | Apr 1, 2012 | Facebook, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Social Networking
Whether you like it or not this past Friday, March 30th Facebook converted your Salon Facebook Fan Page to its new Timeline Design.
So if you’re someone who is using or wants to use Facebook to market your salon make sure to visit your page, you’ll have to make some adjustments to get your page to look as you want it to look – within Facebook’s guidelines of course.
NOTE: the content on this post is from article written by Facebook Guru Mari Smith one of my mentors with whom I’ve been training so I can bring you the best information and advice on how to maximize Facebook for your salon (to read Mari’s article go tohttp://www.marismith.com/facebook-timeline-for-business-pages-key-points/). I highly recommend you subscribe to Mari’s excellent information by joining her list.
This article covers the 21 key points or the majority of the new settings you’ll need to know about timeline for pages.
It can be used as a handy conversion checklist – whether you’ve already converted your Page or not.
These 21 key points are:
1. Deadline March 30th
Facebook will automatically convert your page unless you convert it first. So make sure you’re looking like you want to look for your Fans and convert it now.
2. Preview
Before you publish your new page preview it by using the preview option on the top of your old page. At a minimum have an attractive look cover page (see Facebook for details on cover page dimensions).
3. Cover Image
At 851x 315 pixels it’s much larger than the graphic on your old page. But please pay attention to the fine print because if you upload an image that’s smaller (minimum size 399 pixels) than the official size it’ll be stretched to the larger dimension.
4. Image Rules the Day
Facebook’s put the kibosh on your putting the following on your cover:
- Contact information (put it in your about section)
- Calls to Action (CTA’s)
- Arrows pointing to your Like or Share Button
So make sure you check the Page Guidelines
5. Profile Picture
The photo you upload must be at least 180×180 pixels. Remember your profile picture is the primary instantly recognizable image that tracks you throughout Facebook (on your posts and comments).
BTW Facebook frowns on page owners changing their profile picture too often.
6. Landing Tab
On your new Timeline Page you can no longer set a default-landing tab. So make good use of your cover image.
7. App URL’s
Your custom apps all still function. This includes the Fan-Gate feature if you have one. Each tab/app still has a unique URL, so you can still direct traffic from inside or outside Facebook to any “landing page” you’d like.
8. Showcase apps
Showcase apps are right below your cover image and you probably know them as “tabs”. They are now displayed as apps or views and you can have up to 12 – but only four on display. The first Showcase app is always photos and it cannot be replaced or removed.
9. Custom thumbnails.
Now you can add custom thumb nails (111×74 pixels) to all your apps. It’s an opportunity for you to have seamless branding messages, CTA’s and specials.
10. Liked Button and Interest List (s)
The Liked button visually let’s fans know that they’ve already liked a page. When you hover over the Liked button an Interest List(s) appears – this is a new feature for your Fans (see #11)
11. Interest Lists
Encourage your Fans to add you to their interest lists – and let them know what topic is best – for example my Page would be best added to a list called Salon Marketing Tips, Salon Management Tips or Salon Leadership Tips. Yours could be Hair Help or Skin Tips etc.
12. Milestones
You can go back in time and add salon/spa milestones
on your Timeline. When you do this they’ll post at the right date and go out in the news feeds of your fans…creating more visibility and engagement for your salon.
13. Wall filters
Your page walls now have four filters
- Highlights
- Posts by Page
- Posts by Others
- Friend Activity
You cannot set the wall to be posts by everyone – the default is always Highlights – but go to your administrative panel in your page settings to manage permissions as to who can post on the wall.
14. Pin Posts
You can pin any post made on the page to the top of the wall for up to 7 days. But I recommend rotating the posts every 1-2 days as hopefully you’re getting repeat visitors.
15. Highlight Posts
Your page administrators can choose to display any post made by the Page or by others as “double wide” – it’ll spread across both columns of the Timeline.
16. Posts by Others
Posts by others (both fans and non-fans) are in a small box at the top right called Recent Posts by Others.
You can scroll in this field without leaving your wall.
- Click “More Posts” (lower left of box and use your vertical scroll bar or mouse scroll wheel
or
- Click “See All” for the Pop-up Box.
17. Highlights
Sorry but you can’t set a default wall view- it’s always Highlights. So be creative and change your cover image regularly.
18. Personalization
Page Timelines are personalized for each person viewing – every page wall includes “friend activity” at the top right where the person viewing will see one post from the past from a friend (or a Facebook user to whom the viewer has subscribed). For further details on this point I recommend you check out Mari’s article www.marismith.com/facebook-timeline-for-business-pages-key-points/.
19. Adjust Photos
This new feature allows you to reposition photos shared by you or others on your page (hover over the photo, click the edit pencil, then click “Reposition photo”
20. Messages
Fans and non-fans alike can now private Message fan administrators. You can turn it off but I’d encourage you to leave it on, as you’ll want your Fans to engage with you.
21. Administrative Panel
You have to dig deeper in your administrative panel to find features that before may have been just one click away. For example to view your “Hidden Posts” (posts Facebook flags as spam and are visible only to the Page admins, and person/page who made the post and friends of that person/page) you previously only had to click on the Hidden Posts Link under your Wall on the Left. Now it’s five clicks away! Admin Panel > Mange>Use Activity Log>All (upper right menu) > Spam.
Ok so there you have it- 21 points to be aware of on your new Facebook Page.
For a more in-depth look at your Facebook Timeline Page go to www.marismith.com/facebook-timeline-for-business-pages-key-points/) and check out the complete tutorial.
Facebook Pages for Salons…Fuhgeddaboutit!
by Andrew Finkelstein | Sep 5, 2011 | Employees, Facebook, Internet Marketing, Management, Marketing, Salon Business, Social Networking
Building your Salon’s Facebook fan base is a challenge for busy salon owners – who usually have too much to do with too little time to do it.
One solution for getting more fans is to harness the energy and talents of your employees.
Before you get going make sure your team members know the “rules of the road” for Facebook and they understand and comply with the FTC Guidelines for Adequate Disclosure (see http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaGo?v=app_4949752878http)– if an employee posts on your Page or on any of your other social media channels they need to disclose their material relationship with your salon.
Also, provide written guidelines for posting on Facebook and using other types of social media – you owe it to yourself, your salon and your team to be clear about the do’s, don’ts and how-to’s.
Here are 10 tips on how to get more Fans to your page by involving your team members.
- Send
Team member Emails
– send an introductory email letting them know all about your Salon’s FB Page. Encourage them to become Fans but don’t make it a “command performance” -Note: to get a higher
level of participation send your team an email sequence.
- Hold Contests – create contests just for your team – for example Free Pizza (or another
fun reward) for the team if the salon hits a “Like” target within the first month.
- Share Page with Friends – Encourage your team to share the page with their friends and family on Facebook. The share this page is at the bottom under the left hand side of the Page. Write out specific instructions on how to do share because not every team member is as tech-savvy as we would imagine they are.
- Solicit Content Ideas – The more content you have on your Salon’s FB Page the better – and your team have plenty of ideas on what they’d like to see up on the salon’s page. So solicit ideas and by holding a “Content Drive”. Set up a specific email where employees can recommend content. Encourage them to send videos, photos and ideas.
- Create Employee Videos – Shoot a weekly or monthly video of an employee giving a testimonial as to why your salon’s a great place to work.
- Harness Linkedin/Twitter – have your team members let their friends know about the salon’s page by communicating through Linkedin and Twitter.
- Add Facebook “Like” Boxes – Add a Facebook “Like” box to the salon website and blog.
- Email Signatures – Get your team to add a link to the Salon Page in their email signatures. Keep it as simple as “Like me on Facebook! http://facebook.com/yourcompany”
- Encourage Team Member Interaction – Make sure your team knows how important it is for them to interact on the Salon Page. Let them know that commenting and liking posts on the Salon Page will increase the chances of those posts being featured in your fans’ news feeds.
- Conduct Social Media Training – Have a social media expert come to the salon and hold a training course for interest in learning how to use social media for personal and professional purposes.
Remember having a Salon Page with a variety of employee posts and videos makes it more attractive and authentic to others and gives it more “pulling power”.
by Andrew Finkelstein | Aug 23, 2011 | Facebook, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Social Networking, Twitter, Website
Facebook is here to stay as a business tool for salons/spas. But this social media site only works when you’ve got Fans – and you get them by using a seven step systematic acquisition strategy.
The Big Myth
Sure you can get your nephew to put up your Profile Page. But it takes more than a kid to build our Pages to help us increase our fan base (the number of people who “like” us).
The big myth is that once you create your Salon/Spa’s Page the first thing you should do is invite all your friends from your personal profile.
Be careful – although FB’s guidelines (http://www.facebook/promotions.guidelines.php) say that you can import your data base, mass invites can be tricky because users can “like” up to 500 pages and they may want to be picky about it. Check out your own experience to see how many Fan Page Suggestions you have … they build up like a stealth bomber …
So don’t bomb your friends with suggestions to join your fan page – “just because” – without an apparent incentive.
What follows is a way to fill your Page with a big crowd – the kind of crowd who’ll also pack your salon/spa’s chairs and rooms.
The 7 Steps to Building Your Facebook Salon/Spa Fanbase
Step 1 – Make your plan – do this first thing! Don’t even think about moving to the next step before you finish your plan.
Think about it this way – if you were giving a party you wouldn’t invite people to show up at your door only to find you had no drinks, food or entertainment.
With Facebook your drinks, food and entertainment are called content.
- Photos and videos from your salon/spa
- Events you hold either in your salon/spa or with other companies/charities
- “Exclusive” offers for your Facebook fans only – they can be salon/spa offers or offers you arrange for with 3rd parties.
Step 2 – Create Compelling Content to Lure Fans
- Have photos/videos from the salon/spa
- Events (live or virtual) where you encourage people to invite their friends
- Make your content exclusive – they can only get it on Facebook.
Step 3 – Promote Your Page Directly
- Suggest it to your personal friends
- Ask your staff to promote it to their friends
Step 4 – Put it on your salon/spas marketing materials
- Business cards & other printed materials
- Website – header, navigation bar, contact page
- Your personal email signature
Step 5 – Run Contests
- Alternate promotions with coupons
- Create other content to get them to stay
Step 6 – Use Guerilla Marketing Tactics
- SEO your page for listings in Google
- Swap promotions with other local businesses
- Comment on other relevant profiles and include a link
Step 7 – Integrate Your Page
- Link to other social media including Twitter
- Use Facebook Social Plugin
by Andrew Finkelstein | Aug 17, 2011 | Facebook, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Social Networking
If you think that
Back-to School is a one-time deal – think again. Create a Facebook Contest to not only build business in the fall but grow your Facebook Fans as well as your e-mail list so you can generate more business throughout the year.
So how do you hold a contest on Facebook?
- Make sure you work within the Facebook Promotions Guidelines – after-all you wouldn’t want to put your Page at risk, just because you didn’t know the rules of the game – which, by the way, change all the time.
For the Guidelines go to http://www.facebook.com/promotions/guidelines.php
- Create three Contest Pages–
Page #1: announces the contest and pops up as soon as a visitor lands on your Salon’s Page. Non-fans must click the “like” button before they can enter the contest. Fans would bypass this page and automatically come to Page number two.
Page #2 – is the “Sign-up Page” where the Fan enters the contest by submitting their name and email address.
Once they do that they are taken to.
Page #3 – a “Thank You Page” where they are encouraged to share the contest with their friends using Facebook and Twitter buttons.
- Promote the contest-
-Market on your social network sites (Facebook and Twitter) with status updates (Facebook) and tweets. Use a backlink to the contest page (Fans go to page #2 and non-fans to Page #1 by default.
-Create a video promoting the contest and upload it on YouTube and Facebook – again include a back-link to Page #2.
-Allow the contestants to share the contest on their own sites and have a share button on Page #3 (Thank You Page).
-Advertise on Facebook
-Create a Facebook Event Page through your Salon Page to invite people to join the contest.
-Promote it in your in-salon marketing materials and your email.
- Pick a winner.
-You’ll want to be fair so use software like “Random Line Picker”
- Announce the winner-
-Send out an email to the list of students who entered the contest.
-Record a video announcing the winner and host it on YouTube.
-Send a Facebook email announcing the winner.
So there you have a step-by-step system of running a contest that not only will promote your Back-to-School business, but will build your Salon’s Facebook Page “likes” as well as your email list.
by Andrew Finkelstein | Jun 8, 2011 | Facebook, Internet Marketing, Salon Business, Social Networking
Just seven years ago when Marcie dumped her boyfriend Mark, Mark didn’t sit around sulking. He created a way to vet and get girls fast – he created Facebook, a fortune
for himself and others and an incredible marketing tool for salons – and other businesses as well of course.
Today with over 650 million people on Facebook it’s no wonder salon owners are looking to harness its marketing power to create better and stronger business relationships with both clients and prospects.
Building these relationships and acquiring new fans on Facebook is simple – deceptively simple.
That’s why I’m running a special “Facebook for Salons Only” FREE Webinar where salon owners will learn some of the in’s and out’s to creating a “cutting edge” Facebook Page that can help them get and keep clients – and turning your salon’s social network into salon social commerce.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
“Facebook for Salons”- FREE Webinar
Monday June 20th, 2011- 4:00pm EST/1:00pm PST
