My inbox & emails have been flooded over the past few days from salon professionals all asking the same questions… like is this the end of Facebook business pages being seen in the newsfeed? Many of you have heard or read the announcement that Mark Zuckerberg, is making changes to Facebook in 2018. Facebook was created for personal connections, for relevant content and meaningful social interactions. Many businesses are worried as it is already hard to keep the engagement and reach up of the page with the everchanging algorithms.
Facebook has 2.07 billion active monthly users and has shown you what is important to you and this is measured by engagement (reactions, comments and/or shares). This simply means what you react to, comment on and share is what you see in your newsfeed. Which is why it is critical to post regularly as social media is 24 x 7 x 365. It is critical if you want your business posts to be organically seen you will have to provide meaningful content that adds value to your guest.
What will be seen in the newsfeed organically is what gets the most engagement. Post content that people not only react to but comment on and share. Content that stops the scroll, that people want to pay attention to and read or listen to. Be sure and comment back. Provide engaging, educational and entertaining content. Create videos that add value to your guests, it is key to engagement, especially Facebook Live, it averages 6 times more engagement than regular videos.
Some of us have forgotten that social media is all about being social, thus the name social media. It is about having conversations with each other and creating meaningful relationships. Our Facebook audience is no different than the guests that visit our salons. We have conversations live with people and need to think of social media as the same thing and post things that people want to talk about.
Here is a hot tip for you, ask your guests to Like your Facebook Page and click the “See First” option. This simply means that your posts will appear at the top of the news feed. They can select as many as 30 to see first so they do not miss anything that is important to them. To do this have them go to your page and make sure they LIKE it and then Follow. Next hover over the follow button and select “See First”. Another hot tip is that there is the boost option you can use. Many small businesses have stayed away from boosts and even ads and now is the time we will see more businesses step up and spend money for their posts to be seen.
Is having a business page and posting on Facebook, boosting or running ads worth the time, energy and resources? Absolutely! With 2.07 BILLION monthly active users – where else can you and your company be in front of so many people at one time? Instagram (owned by Facebook) has 800 Million, LinkedIn 500 million, Twitter 330 million and Pinterest 175 million monthly active users. Facebook is about personal connections.
No industry is better at that than the professional salon industry. Take time to show gratitude when people react, comment and share your posts. Comment back, message them and invite them to visit you for consultations, share your referral program with them and simply invite them in. You may not be able to see them thru your mobile device or them see you, yet your online conversation is their only impression of you and will it be a memorable one that brings them into the salon to visit you? The formula is simple really: Post relevant value-added Content, Curated in a way to Stop the scroll and Connect with your audience to create meaningful relationships!
If you found this information helpful, please let me know in the comments below and tell me how else I can be of assistance to you and your salon teams. If you have more questions, I will be happy to answer them. Now it’s time for us all to begin #gettingsocial