Hi, my name is Ann-Marie Christell.
I'm a coach for hairstylist that wants to grow their business behind the chair without feeling overwhelmed or working longer hours behind care. I have over 20 years of experience working behind the chair, earning over six figures if you wish to make more money without working longer hours bearing the chair, and bringing spiritual and sustainable principles into your business and life when you are in the right place. In this podcast, I will mix business strategies, marketing tips, personal development, spiritual practices, and sustainable ways of living and working. Welcome to the sustainable hairstylist podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm super excited to be here today. And if you are watching the video recording of this, I just wanted to point out one thing. And that is what I love about this space is the water reflection in the ceiling here. It's truly amazing. Today's episode is all about five main mistakes that I see hair stylists are making on Instagram at this very moment. So this week, I am creating content for my membership, the serene flow membership that is a space for hairstylist that wants to make it easy to attract the right type of clients into their chair and want to have step by step processes to follow so that you can do this release. So I have looked on many, many, many different Instagram accounts that are both from hair salons and single hair stylists that are maybe having their own suite or are just promoting themselves renting a chair and so on, I have seen five general mistakes that I see hair cells are doing. So this is why I created this episode because I want it to be easy for you to be found on Instagram. And these five mistakes, and I will actually tell you how to think what to do so that you're not making them. So I hope that you are as excited about this content as I am. And I want you to take out pen and paper if you do not have a way of taking notes, you need to be able to do that. Because I want you to if you notice that you yourself are doing one of these mistakes, make notes about that and make changes so that you are not doing this yourself and how you can change them. And I want you to remind you of one thing. And as a hairstylist, your main job
on Instagram
is to use this platform as a marketing tool. It's a place for you to attract potential clients, feel the connection with them and build a want and a need for the products that you're selling in the salon. And for the services that you are offering. And
you're your biggest biggest thing
that you should do
on Instagram is build connections. Because Instagram is a social platform. It wants you to chat with people it wants you to engage and interact with people. And if you and I will say this over and over again. And I cannot say this enough. If you have a follower that actually have a feeling that they already know you, they already like you. And once they come to your salon, they actually already trust you. So it will be so so much easier for you to make them happy in your chair. Then if you just have a client that happens to work by the salon and I know that you want those long lasting lines that will come back for more and more and more and want to buy the products that you're talking about on social media.
So
I want you to shift the way that you see Instagram and it is important that When you are going into the platform, it is important that you put your marketing hat on Instagram is should not be for entertainment. If you are a hairstylist, I want to promote your business. It's not up place to build fame, it's not a place for you to build yourself up with all the likes, and all the tension that you can actually create if you have a popular account. Just because you have a large following does not mean that you are better than anyone else. And something that I tell like all my clients is, if you would have a million followers on any type of platform, what do you want people to know about you, and what is off limits. But I can talk about this for hours. And I'm going to go into the five biggest mistakes that I see hair stylists are doing on Instagram at this very moment. And the first thing that I am going to talk about today is the first biggest mistake that I see hair stylists do is not posting consistently on Instagram, you might feel that I don't know what to post, I don't know how or it's overwhelming and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The thing is, if you are posting content on a regular basis, and that means posting content, on your feed, and on your stories each and every day,
then
Instagram is favoring you.
If you are posting every day, then Instagram is pushing your content out to more people. It is showing your content to more people. And posting consistently will also send the message to people that are following you, or checking your account. It's like oh, she's posting every day, and she's been doing this or he for a very long time. This hairstylist must be in demand, this must be a hairstylist that is really good at what they do. And posting consistent with consistent high quality work also shows the quality of the work that you can actually create for your clients. And that also builds trust. And if you are interested in actually learning a bit about Instagram, a little bit deeper, when you are posting something on the Instagram today, it is both showing up in the feed for the people that are following you. And then it's also showing up on the Explore page. And it's also showing up in searches and so on. And if you want to check this out with the your Instagram account already today, if you go under the professional dashboard, and you go under insights, you can actually see the reach that you have. And you can see the reach on every single content that you have been posting, you can go back very very far. And you can actually see the reach that the posts that you have been creating, have gotten and I will remind you, the more consistent you are, the broader the reach, Instagram will give you. So if you're posting every day, or you're posting two times a day, your reach will grow exponentially. And the more that you're doing this, the more likely it is that your dream clients are going to find you on Instagram. the more likely it is that you're getting more clients because your work is shown to more people. So remember, you are being favored by posting consistently. And if you feel overwhelmed by me saying that you have to post regularly. You can schedule this out in Instagram. So, for instance, if this is something that overwhelms you, you can create all of your content in one day for the next week, schedule it out in the regular app, have it go out, go in once a day to respond to any messages, comments, and interact with people. And then you can let it go. Having a plan to follow, makes it easy to show up. And if you have no idea what it is that you want to post, I have actually created a 90 day plan for hair stylists to show up every single day on social media, so this guide you can use on any type of platform. And I will put the link in the show notes, it's a low ticket offer, it's only $27. So if you feel that you want to learn what to post, check that out. And we have planned everything out for you, you just have to use the guide, use your images, fill in the captions of the texts and use that. So now I'm going to the second mistake that I see hairstylist are doing on Instagram. And most people forget that Instagram is actually a search engine, you can search for things. And there are many different search functions. And your potential clients, your potential new followers, if they are looking for hairstylist, they can maybe use the search function search for hairstylist or if you have a speciality. Maybe you're working with hair extensions. Why when someone is writing in hair extensions and the town that you are in,
you want to come up in those searches.
And in your profile, you have two places where you actually can put your name in. So maybe you put your business name in one of them. And then in the second one you write in, say that you are a hair extension specialist. So you writing then hair extension specialist in and then the town that you are in. What type of speciality you should write there depends on what it is your dream client is using to search for you do not get fancy. Do not use words that no one understands. Use the language of your dream client, use the language of the person that is actually searching for you. And this is marketing one on one. We have to meet our clients where they're at. When we meet them using the same language as them, they actually think that we already understand them. And they feel that wow, this content is made for me because we are using the same type of language that they are using. So don't make up fancy new words. Use the things that people are searching for to find you. And if and even if that is hairstylist and then city. If you're speaking another language, you should always use your the language of the person that are searching for you as well. So let's say I am situated in Sweden, then I should use the Swedish language and you're doing the same thing. More likely people will find you in this way. And Instagram has become really, really good at starting to pop up on Google as well. So let's say that you are a hairstylist in Denver, and you use that in one of your names. hairstylist in Denver, so when someone is googling your social media account will maybe start to pop off if enough people are clicking and this is also an I'm searching engine optimization. And that is the thing. I want it to be easy. You have a few seconds when someone is actually just skimming your Instagram profile, they want to number one, understand what services that you are offering, and where you're at. I think I've seen over 100 Instagram accounts for hairstylist and hair salons. And there is no clear understanding of where in the world they are situated. Use the name button. If you're using any type of professional account, you also can put a geotag in the account easy to people to find your salon as well. And it has to be clear. If you it's not clear where you're situated, then you may lose a lot of potential clients. And remember, Instagram is a global thing. And I think most people that are looking to get their hair done, or looking for hair stylists that is in their town. So don't try to hide where you're at. If you're trying to build a business that's really going to work in the long run. The third
mistake
that I see, a lot of hair stylists are doing is they're creating posts, with
hair content.
So it's posts of the hair, maybe it is an image of some product that has come from any big brands. So they're using the branding from the brand products, etc. If you're just posting work of your hair, and some description of a product that is provided from the sellers, you are missing out on connecting with so many potential followers. A follower is both interested in the type of work that you are doing as a hairstylist, and they also want to get a feeling of who you are. So you should mix the work of the hairs that you're doing. And if you're doing something else, you should bring in some information about how to use style some hair how to do like what products are well to do for this and that. And a tip is to see what are the questions that your clients are asking you in the salon that actually is connected to selling any of your products, or is connected to selling any of your services, start to talk about these problems that your clients might have, and show them how you can fix this. And the solution should be one of your products or one of your services. Without being salesy. It should be more educational. The more you can show your face on camera, the more you can show that you actually know what it is that you're talking about. And the more you can actually also talk a little bit about who you are, what is it that really lights you up? What is it about hair that makes your heart first, et cetera, et cetera, the more you get people to have a chance to connect with you, the better because then it will be so much easier for you to actually make them happy once they feel ready to come and sit in a chair. And another thing I want to mention is if you are posting a lot of photos of your hair work. Remember you always want to have a before photo and an after photo. Because if you show what the hair was before and what the hair looked like after you were actually telling your followers or the clients that you already have because you will also inspire the clients are really coming to you to see okay, this was the before photo and they can see some subtle molarities with what their hair is like. Then they can see See what is possible with their hair. And that actually also creates inspiration, it makes them feel like yeah, I really want to do this, maybe they will come earlier to get their hair done, etc, etc. So when you're posting hair work, always remember to have
a before and then after key here is
that the first
photo that is going up to the feed should be there after the after photo. So the beautiful hair, and then people can swipe and see the after. And if you're doing a video, you should do the same. And you should also pull some content from your salon, when you're actually doing hair when you're walking around talking about different things, and so on. So people can actually feel what it feels like to be in your salon. And they can actually feel what it would be to come into your space. And that also creates safety. And that also makes them look forward to actually come to you. The fourth step, or 4/4 mistake that I see hair stylists do is to actually only post photos on Instagram. Nowadays, Instagram is favoring video, and it's favoring reels.
Which means that
if you're only posting
photos, you're missing out on having your content being pushed out into more potential customers. So Instagram is favoring video, and most social media platforms are building on this. And they really are favoring this kind of work. And if you are the person that feels that video is overwhelming, I want you to not make it as complicated. As you might think. If you're used to taking photos in a certain angle, all you have to do is slowly move your camera in a diagonal, and in capturing the hair in a great spot. And then you have a video. It doesn't have to be that complicated. But if you do not learn how to use video, if you don't learn how to actually speak on camera, you are missing out on so much because the whole digital marketing industry is moving towards that we're moving towards video. And people want to have more of that. So that is something that everything is pointing towards. If you want to learn more about video, one thing that I will host this fall, I will host a video class for hairstylist in Stockholm, Sweden. And if you want me to come to your salon and teach this is well, I'm opening to traveling all over the world. Please let me know send me an email or send me a DM on Instagram. And let me know if you want me to come and teach a class in your salon and host me there. So that you can actually learn how to do this with ease. It's not that hard if I can learn then you can learn to. And the fifth mistake that I see hair stylists are doing on Instagram is to not respond to things. So the question Are, are you interacting with your followers when someone is commenting under one of your content? If it is photos, if it is reels if it is whatever it is. Are you commenting back? Are you opening for conversations? are you responding to DMS et cetera? Instagram is a social platform, the social platform form, it's meant for you to interact with people. It's meant for you to build connections. It's meant for you to start kind receptions that lead them to come in, and sit in your chair. If someone sees the work that you're doing, and asking questions, if you're not responding to that, they might feel hurt, they might feel that, okay, then he or she is not the right fit for me. And I know, it can be overwhelming. It can be feel like oh, I don't have the time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Again, your main job on Instagram is not to use it as entertainment, it is for you to build connections. So what you can do is schedule all of your social media posts for a week, then you take 20
minutes
per day,
put it in your calendar, show up for that slot, and go in and respond to any comments, respond to any DMS, etc, etc. And I also see loads and loads of hair stylists not responding to things, because if you are following me on Instagram, we try to send out a welcome message. And we do this by hand to every single one that is actually starting to follow us. And I can say maybe 10% is actually wanting to respond to that. And I'm not forcing anyone to start a conversation with me. And I'm not selling anything to anyone.
But think about it.
How you were showing up is a part of how what kind of energy that you're sending out into the world. So
you need to show up as
a leader.
And my recommendation is if you want more clients into your chair, then you need to have more conversations with potential clients. And if you're not utilizing Instagram to do this, you're missing out on so much. So connect with people respond to things, have open conversations. If someone asked you something about getting their hair done a month ago, and they haven't reached out to you or booked an appointment again, why not one month later, reach out to them again.
And let them know that whenever you're ready, here's my
calendar, I can do free consultation, whatever, have an openness, so that people feel that they are welcome into your world. So I'm going to go over these mistakes again, fast. And the first mistake not posting consistent. And not understanding that Instagram is a search engine. Only posting hair photos and not posting content about yourself. Only posting photos of your work and not using video, and then not interacting with people. So those are the five biggest mistakes that I see her slowly start doing on Instagram at this very moment. If you are doing any of this, make a note on your paper. Think about how are you going to change this. If you
feel like you
want to have a full guide on your next 90 days of social media posts. Look in the show notes. We have a link there to our social media with these planner where we have written out 90 days on content for you to post. You just choose a photo or a video in your camera and then fill in the blanks of the captions that we have created. And that will actually help you to show up on social media every single day for 90 days. And that guide is only 27 US dollars. So it's an easy way for having everything planned out for you schedule it out and check in for like 20 minutes per day. You don't have to respond to things in real time. Just checking and you will see with time How your Instagram is going to change. It is not too late, you can still build your business through Instagram. It's all about how you're showing up what kind of energy How do you have enough energy for actually wanting to attract more clients into your life? Or do you feel overwhelmed etc.
Use this
and make a shift and you will start to see things happen. But do not expect things to happen overnight. It takes time before the algorithm gets used to the new way of you showing up but with time, I promise you you will have a change in your Instagram and that will also have an effect on your business as well. I want to say thank you for today. Please let me know on Instagram. If you had any big aha moments. If you are making any changes, please let me know in my DMs and if you're interested in having your next 90 days planned out for you, check them out the show notes you will have a link to the guide they're sending you lots of love. Bye for today.
