Small Effort Big Impact: Use Social Media!
BNB introduced the Advent of the New Normal Era in July issue. There, we discussed how the new ways of daily lives due to the pandemic have demanded changes. One of the changes demanded is running an online aspect of the business. As the coronavirus crisis seems to get even worse, retail stores are forced to utilize online tools in running their businesses.
According to a BNB poll published last month, more than 45% of the surveyed beauty supply stores have some online presence, and most of them responded that their online presence helped the business.
The most popular social media platforms include Facebook and Instagram. Both platforms allow you to sign up with ease and learn how to use the social media for your business pretty easily.
Facebook has the Highest Number of Active Accounts by far.
If advertisement is the sole goal, Facebook might be the best platform. It simply has the highest number of active accounts among all social media platforms. According to Statistica, a total of 2.6 billion people, almost a third of the population of the earth, have used Facebook in the first half of 2020. This is the highest number of users for a single platform.
Jenny Beauty Supply has 15,000 followers after 8 years of a continuous and successful management of its Facebook Page. Although they do not sell products on the Facebook Page, it provides a link to their own website and is consistently updated to promote their business.
Product promotions and seasonal sales events can also be announced through the Facebook Page. In old days, you needed to print and distribute hundreds of handouts per an event. Now you can simply click a few buttons and let many more people know about the event.
If you have a solid social media account, you can use it to notify store hours and holidays and even to post a job. Your store can be promoted on Facebook through posting photos, videos, fund raisers, and polls.
Instagram – a Contender with a Better Return on Investment
Instagram has a much smaller number of active accounts. However, some beauty marketing experts claim that Instagram has greater marketing power. According to a Nielsen survey, 50% of the Instagram users were in their 20s, of which 60% were female. If you take the target gender and age into account, you would find the expert opinions rather convincing.
It is simply a fact that teenagers and young adults in their 20s who closely follow the trend are more likely rely on Instagram. They tend to prefer Instagram which is optimized for use on mobile devices and allows photos to be viewed more quickly. Hence, if you use your Instagram account properly, you can not only promote your store but also keep up with the trend at the same time.
COVA Beauty is one of the retail stores who have successfully utilized social media for their business. For a single-location beauty supply, COVA Beauty has an unusually high number of followers, 16,000, after its 4-year run on Instagram.
Instagram often taps into emotion. When you access an Instagram feed, you can view all the images uploaded by the user to date. For this reason, if you can create a great mood with photos, you are well suited for Instagram. When your Instagram feed gives a great impression on people, they would naturally think highly of your store.
Surely, it is also great for product promotion. As Instagram posts are mainly of image, they may have more powerful impact than Facebook posts. People can remember products for a long time because they see the product photos first and then read the descriptions.
You probably heard of “hashtag.” Business accounts on Instagram have increased in number because of its search functionality. Even if you do not have a follower, you can insert a hashtag on your post to allow Instagram users to find your posts using the hashtag. In fact, one of the fastest ways to increase the number of followers for your business account is to include many relevant hashtags.