7 fun and easy ways to engage salon clients with your Instagram stories
I’ve recently gotten obsessed with Instagram Stories. I used to think that they were this small, unimportant part of Instagram that nobody looked at. I also would say to myself: “Ugh, another social media thing I have to do. I’m already full to the brim with Youtube, Pinterest, posting to Instagram and Facebook… this is just going to be more work!
But actually, Instagram Stories are fast. They really shouldn’t take you any time at all. I spend max 5 minutes a day doing them.
Plus, they don’t need to be perfect. Snap a photo or a 20 second video, throw some text and a gif sticker on it, and you’ve got a new piece of content.
And Stories can be used for soooo many fun things. You can be creative with them, use them to show the real, creative side of your business, and promote what you do in a non-salesy way.
Trust me, your Instagram followers and even people who don’t follow you yet (but are checking you out) are paying close attention to your Stories. 500 million people are out there watching Instagram Stories every day. And 62% of people say they’re more interested in a product or service after seeing it in their Stories (source).
If you’re not using Stories, you’re only using half of what Instagram can be.
What’s so great about Stories?
With 500 million people watching them everyday, you can reach your followers and clients much even more with Stories, instead of just posting to your feed.
They show the real, raw side of your business. There’s no need to try and be perfect in your Stories. Your feed shows the polished side of your business while your Stories show the real you.
Since they disappear after 24 hours, there’s less pressure and you can just have fun with them.
Not just your followers are watching! Anyone who stumbles across your profile will watch them, too.
Stories Highlights are an especially fun place to organize your Stories so people can watch them all at once and skim through your different “categories”
You can use extra features like stickers, polls, voting, questions, and more. This makes Stories so much more interactive for your followers; they can do more than just liking and commenting!
If you haven’t been doing Stories on Instagram, I’m pretty sure you’ll get addicted when you find out how easy and fun they are. And If you have been doing them, but you need some fresh ideas, please use this post as some inspiration!
There are so many fun ways to engage your followers, reach new clients, and help create a connection with your business in your Stories. Keep reading to find out how!
Repost clients who tag you
It’s kind of considered Instagram “etiquette” to repost when anyone tags you in their Stories. And I recommend that you do it every single time!
When you re-share things you’re tagged in…
It’s an easy way to stay active on Instagram, without actually creating new content!
It shows your followers that your clients love your work enough to want to show it off
It strengthens your clients relationships since you cared enough to reshare
It helps your clients to see more of your posts (feeding the algorithm)
People love creeping to see what your nails/hair/spray tans/lashes look like outside of your own portfolio pictures (they want to see them in the wild!)
Plus, the more you reshare, the more clients will take notice and tag you in their pics as well. It’s a snowball effect.
I love how NAF reshare all of their client “Nailfies” in their stories, even making them look cohesive and branded with their stickers and text.
All you have to do is press the “Reshare” button in photo or video you’re tagged in, add some text and stickers, tag your client, and you’re good to go!
When you’re tagged in a Story or in a regular post, share it it your own Story, add in some text thanking your client or saying how smoking hot they look (or whatever language you’d use), and add in a sticker if you want.
Don’t forget to add these “reshares” to a Stories Highlight called “Our Clients” or something similar, so that they’re all easily viewable.
Share your client reviews
We all want to read reviews about hotels and restaurants before going there. Sometimes it helps us to make a decisions - good or bad - about whether we’ll go there. Sometimes it just helps us to get excited about our upcoming special day. The same goes for your clients! People stumble across your profile on Instagram every day, and they want to know what your past clients thought of you. So make it easy for them by putting your reviews front and centre.
Collecting these reviews on Google, Facebook, and Yelp is so important, but you’re only using them at half their power if they stay there. Share them around! Spread those 5 star reviews around on your social pages and they’ll help you even more.
One great place to share them is in your Instagram Stories.
Start off by making a template in Canva for sharing reviews. Canva is a free website to design graphics and it makes it so easy to make your reviews look pretty. You could use their existing templates or make a design like this for reviews:
Then, take some of your best reviews and put them into the Canva template by copy/pasting the text from Google, Facebook, or Yelp. You might also want to include a photo of your client.
You should also post new reviews to your Stories whenever you get one. Make sure to tag your client in your Story to show your appreciation. They’ll likely share your Story on their page as well, so it helps you get even more exposure!
Finally, share the review in your highlights under “Reviews”. New followers and potential clients will look at your reviews for sure.
Spotlight your team members and create a highlight for each one
If you’ve got multiple team members in your business, I guarantee that your followers and clients want to learn more about them, especially if they’re new to your salon or if they’ve been booked with a new team member.
Your Stories are the perfect place to introduce your team members and share how awesome they really are!
Jet Black does a great job of profiling their stylists in their Stories. They know that before booking, clients want to see each stylists’ skill level and what they can do:
In your team Stories, share photos of each stylists’ work and tag their personal profile if they have one.
Videos are another great way to introduce everyone on your team. You could do “interview style” videos where you ask them questions and help your followers get a real understanding of who they are. Boomerang videos are also a fun way of sharing “action shots” of each member of your team.
Share “In action” videos
I think that we often underestimate how much our followers want the “inside scoop” in our business. What you do as a beauty professional is genuinely fascinating to most people. Use your Stories as a place to educate about what you do, and share the process of the treatments you perform.
Through videos and even Boomerangs, your followers can watch as you work, and trust me it’s so interesting! You video can be either educational, where you explain what you’re doing or just video clips showing the steps in your process. This is exactly what Salt Hair salon does in their “In action” Stories highlight.
This is also a chance to be educational and show the process that goes into doing things - include text explaining what you’re doing in that video.
Clients love understanding what you’re doing, they love to feel like they understand the process. It’s also important to explain the benefits of different services, treatments, and products. There’s so much opportunity to share your wealth of knowledge as a beauty business professional in your Stories, so please do share it with the world!
Share the love about your fave products
Speaking of products - if you’re not highlighting your favourite retail products in your Stories, you’re missing out.
Talking about products not in a salesy way, but in an educational way, highlights your expertise as a professional. It also helps you sell more products when clients come in. They’ll ask you questions like, “I saw on your stories about that vitamin C serum, can you tell me about it?”
To start off simply, you can share photos of the products with info about them, like HeyDay Skincare does:
You can also share photos of products in action, and write some text in your Story about the benefits of the product and how it worked on this client.
Another great way of highlighting products is through video. Do one “video story” (up to 1 minute) per week, where you educate about a product. Tell your followers what it is (including ingredients if that’s relevant), who it’s for, and then talk about the benefits of the product. You might also want to share your own experience with the product.
How to book or “Start here” Stories Highlights
Many people who visit your Instagram don’t follow you yet, and aren’t your clients. Maybe they found you on Google and are checking you out before booking, or they saw your comment on their friend’s post. My point is, you need an easy place for newbies to learn about your business and services in a single place, and your Stories Highlights are the perfect place to do this.
Record a short Story about yourself and your business, or create a graphic talking about your business, like Grand City Tanning does:
You probably won’t use this as a regular part of your Stories, but I love the idea of doing this once and putting it into your Stories Highlights so that new clients who are looking at your profile can get info about you before booking. It’s such a great way to help people feel comfortable with you!
You can also use this Stories Highlight to give info on how to book with you, information about pricing, your menu of services, etc.
Show off your space
I love the idea of using your Stories to show off your beautiful salon space - whether that’s a small suite, a home studio, or even the booth you rent. We all love to get an idea about the “vibe” of businesses, and your actual space does a great job of sharing that.
Vacay Beauty has an Instagram Stories Highlight where she shared day by day the building out her space, designing it, and whenever she adds anything new she adds it to her Stories:
If you haven’t shared videos of your space yet, try showing off in your Stories! Then be sure to share updates, upgrades, renos etc. Your followers and clients genuinely want to see inside your business, so please do share!
In conclusion
Instagram stories are such a fun, easy way to create a connection with your followers, and engage potential clients too. They’re great for sharing the real, raw side of you, and they do not need to be perfect at all. In fact, that’s probably why they’re so popular: we want to see the human, unpolished side of businesses now more than ever.
If you can take 5 minutes per day to use some of these ideas, you’ll find that you’re getting more engagement on Instagram, you’ll have more reach from your profile, and you’ll rediscover how fun social media is without the pressure to be perfect!
