*Psssst* Hey beauty pro…wanna learn about a neat way to gain wayyyy more exposure and engagement than on Instagram? 

It’s a magical place where you can build your clientele, link up and work with amazing brands, gain sponsorship deals, AND have a ton of fun being creative while doing it. 

Have you guessed yet what I’m “Tok”ing about? 😉

It’s TikTok! 

Victoria Avalos is a TikTok specialist. Her TikToks are so fun, exciting and engaging, while also building her business! 

Victoria is a stylist & content creator based in San Diego, California. She built a solid clientele in a short amount of time on TikTok, under the name of “girlorgun”. 

Victoria’s story starts off similar to a lot of beauty professionals these days: she finished cosmetology school at the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, when she lost both her salon job and her server job. Instead of wasting time and feeling sorry for herself, she started doing makeup and hair tutorials on her cute doll heads on TikTok. 

Before she knew it, she’d gained over 225,000 followers and more than 7.9 million likes, and she is learning more and creating more every day. 

During the week, she regularly posts her hair content and says that about 80% of her clientele has found her from her content on TikTok! CRAZY! 

“Most of my clients come from L.A. and drive 2+ hours [to be here]. I even have a few out-of-state people. My content is reaching people all over the world, which I think is really amazing. [TikTok] has impacted my business so much…because people are always watching and I have such a solid clientele now.” 

If you’ve never used TikTok before as a beauty professional, today’s blog is a must-read, because TikTok is an amazing marketing tool when done right. Victoria shares all of her secrets for engagement and business-building in this info-packed interview. 

Whether you’re a salon owner or booth renter, hairstylist or spray tanner, nail artist or wax expert, you can grow your beauty business on TikTok, too. 

Buckle up, it’s time to rock the 'Tok!

How to set up your TikTok account to target locally and build your beauty business 

While TikTok is known for sharing the most viral content from all around the world, it can be an amazing (and free!) marketing tool when used right. 

First, Victoria makes sure to always use local hashtags when sharing content. 

“I always hashtag #SanDiego, so I'll do #SanDiegohairstylist. And if in the video I'm doing a blonde I'll put #SanDiegoblondespecialist, things like that. So they're very specific.” 

As well, she says her content shows up in her ideal clients feeds (their “For You” page) based on their interests, which means the TikTok algorithm works well. 

I’m not super familiar with TikTok, myself (but after this interview, I definitely want to set up an account!), so I had lots of questions for Victoria about how you can specifically “funnel” viewers to end up booking appointments at your salon or beauty business. 

Victoria says that she shares a link to her Instagram page on her TikTok profile where viewers can book appointments and find out more information about her. 

Creating a buzz for your beauty business with viral TikTok content

Victoria says there was a learning curve in terms of figuring out what people really wanted to see on her TikTok account, but once she figured it out, it helped her to create consistently engaging, colorful content that got lots of views and comments. 

“I feel like one of my first viral videos that had to do with hair…one of these where I break down the process from start to finish into three or four parts.I talk a little bit about the consultation and what we're gonna do, and then going into the first step, which is usually lightening or coloring, and then followed by either like toning or a haircut. [Then I shared the] styling process, and then obviously the finished results. So I think people just like to see step by step, what goes into an appointment…it helps people better understand what to expect.”

Victoria’s videos are always beautifully curated, colorful and so smoothly edited. She was very humble about her approach (she does it all by herself!): 

“You know what, I really don't put too much effort. I don't wanna say I don't put any effort, but I don't put too much effort. I don't ever filter or anything like that. I just use my phone. I think that does take a lot of people by surprise, when they ask me, ‘What camera do you use?’ I'm like, I don't, I mean! I do own a professional camera, but I've never picked it up to use it for these. It's just easy for me. I don't have an assistant, I work by myself. So just to stick my phone on a tripod [and] press play whenever I need to record at the end of the day. I just edit my videos on [the Splice] app.” 

Victoria says in terms of “professional lighting” for her videos, she has a large window in her studio and good lighting installed for the best salon experience, which both help with filming high-quality videos. 

She actually films the majority of her client appointments using a tripod for her phone, and will post sped-up snippets on TikTok if the quality turns out good. 

But, Victoria says, she’s not afraid to scrap a video if it turns out looking yuck. 

“Sometimes if the weather's really bad and the lighting isn't right, and it kind of throws off the color, I won't necessarily post the video. It all depends.”  

Why TikTok wins out over Instagram for showing off your beauty business 

Victoria says that while Instagram has become highly curated with a complicated algorithm, TikTok is raw, beautiful, and allows posters to be authentically themselves and show off “behind the scenes” of their lives and businesses. 

“I feel like Instagram has been a very surface-level app where it's easy to curate a feed. I feel like people hyper-focus on the aesthetic of their grid versus like the quality of content. On TikTok, people want you to be raw and real. They wanna see the process. They wanna see your mess up as well as your successes and your good days. And I think that's cool because I feel like it's less about the aesthetic. Like people can care less. They just wanna see you do what you love and know who you are.”

“On TikTok, you get further if you have a personality. If you’re funny, if you’re artistic, versus whether your grid looks good or not.” 

How to work with brands and gain sponsorship deals for your beauty business on TikTok

Victoria has worked with quite a few beauty brands as a result of her popularity on TikTok, and says usually she’s excited at the opportunity because she’s already aware of the brand and uses their product! 

When brands reach out, she’ll offer them her rates and when she hears back, the creative process begins - and she often gets to dream up how she’ll execute it! 

“We’ll move forward in the process of what [the brand] wants, points that they want me to hit in my video. Most of the time, they let me have creative freedom in how I show off the product. A lot of the time they're coming from my feed, so they already know my type of content. And then I get paid! So it's like a win-win situation.” 

So how long does it take, on average, for a beauty professional to get enough attention on TikTok that brands start reaching out? 

For Victoria, it actually started early on in her career! 

“Brands started contacting me pretty early on in my career, but it wasn't at first paid - it was just sending me gifts, which I so appreciated because that does help a lot as well.” 

To turn brand interest into a paid prospect, though, took time. Victoria says that in the past year she’s had brands reach out about her rates and to develop sponsorship deals. 

Now that she established herself with a few beauty brands, she says those deals make up almost half of her income! 

“I'm so happy about [that and] I'm hoping that it becomes even more of my income in the future. Cause I'd love to just slowly work less and less and be more picky about what I do, which I already am.” 

“I'm so grateful for that, that I can have the luxury of picking and choosing the clients that I take, the services that I want to provide. In the future I'm hoping that content creation will be my main source of income, because I just love it so much!”

How to build up your following on TikTok

When I start a new account on a social media platform, I have that sense of feeling “invisible” until I gain a following. And since I don’t know much at all about TikTok, I wanted to get every tip and trick I could from Victoria before I dive in! 

Here’s what Victoria recommends for building up your following as a beauty professional on Tik Tok: 

• Consistency is key: “You're really not gonna get very far if you're posting once a week or even once a month. You need to be posting as much as you can as often as you can.”

• Use relevant, local hashtags: “Use hashtags for whatever you do. That was how I got my videos to become very viral, especially in San Diego - just using specific hashtags to attract specific people.” 

• Be yourself! “Just be genuine to yourself, don't overthink it. I think that we're so used to Instagram and very nitpicky about what we post. Is it gonna fit [in] my feed? Don't hyper focus on those things. Just share your gifts, share who you are. Eventually, with consistency, you will attract an audience.”

• Interact with other beauty professionals on TikTok: “I do interact a lot [with other beauty pros.] I follow so many other hair stylists and random people that do other things and I like to interact with posts. I do notice now that a lot of people that I've met eventually followed me back. If I enjoy someone's video, I'll let them know.” 

Join the fun and jump in with both feet on TikTok

Victoria has some great final advice for anyone that’s been considering getting on TikTok (like me!) but isn’t feeling so confident about doing it: 

“The internet is a very scary place. It can be very brutal, but having confidence in yourself is key because if you feel good about yourself and what you're doing, nothing that people say is going to affect you. And it shouldn't!”

“You have to stay true to yourself and just know that anyone who comments a negative thing, it's just something that they're feeling on the inside, [something] that they're trying to put on you.”

“That was one of my first mistakes as well, where I would let it get to me. I would wanna argue with them. Now, it's nearly impossible to read all my comments, so I don't really pay attention, but [I’m also] now more aware [that] this isn't about me. It's about them. So just don't let the little meanie weenies bother you, you know? Ignore it, delete it, block, whatever you have to do and continue to post. Share your gift.”

You can find Victoria Avalos on TikTok @girlorgun, or on Instagram right here.