6 Answers To Instagram Questions You Were Afraid To Ask

Using social media to fill your books is a no-brainer in 2018—it’s free and it WORKS. But let’s be real…it can also be intimidating to put your work out there, and it takes a lot of time! So we put together our favorite tips from seven social stars that we learned at Joico’s Global Destination Education. Keep reading to find out what you need to do to build engagement, get more followers and above all, make more money!

BTC spent a week in Punta Cana with Joico at the company’s first Global Destination Education (with attendees from 28 countries including Canada, the U.S., Belgium, Australia and Germany!), and the social media panel was just one of the fantastic classes hairdressers could attend to be more successful behind the chair. The panel members—Jenny Strebe (@theconfessionsofahairstylist), Philip Ring (@phildoeshair), Olivia Smalley (@omgartistry), Ricardo Santiago (@stylistricardosantiago), Larisa Love (@larisadoll), Denis De Souza (@denisdesouza) and Marissa Marino (@marissa.marino)—spilled their secrets to building a following and filling their books.

1. What Should I Post?

• If your goal is to fill your books with balayage clients, post balayage photos. If your goal is to cut men’s hair, post men’s haircuts. Think of your profile as your portfolio…and keep in mind that you wouldn’t include photos of your kids or your dinner in your portfolio.
• @larisadoll advises sticking to an 80-20 split—80 percent hair-related content, 20 percent personal content to show off your personality. “At the end of the day…no one really cares about your dog,” she said. “If you want to post more [personal photos] than that, that’s when you should get a personal page. Your posts should be what you want to become successful at.”
• Your personality can shine in other ways, too—like in captions, commenting and engaging with people, or when you post an Instagram Story. “The reason 50 percent of our clients come to us is FOR us,” @omgartistry said. “That’s where audience engagement comes in. I use my Instagram Stories as a tool to help people get to know me.”

2. My Clients Aren’t Requesting The Looks I Really Want To Create…What Should I Do?

• If you want to specialize in a certain look but your current clientele doesn’t reflect your desired specialty, it’s time to get some models or mannequins out and get to work.
• “When we noticed that the trend was creative color and we didn’t have any clients to do that on, I just started coloring up some mannequins,” @stylistricardosantiago said.
• Schedule time to create content specifically for social media. @theconfessionsofahairstylist and @stylistricardosantiago both said they’ll take a day or two, once or twice a month, just creating content to post on Instagram outside of their scheduled clients.
• Remember you don’t ONLY need to post finished shots—video of you working could be cool to post too!

3. What Kind Of Equipment Do I Need To Showcase My Work? Should I Get Photoshop?

• You don’t need a fancy camera (although if you are serious about social media, a camera will only benefit you). What’s more important? Taking the time to set up a nice picture that doesn’t include dirty color bowls in the background, stray hairs all over the client’s shirt, etc.
• “You’d be so surprised by how just cleaning your iPhone lens off can make such a difference in clarity,” @omgartistry said.
• “Bad lighting isn’t going to showcase your work well,” @marissa.marino said. “And don’t filter your haircolor pictures! You will NEVER be able to recreate it, and you’re the one that will pay the price for that.”
• While you should never filter haircolor pics, it IS okay to adjust white balance or sharpness of an image if necessary. Use photo editing tools like Photoshop judiciously.

4. I’m Nervous That No One Will Like My Content. How Can I Be More Confident?

• Here’s the thing—you can always delete something if it doesn’t get the engagement you desire. So don’t be afraid to try things, because you might be surprised at how people respond.
• “Some of the posts that do the best on my page are the ones I wasn’t going to post in the first place,” @theconfessionsofahairstylist said. “So if you’re a little hesitant about your work, put it out there just to see what happens.”
• Take some advice from @phildoeshair, who found out all about Insta haters when he first started posting pixilated hair looks. “Instagram doesn’t pay attention to the haters—it pays attention to how much people are talking,” he said. “If you have 20 people fighting with each other, it can be good! I leave those there while the conversation is hot, then later I go through and delete comments.” This strategy makes Instagram think the post is important, and will push it out to more people’s feeds.

5. What Are Two Things I Can Do Now To Get More Clients?

• Your Instagram bio MUST have your location in it! Phil was adamant about this—“If you don’t have your location on your Instagram, no one will know where you are,” he said. “And always tag your salon, tag local businesses. If I can’t find out in the first couple lines where your location is, how are clients going to find you?”
• Engage with people who comment on your posts. Listen to this story from @omgartistry: “I set a goal 8 months ago that I would comment back to every single person that was on my Instagram page, that took the time to acknowledge my photo. I was at a 16 percent engagement, and just from answering back, I had a 72 percent increase in engagement.” Doing this shows potential clients that you care and helps them realize there is a person behind the profile!

6. I Work Hard Every Day And Do Everything I Can To Be Successful. What’s Next?

• Honestly, just keep grinding. Every member of the panel stressed that hard work works, and there are no shortcuts to success.
• We loved this quote from @denisdesouza: “Believe in yourself. Everything is going to be fine. Work on your craft—the universe will deliver.”