Social Planning

Working in Marketing I can tell you that there is a big difference in the way a post performs if there is no plan behind it. We have all been guilty of the last minute “I have nothing to post today”. However, posting sporadically without a game plan can wreak havoc on your engagement. Therefore, having a content calendar is important.

A content calendar does not mean you have to spend hours planning every single post for months at a time. You can plan out your entire month easily in no time at all, but this will take some diligence and new habits. Spend 5-10 min a day taking photos in your salon. This can be of products, happy customers, staff members, beds, even your parking lot. Get creative. Candid shots are great and are a welcome change from selfies and posed shots.

Next make a list of everything you want to talk about: specials, events, holidays, new arrivals, new equipment, etc. If you have a month that you are struggling to find a topic for you can use sites such as  answerthepublic.com free to find out what customers are looking for. Give each topic a day on your calendar and start writing your posts. Don’t focus as much on matching the post with photos yet. Take your time on what you want to say. Then hashtag it!

Hashtags are the best way to get your posts noticed. Be cautious not to overload on some platforms. Facebook requires only a few hashtags while on Instagram you can use up to 30. You want to use a variety of hashtags from specific tags only used a few hundred times to a wider net of hashtags that have been used thousands of times. Try to avoid tags that have been overused or have millions of tags as your content will be buried and get little exposure. Using a free hashtag generator is a great way to find tags in your niche. You can even save a specific set of hashtags and post them on all of your posts. Make sure hashtags have something to do with the content you are posting or you will come across as spammy.

Remember those photos you took? Match them up to your posts and you have original content to share.

So now you have your content, your hashtags, and your images. The only thing left to do is to write them on your calendar and start posting. Don’t have a ton of time? No worries, there are several automated posting options. Facebook Business Suite has one that allows you to post on Facebook and Instagram and it is free. If you are looking to incorporate other social media platforms you can check out Later, Hootsuite, Monday, Planoly, and many more.

Hope you learned a few tricks. Look for more help with marketing in the future.