4 Articles to Help You Market your Salon or Spa on Pinterest

4 Articles to Help You Market your Salon or Spa on Pinterest

26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business
Social Media Examiner provides you with 26 tips -- an "A to Z guide" for using Pinterest for business [click here] including topics and how-to like these:

• How to add a Pinterest "follow" and/or "pin it" button to your site
• Branding and enhancing your brand
• Crowdsourcing
• Improves your SEO results
• Etiquette
• Using keywords and hashtags
• Linking to your own sites
• Networking and more ---
  
  

Now that you know how, find out what:
3 Ways to use Pinterest for Marketing Research

[Click here] to get the scoop from SocialMediaExplorer on how you can use Pinterest to conduct market research in these three ways:

• Discover what people are pinning from your website/s
• Understand customer perception
• Capture descriptions, comments, board names (and hashtags and other reference markers); this can help you get more traffic as you cross post to other media, look for patterns, see how the most influential are playing to win and improve your SEM

56 Ways to Market your Business on Pinterest

A great favorite resource of mine, Copyblogger.com shared these 56 ways to harness the power of Pinterest to grow your brand and your business:  [click here].  Saying: "Yes, Pinterest is beautiful. And yes, its users love it. But don’t let all the hearts and flowers fool you. Behind those lovely images, Pinterest is fast becoming a heavy hitting marketing tool for brands and businesses … like yours. Let’s take a quick look at why this is, and then we’ll get into 56 specific Pinterest tactics you can use to your own marketing advantage."


Is Pinterest the next social commerce game changer? 
With its U.S. traffic skyrocketing to more than 10 million visits, Pinterest, the virtual pinboard, is now one of the top 10 social networking and forum websites.  Seen below, Monetate's infographic introduces you to Pinterest and provides ideas on how you can use the social photo sharing website to promote products, build community, and drive website traffic and conversions.

Monetate Marketing Infographics

***

Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com or save $5 off the list price when you use the Code USH9VPJG and purchase on my site at 12monthsofmarketing.net.
 

FEB 2012: Announcing the release of Little White Marketing Lies

Announcing the release of Little White Marketing Lies
by Elizabeth Kraus

Have you fallen for any of these little white marketing lies?

The Little White Marketing Lies table of contents: 

• we provide exceptional customer service
• our employees set us apart
• word of mouth is our best marketing
• our customers love us
• success is just one great idea away
• marketing is a verb
• we need to tell people how great we are
• it takes luck to build a great team
• employee culture has nothing to do with marketing
• what's in the past is in the past
• there's no room for emotion in the workplace
• service professionals aren't sales people
• social media isn't critical to my marketing strategy
• bigger is better
• when I apply my logo, I'm branding

Little white marketing lies are common misconceptions that many well-meaning business owners claim to be true, but which usually aren't.

In fact, these little white marketing lies might even be standing between your business and success.

The new book, Little White Marketing Lies will help you put these and other little white marketing lies to the test, enabling you to identify the true strengths and weaknesses of your business and put your business in the best position to succeed in the future.

Available now [click here] from my createspace.com bookstore for 14.95 and coming soon to amazon.com. Little White Marketing Lies is also already available from the amazon.com Kindle / digital reader store for 9.95 and can even be borrowed for free by Amazon Prime members [click here].

In fact - any of my books can be purchased for Kindle/eReader for under $10 each and most can be borrowed for free as part of the Kindle Lending Library. 

It's going to be a great year!
Elizabeth Kraus

Customer love is more than skin deep -

You won't want to miss the next issue of the Style, Strategy and Marketing Savvy Newsletter --

This Valentine's Day, spend time thinking about how to show your customers that you love them and how to get your most ardent admirers to talk up your business.

Here's what you'll find in the next newsletter:

- Work should be more than a four letter word
- Seduce your customers with passionate story telling
- Do your customers really love you?
- Ten ways to show customers you care
- Six ways to measure social media results
- Social media for small business
- Twelve ways to give your biggest fans a megaphone
- Community passion is more than skin deep

Subscribe to marketing savvy newsletters: 

Been Thrown Under the Bus at Work Lately?

There are a lot of really GREAT reasons to keep your staff 'on board' when it comes to your business. 70% of engaged employees have an understanding of how to meet customer's needs vs. 17% of those who say they aren't engaged. Only 13% of disengaged employees would refer other people to the place they work. Only 3% of disengaged employees say that their job brings out their creativity (vs. 60% of engaged employees).  75% of people don't leave a job, they 'quit their boss.' 

Because of all this and more (like, it's the RIGHT thing to do) last week I posted 'The View From Under the Bus' on the 365 blog site: Excerpt:   

You said that you wanted us on board, and at first, we believed you. We wanted it to be true. We were excited about the trip and we thought that we understood the route we’d take to reach our destination. But somehow we didn’t make it on board. We ended up under the bus, and now, covered in tread marks, I’ve been deputed to say: Ouch.

[CLICK HERE] to go to the article. 




***

Elizabeth Kraus is the author of the 2012 Marketing Guide for Stylists, Booth Renters and Independent Salon Owners.

It has practical, easy-to-implement, low-to-no-cost marketing ideas -- HUNDREDS of them -- to use all year long and advice to help you transform yourself into the person and the professional you most want to be!

Available [ here ] -- use code TKSTFM8K to receive a 15% discount at checkout or buy the 2012 Marketing Guide at it's regular price on amazon.com.

The Traits of Great Leaders

If you're a regular reader, you probably know that I write and blog for small business at 365daysofmarketingblog.blogspot.com, published a 2012 Small Business Marketing Calendar called "Little White Marketing Lies" and published 365 Days of Marketing - a marketing how-to and content primer.

Today I published a post on the 365 Days of Marketing blog about the traits of great leaders. These are leadership traits that you should look for when considering a new position (or even taking on a volunteer role within an organization) and they are traits by which you can measure yourself or set out a plan to become a better leader, so I wanted to share them with you, too.

From the article:  "Everyone wins in an organization characterized by good leadership, but people can talk a good game and spout leadership quotes and clichés all day long. And leaders both good and bad will tell you the right things to get you on board, get you to go above and beyond the call of duty, do more than what is expected and even give your own personal time and energy to help them or the business succeed."

[CLICK HERE] to read more - Elizabeth

Marketing Your Salon and Spa on Twitter

While many people use Twitter for personal use, sharing information in 140-or-less character status updates with such riveting topical matter as to what they had for breakfast, who among our society should and should not be allowed to drive or anything else that comes to mind, when it comes to marketing, Twitter presents small business owners with opportunities that no other social network provides.


Its “real time” orientation and short status updates also present marketers with limitations, as well, so understanding what Twitter is best at helping you achieve when it comes to salon and spa marketing and how to use it most effectively is important. After all, in the salon and spa marketing realm, it’s not unlikely that you have gone from communication with your customers by phone and in person only to now communicating via email, Facebook, Twitter, texting and other platforms – all in a few short years.

But time is precious, so here’s my take on the best uses for Twitter and how to get started on Twitter, when it comes to salon and spa marketing:

First, you need an audience. Not just numbers of followers, mind you, because you could get thousands of followers on Twitter, but if none of them are members of your ideal client type categories or if they are, but none of them live within a reasonable geographical radius, who cares?

To market your salon or spa effectively on Twitter, you need to establish a Twitter account and then you need to get your customers to ‘follow’ you on Twitter. And then you need to find ways to get them to ‘retweet’ your status updates so that their friends and family (who hopefully also fall within your desired client type/s) find out that your business exists and so that they want to find out more about your business.

It’s a tall order, isn’t it? But it can be done!

Twitter set-up marketing musts for your salon or spa: 

• Put your Twitter URL (like mine, which is “www.twitter.com/beinpulse”) on your business cards, your menu of services, your website, your Facebook info page, your LinkedIn profile, your postcards, your email newsletters and anywhere else that you list your basic contact information.
• Find your customers on Twitter and 'follow' them (many will 'follow' you back as a result) .
• Run Twitter follower acquisition campaigns. One easy way to do this is to reach out to your customers, let them know where they can ‘follow’ you on Twitter and hold drawings or contests on Twitter itself; such as, entering all of the Twitter-ers who ‘retweet’ one of your posts on a given day into a drawing for a free gift card or product. I personally like the idea of awarding gift cards because they’re only redeemable in a visit to your business – a visit which gives you the opportunity to potentially wow and win over a new client.
• Use your city name in hashtag form (such as, #seattle) on your tweets to increase the chance that your posts will be seen by others in your local area (read more about hashtags here).
• List your business in Twitter directories such as twellow.com, the business yellow pages of Twitter, or Twibs.com.
• Create a Twitter network by following (and hopefully being followed in return) by other businesses, political figures, the leaders of PTAs and other community influencers in your area – this is another great way to partner with other businesses to share contacts. If you are part of any buy local organization, create a social media directory which can be printed up to be given to the customers of all participating businesses or shared as part of a local online business directory. 
• Create content that your followers are likely to retweet, such as inspiring quotes, links to awesome hair styles or celebrity looks, links to important health and wellness information or links to community human interest stories, events and other local information.

Now that you’re ready to start tweeting to market your salon or spa on Twitter, here are some types of tweets that you should post to market your salon or spa on Twitter: 

• Make announcements about your salon or spa – special sale? extended hours? snow day closure? power on when everyone else is out? air conditioning relief in the heart of summer? model call, free demo or another event?
• Tell followers about new or improved products or services which are on the way or have just arrived
• Welcome new staff members to the team
• Talk about particular staff strengths, achievements, awards, certifications or new classes taken
• Point Twitter followers to your blog to read your beauty information posts, see your before and after pictures, or get other valuable tips
• Links to celebrity styles, fashion trends, and how-to hair, makeup and nails information
• Ask provocative questions
• Solicit advice or local referrals (such as when you or one of your customers needs the name of a good plumber or painter)
• Poll followers as to their interests, what they like to do, what they like most about your city and other personally interesting topics
• Post job openings
• Talk about your referral or frequency rewards
• Hold contests
• Share inspiring quotes
• Links to YouTube or powerpoint step-by-step demos
• Retweet retweet-worthy tweets of your followers
• Share quick beauty tips
• List last minute cancellations or openings on the books
• Tweets to help fill the books during slower hours (such as some type of reward for booking during slower hours)
• Cooperative marketing with other local independent businesses
• Local human interest stories that would be of interest to your followers
• Share announcements from local schools (or other community organizations or non-profits) and help promote their fundraisers
• Thank people for following you in Tweets, such as "@beinpulse, thank you for following (your salon or spa name here)"  
• Thank customers for coming in in tweets using their Twitter handle, such as "@beinpulse, it was great to see you today, come back again soon!"

You can post to your heart’s content on this social media platform – and with so many topics offered up above, with a little time and attention you should be able to establish your presence on Twitter to market your salon or spa in a short amount of time. Remember that it will take time and consistency to build a following. 

And as with any other social media network, marketing your salon or spa on Twitter will only be as effective as you make it (1) relevant to your followers and to the extent that you are (2) present and active -- marketing your salon or spa on Twitter on a regular basis.

So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to make using Twitter part of your salon or spa daily marketing activities. Happy Tweeting!

***

Elizabeth Kraus is the author of Make Over Your Marketing: 12 Months of Marketing for Salon and Spa as well as the 2012 Salon and Spa Marketing Calendar - your salon and spa marketing blueprint for 2012!