Why Hair Photos are Dead, and How To Bring Your Content Back to Life...

By Nicole Healy

Have you noticed that your hair photos get little engagement on Instagram these days? In all honesty, it truly is just because there’s just too many online, how many photos of hair can you consume before it’s just too much, and you just scroll straight past and also a time factor, people are just scrolling straight past your content if it’s not eye-catching.

You may be feeling that you’re seeing the same kind of content and the fact is, Instagram is just over-saturated with such similar hair content that you’re spending less time on the platform, so let’s chat about what’s actually getting engagement on Instagram right now, to grow your reach.

Content that people spend time on, is what Instagram pushes out to a further audience, so if you’re posting a hair photo, just for the sake of it, with no context or minimal basic caption with information, the time people spend on your content, could be as little as 0.5 seconds - and if you want higher reach - you want to aim for a minimum of 3 seconds for your audience to spending on your posts, so if you’re posting a photo, with no value, it’s most likely being missed.

If you want to get more engagement on Instagram, I recommend using carousels and reels as this is where you’re going to get more time spent on posts, as well as more reach and we will see more of this in 2024, with more people learning how to properly use Canva and diving into creating a strong social media presence, such as making infographics with sharable content with swipe through posts. Think of carousels as a little magazine article on each post, photo, infographic, videos, so you can share more in less time - more value in less time. If you’re a time-poor hairdresser, adding more in less sounds like a dream for you - I’m sure!

Creating useful content, that helps clients, not just hairdressers, in my opinion, Instagram feels like it’s the hairdresser Olympics and each post is a hairdresser trying to win the gold against another hairdresser for top ranking on the explore page - my professional advice is to be sharing more about our salons, and what we have to offer, the experience we offer, over trying to impress other hairdressers.

Here’s the secret sauce: your content needs to be more than just eye candy. It needs to be useful, informative, and engaging. When you crack that code, you’ll see the likes, comments, and shares start pouring in. And guess what? Those online interactions can easily turn into bookings, and bookings into long-term clients.

So, what’s the solution?

Touchpoints and marketing carousels.

These are posts that are more than just a single photo. They’re a collection of images, videos, or text that tell a story or provide helpful information. They’re more engaging than single photos, and they’re a great way to stand out from the crowd.

Here are a few ideas for touch points for carousel content ideas that you can use for your salon:

Before and after photos. This is a classic for a reason. It’s a great way to show potential clients what you can do.

Hair tutorials. This is a great way to educate your followers and show them how to style their hair at home.

UGC (User Generated Content) - think products of the week, relatable posts, and reels, and how to use a tool.

Product recommendations. Share your favourite hair products and why you love them. Behind-the-scenes photos and videos. Show all the things your business offers, it's more than just great hair, it’s the whole experience from the minute they walk in, to the scalp massage, to the tea/coffee, the whole Sha-bang!

The key is to create content that is useful, informative, and engaging. If you can do that, you’ll find your engagement and reach will increase, and your online bookings and phone calls will be more frequent with not just new clients, but maybe an existing client who went away and now wants to come back because your socials are starting to look fun, exciting, and standing out.

Here are a few more tips to finish on for creating engaging content:

Use clear and concise captions - and add hooks in the caption headline to remind people to read your caption - otherwise, they will scroll past and maybe your engagement hook is inside here to get people to take action on your post www.socialsalonschool.com.au

Use relevant hashtags- think location and your salon type or a service - hashtags are your SEO (search engine optimisation) for socials.

Post at the right time of day to reach more people - 6 pm is generally a good time If you found these tips helpful, and looking for help with your content, I offer content creation for salons!

www.socialsalonschool.com.au