3 minute read
The New Huge Social Trend Called UGC.
By Sophia Hilton
Most hairdressers’ Instagrams consist of two main errors. First, their account is just a portfolio of the back of people’s heads. Pretty balayage after pretty balayage. They all look the same. No personality at all, just selling hair (the product).
Yet, we all know as hairdressers we do so much more than just hair, yet none of that comes out on their page. Secondly, when they do sell, they sell themselves, ‘hey I’m great, come and get your hair done with me’. It doesn’t work.
But there has been a big change in selling it for the last few years on social media, and for some reason, the beauty service industry is yet to catch up.
Product brands are on to it though. Once upon a time a lipstick brand would run an advert telling you the lipstick is fantastic and all the features asking you to buy. Now brands allow influencers and normal people to give their authentic voice on that product. It comes across as more genuine when a real-life person is giving their own opinions.
In hairdressing terms, it’s far more authentic for one of your clients to create a piece of content about their experience of the salon, than you create the content.
Third-party seal of approval builds trust.
That’s why in my monthly membership, social media and marketing club, I teach people how to get their regular clients to create authentic content for them.
You have seen the sort of videos I mean online. A person walks into a restaurant saying something like ‘Come with me to try London’s number one steak restaurant’- and then the person will talk you through their experience. THIS is what is selling.
Here are my top tips for creating what they call UGC (User-Generated Content)
1. Write a script less than 30 seconds long, selling your brand in a natural way from the viewpoint of a customer.
2. Find a customer who is happy to have their service documented in video form, and who can record the audio in a quiet room.
3. Record other content around the salon or collect content from your team filing into Dropbox for future reference.
4. Edit the video using the audio recorded to follow the client experience, chopped in with other visuals that sell your services/ experience.
5. Keep the video fast-paced and no longer than 30 seconds. Change the shot at least every one second potentially 0.8 seconds.
6. Make sure you have a call to action at the end (where to book/ what to do next)
If you would like to commit to you through social media and marketing check out www.notanotheracademy.com/en/ courses/hilton-hundred-membership/
And hurry, my new intake starts this September!
Sophia x
