Build Your Brand On Instagram For Stylists Part 1: Create A Profile
You are in a visual industry and Instagram is the perfect platform to market your business to potential clients — it’s free!
First, you need to create your profile.
THEME / AUDIENCE
- Creating a theme for your social media assists helps you develop a strong brand. Think about the colors, fonts, and images that you use, and how cohesively works in your feed.
- Picking a theme for your Instagram will help with planning and organizing your content.
- How do you know when you created your theme? You should be able to describe your Instagram page in one sentence.
- A theme makes it easy for popular blogs and publications to add you to “Top 10” lists and other articles. It also helps fans describe you to potential followers.
- Come up with a memorable name that fits your theme. If you have a business name, use that. If not, names like “The Brow Snob” or “Beauty by Brandy” are catchy and easy to remember.
Examples of good theme:
PROFILE PHOTO
- Keep your profile photo consistent across platforms. This makes your profile easily recognizable.
- The beauty/barber industry is a very personal and social industry. Your profile should always be a photo of yourself. No logos. Clients want to know who they’re booking with.
This is what good bio looks like:
BIO
- You are allowed 150 characters to describe yourself in the bio — make it good.
- Include key words that people search for in your name (like Natasha Haircut Specialist).
- Your bio on your booking website should be professional. But, your Instagram bio can be playful : )
- Have fun with emojis and try line breaks in your bio to keep things clear, and punchy.
- Add the “Book Now” button to your bio.
- Include the city you are located in and a description of what followers can expect from your page.
Use it like this:
CREATE A “LOOK”
- Give your account a consistent look; this will help solidify your brand and image.
- Get your smart phone, find good lighting and shoot some photos.
- Some of the biggest accounts on Instagram are mostly full of iphone photos.
- HOT TIP: The trick is good lighting.
- Natural light is best. Stand by a big window in your salon.
- No window? Find a good backdrop outside to take your photos. (Brick wall, Graffiti wall)
- Keep taking photos until you get a good one. HAVE NO SHAME.
- When you post announcements like last-minute availability and special offers, use apps like Over to add text to photos. Keep your fonts and colors consistent.
- Although smartphones have great cameras, it’s also nice to add some high-quality photos to give your account a more professional feel.
- Try using a free editing app like VSCO or RNI Film and using a preset to give all your photos a consistent look and feel. Also, use Remini to sharpen up photos if blurry.
- If you do services for events, reach out to your client and see if you can get a copy of the event photos.
- Reach out to photographers in your area and volunteer to do services for photoshoots in exchange for a copy of the photos.
Now that you’ve picked a name, uploaded a profile photo, added a great bio, and picked your theme, it’s time to fill your page with amazing content.
Need a little Branding 101?
Check out “Build Your Brand on Instagram for Stylists Part 2” to see exactly what type of content you should be posting to build your following and get more bookings.
Once you’ve got your content strategy down, you’re ready to get more followers: Build Your Brand on Instagram For Stylists Part 3: Get Followers
