“If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” - Vincent Van Gogh
Ever wonder what nuggets of wisdom get thrown around at a Live OWC Session Q&A on the Business and Marketing of Nails? Well look no further. We detail a few social media strategies on how to boost confidence via everyday small breakthroughs and to reframe negative self-talk in order to support your business growth.
TELL YOUR STORY
We’re like a broken record over here. Create content. The most important place to market your nail business is on social media. As of this post, that means Instagram, FaceBook, and perhaps everyone’s new obsession TikTok. You must create content, then post it on one, if not all of these three social media platforms. So what does that really mean? When we say, “create content”; it’s really just an invitation to tell the story about your daily life in nails. Don’t overthink it. Work your way up. Post multiple times a day. Post a few stories. Just do it.
What you do in this world matters and we want you to connect with yourself and your clients. Use your social media accounts like a visual journal. It’s great at documenting your truth, behind the scenes or use it to manifest your personal and professional goals like a vision board. Here are a few prompts to consider for content. What’s on your mind today? How are you feeling? What got you out of bed? Why did you get into nails? Was it always nails for you? What was your life like before nails? What is your life like now? What is your favorite thing nails? Who or what is inspiring you inside the industry or outside of the industry? What do you do well in your business? What are you hoping to improve? What in the world in general and in the world of nails specifically makes you feel most alive? It’s posting everything about you and your work in nails that is serious, silly, and often imperfect.
THE FREAKY HAND
Creative artists have a way of getting stuck; in their own heads or in the pursuit of perfection. The creative mind likes to set traps to keep us paralyzed from trying out new things. We “think” we know how everything is going to turn out but we in reality we don’t. Then we make the mistake of “going mental”: believing in all our judgemental and anxiety-laden thoughts as reality. That’s just not true. Consider each individual post to your social media as a regularly scheduled act of bravery. Experiment and tweak. See what gets all engagement and what doesn’t. Experiment and tweak again. If you’re feeling too blocked to come up with something for whatever reason; post virtually any image or video with you using the YN Nail Trainer. This freaky hand has an uncanny way of getting people to comment and pay attention.
BUSY BUSY BUSY
Want another valid reason to post a lot? Social media is a volume game. Anyone can be good at it. The more you post, the more your current and future clients get to see your work. Collect and curate images that as a whole will act like your portfolio. Show people you are working on your craft. This is how it works.
For the established nail tech who’s fully booked and bank rolled: Being too busy is not an excuse. It takes less than a minute to do snap a pic of each client. Share the abundance and show us how it’s done upwards of 7 times a day. For the new to the business nail tech with almost no clients: Not being busy at all is also not an excuse. You’ve got a lot of time on your hands? Get to work. You can do your own nails. Loop in the friends and family to practice, practice, practice. Utilize all the downtime and harness it straight into marketing purposes to build your clientele. If you’re just starting out, your social media is a great calling card or lookbook. If you don’t have nail content; how do you show potential clients what you can do? Use our YN Instagram feed as your content training wheels until you can go for it with your own customers. We don’t mind. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery!
THE WORLD IS GOING TO HELL
Social media is not just a young person’s game. It’s for anyone and everyone who wants to own a business and stay in business. So how are you going to keep up? You have to take action when there is a lot on the line. Get on board or get run over. If you don’t adjust to today’s marketing; you are going to struggle. Traditional communication and entertainment programming has gone out the window. The world we live in is now on-demand. You can hate the way the world has changed but you cannot stop it from happening.
You now live in this digital era and you had better learn how to utilize the way of this world. It’s not flyers, trade shows, print advertising, or television spots. It’s text message, email, Amazon, Expedia, OpenTable, Netflix, Venmo, Uber, Instacart and GoFund Me. If you haven’t made the shift. Kick it off in the right direction. You have no idea of what you are capable of until you just start doing it.
Someone is new in town; looking for someone to do her nails. Her old nail tech is on social media. If you aren’t on social media; the chances of this customer considering you is non-existent. Let’s repeat. If you don’t post anything; you have 100% chance not getting that new client. You don’t want to limit yourself to what worked in the past. You want to your doors open to any potential client from age 16 to 116. These potential clients are consuming everything via social media. FaceBook serves up the 40 year olds. Instagram serves up everyone else. And Tik Tok is serving up your rising client base of tweens and teens.
JUDGEMENT
You might be worried if people see my work and don’t like it; they won’t come to me. You might be too shy or hate the sound of your own voice on camera. Your fear of being judged is standing in the way of your business getting exposure. Our advice is try to break free from those self-imposed chains. Believe in yourself and your talent. Face your fears and you’ll figure out what works for you. Check your ego, worry and insecurity at the door. If you are posting and no one is coming, what can you learn from this? How can you adapt? The market will give you all the information you need to know. The truth is a scary thing to confront. Don’t take it personally. Just don’t. Pivot and persevere. Stay positive. Ask yourself questions. What am I doing right? Where can get better? Get perspective. Good content is so subjective. What resonates isn’t always what you expect. Circle back to your older successful posts. See what worked and try to capture that again. Bask in the sting of the negative post as much as you bask in the glory of the good one.
**This is an adaption from our YN Biz Talk playlist on YouTube, “Nail Business & Marketing (Live Session OWC)”.
Follow our YN YouTube Channel and click here to watch the full discussion here:
14 October 2019