"IF YOU WANT HAPPINESS FOR A LIFETIME; HELP SOMEONE ELSE."
-- CHINESE PROVERB
As a business owner, education is an essential tool to breathe life into your work. It creates a unique community of your very own. Social media is a chance to be in connection with the people who share your passion and interests. Education is a core ingredient of content creation for social media.
People often ask what I should post to get started? Satisfying people’s curiosity about nail care and teaching them the “how” of things is the most engaging form of content on our social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or even our longer form YouTube channel. There is no detail too big or too small to share. (If you’ve watched a home organizing or cooking video) you know what we’re talking about. All of it has value as a piece of content. It can run the full range from tips for disinfection, workstation set up, nail prep, pinching nail forms, pouring liquid, sculpting to glitter nail polish removal.
If you’re confused on what kind of education you can provide, ask yourself what is your signature move and what is a basic version of it? What social media tutorials or stories are you, yourself, obsessed with? Post techniques and procedures that really work for you and post what you’re still hoping to improve. Showcase the practical things you could have only learned on the job. Keep the conversation open. Share both your wins and your failures. Show them who you are and what is important to you as a nail tech.Think about who your audience is. Introduce yourself as a resource, a friendly mentor and expert guide. You are a talented professional in the nail care field and let them know that.
If you are a nail tech and your goal is educating other professional nail techs, offer techniques that could hook a person up. Celebrate your own mastery and share tips that make the work smarter, faster, better, easier, and more accessible. If you’re a nail tech with a consumer focus, there’s no better way to grab their attention than to toot your own horn. Beep. Beep. Folks, it’s time to highlight your amazing skills. This doesn’t have to be limited to the flashiest nail art trends. When you educate your client, you generate trust. It's a preventative measure. It clears away assumptions about the products and tools of the trade used by highly trained nail professionals.
For example, many consumers are afraid of the “drill”and the pain it inflicts. Oh, hello there. This is where we inform the client that the tool they are referring to is called an E-File. Demonstrate how gentle your E-File technique is with a smiling tickled client with healthy nails. Nail enhancements are not a trade off for pain and wrecked natural nails. If your clients are worried about salon cleanliness, shoot a story on how you keep your work environment pristine and germ-free. Shout out your safety and disinfection protocols. Talk up how amazingly organized your workstation setup. Share how serious you are about your prep and finishing skills. Explain the difference between your value and others in the business.
The purpose of educating your clients is for them to realize that they are receiving impeccable service. Prioritize a relaxed experience and clients will keep coming back. What does this style of education look like? How can you be the first person that comes to mind whenever they have a question about nails? You might think a customer won’t care about your technique for nail prep or upper arch application. Even if they don’t totally understand the structure of the nail or the science of monomers and polymer chains; they are going to be proud of your knowledge. For example, let’s discuss upper arch application for nail enhancements. If you’re talking to a pro, you should be giving tips on how to get the right structure down and how to make the nails look tight.
Now if you are trying to talk about the same subject to a client, “upper arch application” might be a phrase that goes right over their heads. So you explain it to them where it counts. “See here, when I work on building up the upper arch on your nail bed? If I am doing it right, you're never going to have to worry about your nails breaking.” Do you have clients coming in with nails that look flat? Do a little story on proper shaping and the C-curve. “If I lay down the C-curve properly, no one will be able to tell if your nails are real or fake. They will just look naturally long.” Know the audience and parcel out information that would be important to them. Common nail care problems and their solutions are exactly the kind of things that you can educate about.
Creating value isn’t about offering cheap services. Value is about offering the highest quality experience regardless of the price tag. Most of our social media followers are nail pros. If you don’t have ideas, you already have the ultimate resource for content. Check us out on all our YN social media platforms. Take it from there and make it your own. You don’t have to reinvent it. Put it into your own voice and educate your client base. Your focus on creating and posting regularly scheduled content will be rewarding while reaching back to lift someone else up along the way.
**This is an adaptation from our YN Biz Talk playlist on YouTube, BIZ TALK: WHY YOU SHOULD MAKE EDUCATIONAL CONTENT”, which originally aired on December 15, 2020.
***Follow our YN YouTube Channel and click here to watch the full discussion:
19 March 2021