As some of you may know, I host a monthly live webinar on techniques to help you build a salon retailing culture. If you’ve tuned into one of the sessions, there’s a part near the end where I talk about Instagram. One of the most common questions I hear is: “how do I get better engagement?” Well, it’s something that takes time, effort and patience. But if you’re really dedicated to boosting the engagement you’re getting from your salon Instagram profile, I’ve put a list of – in my opinion and experience – the top 10 tips to do so. Hope that helps!
Effective Ways To Get Clients Engaging With Your Salon Instagram Profile
Tip #1: Switch To An Instagram Business Profile – It’s Free
Let’s start this list with an easy one. Switching from a regular salon Instagram profile to an Instagram Business Profile will only require maximum 10 minutes of your time – and it will pay back. The advantages are simple: it provides your clients with a direct contact method within the app. With a business profile, a “contact” button appears next to your profile photo allowing your customers to either get your business’ address, call your salon or email you. Additionally, get insights on your top posts, followers, and their top locations! What’s not to want? 
Click the link below for an Instagram Business Profile setup step-by-step guide.
Related | Get More Clients With A Salon Instagram Business Profile
Tip #2: Post Consistently – But Make Sure It’s Quality
Getting traction on Instagram is not going to happen overnight. But if you don’t disappear every 3-4 weeks and then reappear suddenly flooding users’ feeds, you should see a gradual growth in engagement and followers. That is, of course, if you post beautifully curated photos – they get a much higher engagement.
Related | 3 Effective Rules To Create Outstanding Instagram Salon Posts
Tip #3: Interact With Other Users And Respond To Comments
The more you engage with other people’s profile and respond to comments left on your salon/spa’s post, the more you’ll gradually see an engagement. Think about Instagram as being a mix between Facebook and Twitter (Instagram = a platform for engaging content + a conversation). After all, you can’t always expect your fans to initiate the first contact! To substantially perk up your engagement, you’re going to have to work for it.
Related | Save Your Spot On The Next Phorest Academy Online Reputation Masterclass
Tip #4: Advertise And Use Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags have proven to be one of the most valuable tools you can use for reaching new clients and raising awareness of your brand. The most common ways to use them is to put them in your post, and hope people find your content by researching those topics. But think about it:
What if you initiated contact through Instagram hashtags to start conversations? By liking and commenting on other people’s posts, you send out notifications to users, which ultimately will make them more likely to check out your profile and engage with you as well – simple as. Oh, and one last thing. Don’t overuse post hashtags (aim for a maximum of 12) or engagement will then decrease.
Related | Which Salon Hashtag Will Actually Reach Your Audience?
Tip #5: Post During Opportune Times
Tip number 5 will help loads. You see on Instagram there is such a thing as posting at the right time. If you’ve switched to a Business Profile already, that means you have access to seeing at what times your followers are most active on the platform – that is, on a day-by-day basis. If your followers aren’t so active at 9:00 AM, maybe try posting at a more opportune time. It does require planning, but know that there are platforms out there to help you schedule posts in advance.
Related | How To Schedule Your Salon Weekly Instagram Posts
Tip #6: Tag Brands & Customers
When you post content on your salon Instagram profile, you can tag people or brands. This also increases engagement, sending a notification to the user you’ve tagged. Let’s say you wanted to show off the fabulous hairstyle you just created and tag both the products/brands you’ve used and your client. Upload the photo, choose your filter (the Mayfair filter is reportedly the platform’s most used one), and when you get to the screen on which you can write a caption, tap “tag friends,” tap somewhere on the photo and find the profile you want to tag. When you’ve tagged everyone, click ‘done’ and continue with your regular posting!
Tip #7: Show Off Your Customers
Recent stats show that images showing real customers using products and pictures with faces get a whopper 30% and 38% more engagement. These stats alone say it all. I don’t think of anything to add. 
Tip #8: Run Contests & Giveaways
Contests and giveaways are a winner -get it- way to boost engagement on Instagram. People love to win things, and unlike Facebook, Instagram doesn’t ‘punish’ people for doing like/tag/share campaigns. Go wild!
Tip #9: Use Instagram Story To Drive Engagement
Easy to access and quick to use, Instagram Stories can help you give customers and potential clients or followers a taste for your brand. The feature can also give you a good indication of what content resonates with your Instagram audience without clogging up your page’s feed. The beauty of this functionality is that you can also tag other profiles – same as a post! Get creative with before & after shots, Q&A’s, salon fun, tutorials, new product announcements, so on and so forth!
Related | Salon Social Media Tips: Using Instagram Stories
Tip #10: Create Instagram Ads Through Facebook
The final tip on the list: pay to run ads on your salon Instagram profile. For this, you’ll need a Facebook page and a Facebook ad account – you’ll be using the same tools you use to create Facebook ads. Your promotion will appear in people’s feed amongst regular posts and will have a “sponsored” mention. These posts will not appear as a post on your salon’s profile feed. The ad can display a call-to-action which appears after a person hovers over it for at least 3 seconds. Slick and efficient, this technique will generate brand awareness and get you more followers.
Find out more about Facebook Ads, click the link below.
Related | Save Your Spot On The Next Phorest Academy Facebook Masterclass
So there you have it – the top 10 tricks to boost your engagement rate on Instagram! Let us know which worked best for you, we’re always eager for feedback!
Thanks for reading,
#LetsGrow
