Savvy Social With Alex Ferris
Our Super Stylist Alex Ferris won our ‘Savvy Social - Most Engaged’ award at our Awards Night back in September and we thought we would catch up with her about her top tips from managing her own social accounts. Alex puts her Instagram account down as the reason she has clients coming from all over the country to her salon in Bradford and operates a waiting list for new clients. She now has that many enquiries, she passes these to another stylist based at her salon. So how exactly did Alex manage to achieve this? Feeling completely out of her depth with social media, Alex employed a local agency to help her handle her Instagram account. They have supported her with the platform so she can make the most of the latest features, and Alex has shared what she has learnt.
Consistency
I have my ring light and positioning set up all the time as I want consistency in all my imagery and on my profile page. This includes all imagery being at the exact same angle. I’m the same about my posts captions too by making sure each post has all the information about the hair. Putting as much detail into the captions saves me so much time in answering people who want to know the information, such as the colour and the brand that is used.
Aesthetics
I have lots of quirks when it comes to aesthetics and having a neat feed is one of them. I use borders on all my posts that ties in with my branding colour palette. It looks nice, it's not messy and that makes me happy.
Reels
This is a feature I’d love to use more but I am currently lost on doing this by myself. So, I hand over my phone to my clients and let them get creative. This might seem extreme but my clients’ know the latest Tik Tok trends to re-create. Whilst they do this, I make myself busy elsewhere in the salon so they don’t feel like I’m watching over them and they don’t disappoint! Check out some of these here.
Portrait Function
I always use this feature on the phone to ensure the focus is on the hair and not on the background.
Messages
To save time on messaging, I have some regular question replies saved in Quick Replies. It’s important to me that I reply personally and timely, so I try to do this regularly.
Following
Originally, I would always follow back, but because of this I couldn't keep on top of my feed. So, it was time for a clear out and now I only follow my clients, and this means I can focus on them to engage on their posts and see their gorgeous hair selfies!
Client Friendships
I have a great friendship with many of my clients (especially when they sit in my chair for so long) and are happy to tag me on their pictures and support my business. They also recommend me to their friends too and attract new enquiries, it’s a way of saying thank you and they know it really helps me.
#LiftTheLid – Sharing application shots and posts are some of my most popular content.
When It's Not Right
I always make a note on the post to say if something about the picture is not quite right. As an example, this could be if they have had colour work elsewhere and I don’t want that to be reflected on my business.
Best Posting Times
Saturday is not a great posting day for me, but Sunday morning around 11am when my clients have woken up after the night before works really well. Check when your clients are most active in your insights and test your own post times.
Boost Posts
If you can afford to do this now and again then this can be beneficial, new people get to see the work you’ve created.
Work/Life Balance
We all know how scrolling can be draining as we are now contactable 24/7 people can be impatient. So, to avoid my anxiety escalating, I limit my usage. I will check during the day when I’m free, my lunch hour (I’m religious about keeping that time to eat and rest) but once I am home, I keep this to just an hour and then I cut it off. I don’t have a personal account either, so everything is just in one place.
Give Alex’s accounts a follow and show your support to a fellow extensionist on Instagram and Facebook.
You might also like to read our previous blog ‘Get social - how to get featured on our feeds'.
