Salon Technology: From Software To Social Networking (Technology Turns Clients On)

“I knew starting out that I wanted my page to be not only professional, but also an extension of the salon’s personality,” Gilmartin says. “I included pictures of the salon, the equipment and the products, as well as links to my salon Web site and Facebook page, the hours of operation, location, phone number and a brief history of the salon. Recently, I began to blog—generally my posts are about vitamin D studies, new services at the salon, the benefits of moderate exposure, and the reasons why eyewear and lotion are so important. I’ve had hundreds of hits so far and I’ve even had customers talk to me about what I post, which shows me that my page is educating tanners.”

Aside from having clients mention something they saw on your MySpace page, how do you track whether it’s really bringing people into the salon? Gilmartin says it’s similar to how you would track whether people are seeing your Web site and then visiting the salon.

“First, with any new customer that comes in, we always ask how they found us and enter that information into their profile on our computer,” she says. “In addition, I have included a coupon on the page that tells potential customers to print the page out to receive five tanning sessions for $20. So, of course, I know that anyone who brings that in found us via MySpace.”

Beyond creating a business-based page, Facebook also offers salons the ability to advertise in very targeted ways through social ads.

James Plummer, owner of Millennium Tanning Salons in Regina, Saskatchewan, says that of the 200,000 people in his city, there are 29,000 people on Facebook. He uses social ads specifically to target females between the ages of 18 and 49 in the city.

“Facebook ads can be filtered by age, gender, location and keyword—a combination of all or you can specifically choose one or two,” he says. “What you choose will change how many people are potentially going to have the ad flashed to them, based on what values they have entered in their personal profiles. So, unlike an unaddressed mailout, whoever you don’t want to see your ad won’t see it.”

To advertise on Facebook, you simply have to have a Facebook account. Then, you create a small text ad linking to your Web site—you also can upload a picture if you like—and select your filters. Finally, you decide how much you are willing to pay-per-click (the more you pay, the more times your ad will be flashed to a Facebook user).

“I have found that about 25 cents to 35 cents per-click is a good amount,” Plummer says. “If you pay too little, no one will see it; too much, and it will get expensive. You can adjust this pay-per-click amount at any time.”