Nothing is more annoying than a used car salesman pitch being hammered down your throat when you just wanted to test drive the car but don’t intend to purchase that day. What about those mall kiosk people trying to sell you fake hair or cell service EVEN THOUGH you are pretending you are in a deep conversation on an actual cell phone?!?! Stop “faking” being a saleswoman online and JUST BE YOU.

What you say, what you post, and what you share online should be true to who you are as a person and what you want your business to represent. Most of us are what I call “Solo-preneurs” meaning we’re one woman shows. We don’t work for anyone else and nobody works for us. So, when we’re posting on social media or writing a blog for our website, we’re mainly just representing ourselves and our own business. Now, I get that most of you aren’t super-business savvy (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this, right?) or you are just trying to take inspiration from maybe well-meaning friends and family who are giving you the old school business advice by keeping the “you” out of your business and your online presence. You may just post pictures of your lash work with a link to your website or say things like “Appointments Available” or “Buy Now” or my personal favorite “Call to Inquire”. WHO TALKS LIKE THAT ANYMORE?!?!

I’m here to inform you that the power of social media has far outweighed any and all “old school” methods of keeping you, as individual out of the picture, when it comes to marketing your lash business. In fact, it can have a negative impact on your ability to grow your lash business if you are too impersonal, salesy or generic. As a beauty professional, most client’s are looking for someone they can trust to not make them look like a train wreck. They want someone who’s educated in their craft, who is an expert, and who can take the blank canvas God gave this potential client and turn it into a masterpiece that meets the expectations of even the most demanding of clients. How do you, as that beauty service provider and business owner, communicate that you’re the woman for the job to anyone and everyone who stumbles across your business online?

Here are 2 ways you can focus on drawing interest to your social media marketing and online presence by being authentic:

1). Provide Value

If someone is stalking you and your lash work online, give them something to stalk! You can be funny, you can be educational and informative, for all I care you can tell knock knock jokes if what you sell with each lash service is a good joke and a laugh. Just be sure it provides value every single time you post something online.

My rule for consistent engagement and followers: If it doesn’t provide value to the audience I’m trying to attract, it doesn’t get posted.

2). Be a Person

Speak like a human being, hopefully one that’s not crazy or unstable, but one that can be trusted and builds rapport with someone instantly. We work in such an intimate space with our clients, hell we even breath the same air sometimes, and we want to give current and potential clients the comfort of knowing that we’re a caretaker and damn good at what we do!

My rule for humanizing your online presence is: If my post could be said by anyone else and still sound authentic (or like they wrote it) then it’s not authentic enough.

LASHPRENEUR LIGHTBULB

If there’s more lash artists in your city than Starbucks, then you need to make sure you stand out amongst the competition. By providing value and being a real person with your online presence, you’ve already done the hard part in starting a relationship and building trust with potential clients.

All that’s left for you to do is to be consistent in providing value, being human and taking damn good lash photos to display your work and be ready when the client wants to take their stalker status to the next level and book an appointment.

Have a good one,

Tara Walsh
The Lashpreneur