Twitter and Facebook are not interchangeable terms. Veteran users are familiar with the differences, but those that are new to salon marketing may not see the differences immediately (and perhaps just see them both as an annoyance). These two social gems are great in their own rights and bring a lot to the table for salon marketing, with plenty of social savvy salons raking in the short, medium and long term benefits of a strong social media program.
There are a lot of similarities that can be applied to the networks. For example, both Facebook and Twitter show a good response with the use of photographs. Sharing images tends to increase the number of visitors to your business Page. On Twitter, tweets with a photo link have engagement rates over two times higher than tweets that include no photo. On Facebook, posts with photographs attract 57 percent more likes and seven times more comments than posts without an image. Applying good content principles to both networks will get you the best results.
They also share the same preference for shorter, snappier posts, even if Twitter is famed for cutting you off at 140 characters. Twitter messages fewer than 100 characters perform 17 percent better than those longer in length, according to Buddy Media. When a business posts on Facebook, keep in mind that the first 18 characters serve as the meta description. So make words count when it comes to marketing your salon. This changes how you phrase your posts on both networks and you should seriously look at your other marketing, too!
While some of these strategies are similar, there are some key differences, including the way each audience is addressed and cultured should be tailored expressly to its unique points of difference. Both platforms provide excellent ways businesses can market their company to users of the social media powerhouses.
Key Difference #1 – King of the Newsfeed Hill
Whether a Facebook Page’s fans see the post is up to the Facebook news feed. The Facebook EdgeRank algorithm was created to select the most applicable posts in the news feed and put those in the default Top News tab on that particular user’s feed. Marketers post on Facebook in an effort to attain likes and comments. A high engagement increases EdgeRank over time and drives awareness. The result? Content that is exposed to your current fans’ friends. This means that marketers should ensure that each and every post they make will best engage their audience. While engagement is your goal on Twitter as well, it’s not going to penalize you by hiding your posts like Facebook does.
Key Difference #2 – Consistently Chatty
Twitter’s stream shares tweets in a reverse chronological order without any prioritization logic. This means that followers will likely see tweets if they’re reading Twitter on a very regular basis, or if a large number of people they follow decide to retweet the original tweet. Unfortunately, if no one retweets the info you’ve shared, people may miss your tweet marketing your salon. Simultaneously, you may miss opportunities to join in conversations that are relevant to your salon business and industry. Over-chatting on Facebook can alienate your audience, while Twitter embraces the ‘more, the merrier’ mentality.
Key Difference #3 – Who is at the Party?
The other main difference to consider is who is on each network. Have you ever asked your TOP clients where they prefer to network online? Select your top clients in the salon – the one’s that come back regularly, that spend the most money and refer clients – and then ask them what social networks they spend the most time at. You’ll find a mix, likely, but there is a different type of client on each network and they also interact on each network differently and at different times. Better than asking them when they are online, there are online management applications that will automatically post to each network when they know your followers are online and are more likely to engage with your posts.
As you market your salon, look at Facebook and Twitter not as a choice, but both as an equally great option to effectively achieve your goals.
Tell us: Where do you spend most of your time social networking (and why)?
Author Bio: Valorie Reavis
Social Marketer, foodie, closet geekA marketing professional who has focused primarily on the hair and beauty business for of the past decade, Valorie now runs linkup marketing, a digital marketing agency for the hair and beauty professional. Valorie works to engage clients in the marketing process and help them successfully engage with their clients and community. Energetic and passionate about the industry, Valorie focuses on blending traditional and digital media in order to bring salons closer to their clients.
