new social media tools and how it will benefit your hair business

New Social Media Tools & How It'll Benefit Your Hair Business

Privacy is Dead

Do you remember where you were when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg let it slip that privacy is dead?

It was a pretty impactful statement from someone who owns one of the largest social media outlets in the world. Especially, when he rarely addresses the public. I don't think that he nor the rest of the country believed that that one statement would cause that much uproar. But, here we are.

Over the past few months, so many of my friends and family members have been stepping back from social media. In fact, if you look at the stats:

Almost 40% of users have started to take a break from checking their Facebook account, sometimes for weeks at a time.

The reason, well first many people are beyond upset that Facebook sold their personal data to big corporations. And the idea that our data was possibly manipulated to impact the most significant government election in the world is a close second.

facebook-page

Highlight Reels

A more prevalent problem is a lot of people are tired of watching the highlight reel of someone that they used to know.

Whether it is an old high-school friend or foe people don't want to see them thriving and having all these great experiences while they are sitting behind a desk. It gives them a sense of jealousy called “Facebook Depression.” Although they are not in this person's life, and they might not want to be, it's hard to compare themselves to that person. It's not a good feeling.

This feeling of withdrawal is happening across all social media platforms. It is not just Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter it is becoming too much across the board for everyone.

How This Affects Your Business

The big question is: where does that leave small businesses?

With vast droves of people leaving social media for days at a time, this could impact not only your marketing efforts but your sales. If you're a new business trying to break into social media marketing, you need to change your tactics. Stop looking at old tactics that may have worked in the past?

Keep reading for more information on new social media norms that can help you to market your small business.

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Niche Marketing Is The Future

Did you know that over 42% of the world's population has at least one social media account? Baffling right? I know. This means that even though people are leaving sites like Facebook and Instagram social media is not going anywhere.

Instead of a new type of social media is forming, one that brings together specific types of people like moms in a particular area, runners, or entrepreneurs. For an example of these segmented groups you can look at the Private Label Extensions: Start a Hair Business group, although it is on Facebook this group is still considered a niche where you can talk to people with like-minded business ideas. This is why a Facebook group is so important because it builds a community.

New social media platforms are taking it a step further and creating completely separate markets away from Facebook. A lot of people use things like slack to build these communities. They are really beneficial when you want to learn something or express yourself.

You may be wondering, if you're a marketer how do you penetrate these groups to use it to your business advantage and gain sales?

Tricks Of The New Trade

Laying out the facts, we know that traditional forms of social media are no longer about people connecting.

The days of allowing people to keep in touch with each other are over. Long gone are the days when people are praising Facebook for allowing them to find their childhood best friend. It has become, so ad populated that a lot of people are avoiding this Facebook feed.

As a small business, you need to know things like this so that you can adapt your content and adapt where you're putting that content. Participate in new social platforms that are becoming more user-friendly.

social-media

The Personal Touch

Let's talk about contacts. Any social media platform that enables its users to form personal relationships with each other will be the winner.

For example, the new social media platform Find Sisterhood allows women to anonymously post any private discussion topics that they want to receive feedback on. It's cool because it has an anonymity feature and anonymity is something that Facebook no longer offers.

When we say anonymity, we mean top-secret, CIA clearance. Not even the people who are running the app know who's posting on this app, but it is strictly for women and marketers really could use this information. With the anonymity at play, it doesn't matter what type of data Find Sisterhood is selling.

There's not a face attached to it. Which means, it is a goldmine for marketers.

Find Sisterhood

Say you wanted to learn more about female pattern baldness and how hair extensions can help women suffering from it.

All you have to do is go into the platform and ask if women with thinning crowns would be interested in hair extensions or pieces. Wait to receive your responses and then decide if you would like to proceed with your survey. Because you know the platform is exclusive to women everyone answering will give you the information that you need.

Then you can dig deeper and ask who has issues with wearing sew-ins if their hair is thinning verse clip-ins verse a band to keep the hair extensions attached to your head.

Once you get answers to those types of questions, you can then ask who wears what kind of hair. Are people interested more in a natural option, or do they want a straighter choice? Would they go for something straight first even though they will have to manipulate their hair more?

Are they interested in just rocking their natural texture with all of the changes they're going through with losing their hair? It would be less manipulation and something that they may consider sticking to. These are things that you need to know when choosing your assortment.

Considering that female baldness is such a sensitive topic, and it would help them to give you candid responses take that information, and do with it what you will to then create your assortment. You know that you have a winner because you talk to your customer directly you don't need to know who they are to know who's buying it.

In actuality, you never know who your customer is on such a personal level anyway so it really shouldn't matter.

New-weave

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Mr. Rogers taught us all about being friendly to our neighbors and building up our local communities.

To be honest, the man probably is one of my first friends. Regardless of my learning those lessons 20 years ago, he has a valid point now. "Nextdoor" is a social media platform that enables you to exchange information with your neighbors. This can work for your brand because you can post about your business and then people will be able to find where you are in your neighborhood.

You can also look into what other people in your community are posting. Use that as a way to keep up with things going on around your business and events that you may want to vend at or participate in. The app also allows you to receive daily posts from people who are nearby. This will really help you with market research.

It may be challenging to figure out how to get a dollar directly from this app. They aren't allowing business pages to pop up in the form of a marketplace. However, the information alone will help you to find a way to increase your sales.

However, once businesses can make that leap in this app, you can increase engagement with your customers directly in their vicinity. It also increases views and traffic to your website.

influencer-marketing

The Strength In Numbers

It should come as no surprise to you that small communities perform better than larger communities in the marketing world.

Facebook and Twitter have become too massive to give personal interaction that everyone wants. We are on information overload, and there is a constant need for content, but personal communication never started out as content.

According to Zephoria Marketing: Facebook update 300,000 status updates per minute and 500,000 comments per minute. Twitter updates 6,000 tweets per second.

Care2

Knowing that people want these personal interactions and they are interested in bypassing an algorithm that will alter the post that they can see, businesses with a higher cause may want to consider looking into platforms like Care2.

Care2 supports businesses that are looking to make a difference. If you are a hair company that provides lace fronts or lace wigs to wig makers that give wigs to children suffering from alopecia, this is a platform for you. It will not only Champion your business and support it with organic conversation and traffic.

The main topics that this platform covers include petitions, healthy living, and ways to change certain things in the community. Core values are trending again. This is the type of content and interactions that a lot of people are looking for when they take a break from Facebook or Instagram.

There is a way to monetize this shift in social media usage.

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Curation Is Key

As you notice your target market moving from prominent social media platforms, two smaller ones make sure that you are changing your message to move with them. They will block you if they see that you're keeping that same big company mentality of sell sell sell. Private label extensions do this well with their consumer base.

PLE has created its community of people who want to start a business, and not only do they let them become partners with the brand but they encourage the members to become partners with each other. Whether its sharing information that they have researched or lived through PLE also provides them with tangible tools in their laptop giveaways or their discounts on courses.

All of this information is curated and funneled to the group away from the algorithm impacting a standard Facebook feed.

Friends vs. Followers

The future lies in one-on-one interactions and conversations with the people who are supporting your brand. When we went from friends to followers, a wall started to form. That wall impacted how people interact and see brands.

The brand is no longer a participant in someone's life, but instead, you lessened to a fan. When you are a fan, you don't want to take part in a brand's growth. Alternatively, you want to watch it, but that's not how a small business grows or maintains. You need people who want to participate in your brand and be a part of it.

Then they can not only engage in the conversations and products that you are providing but also start those conversations with other people who may not know about your business.

The Future of Social Media

Social media is changing and for you to be successful and you need to progress right along with it. Let us know what you think about the new trends in social media. How do you plan on altering your social media strategy? Tell us in the comments below.
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