ABOUT THE AUTHOR: HEATHER BAGBY
Heather is the Director of Communication for Summit Salon Business Center and serves as a consultant for Summit Salon Consulting Group. Heather's enthusiasm and passion for organizational development is instrumental in leading salons to consistently deliver management solutions that drive growth and achieve organizational effectiveness. Prior to joining SSBC, Heather was an Association Executive with SmithBucklin Corporation, the world's largest association management firm serving as the Executive Director for several associations. Heather currently owns a salon, a cosmetology school and is a stockholder in Summit Salon Business Center. Heather is a graduate of Auburn University with degrees in public relations and journalism and holds a certificate in association management from DePaul University.
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The Salon – The Original Social Networking Site!
By Heather Bagby
 Move over Facebook, salons were the original social networking sites! Think about it: the salon industry’s foundation is rooted in social networking! Guest counts are grown through a complicated, yet sophisticated series of personal recommendations. Can you believe we now have the power to create online “friend of a friend of a friend of a friend” networks to drive traffic to our salons? Amazing!
As a business owner you need to have a presence on the internet. Having a website is not an option. I equate not having a website to running a salon without a blow dryer. Seriously! Now you can add to your web presence through social networking sites. Within the last year, the web has exploded with numerous online social networking opportunities. The two most popular are Facebook and Twitter.
There are more than 200 million users on *Facebook who spend more than 4 billion minutes a day connected. And, 30 million of them utilize their “mobile” network to access the page anywhere and everywhere. Did you hear me say, “INSTANT ACCESS?” Yes, you did!
These social networking sites will enhance your website traffic and create new opportunities for your company. Facebook provides a “business page” which allows Facebook users to become “fans” of the respective business pages. This is a remarkable tool, as the fans are updated in real-time as you add promotions, events, salon updates, etc. to your business Facebook page. And, the best part is that it is free!
The same goes for Twitter. You can “tweet” about your specials. As you increase your followers, you will be able to keep them updated on your salon happenings within seconds.
You can also add a Facebook and Twitter icon to your salon’s webpage to cross-promote your internet homes. This will drive traffic to all internet pages (salon website, Facebook and Twitter) to create new opportunities to get your message out to the masses.
Here is an example of how to add the recognized Facebook and Twitter icons to your salon website:
 
Consider a Facebook “fan of the month” offering. This entices people to join and you can reward your faithful followers with gifts of gratitude. If you are smart you will coordinate your messages and create campaigns that marry in-salon promotions to your internet and email marketing campaigns.
Lastly, if you are going to put yourself in these public forums, I highly recommend monitoring them. Undesirable comments can be removed by the administrator of the sites. Enjoy your tweeting and Facebook fun!
*All Facebook statistics were obtained by facebook.com.
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