Managing your online presence is key to building a great reputation and a successful business. If you’re like most people, you have several social media accounts, maybe a website, certainly an online booking platform, and post images and videos to support your business. All this activity, and more, creates your online presence, or digital footprint. Monitoring and managing it is important to ensure the right presentation of your reputation and brand. Your business success depends on it. Keep reading to learn how to manage your online presence and boost your brand.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
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My Experience Has Taught Me
“Consistency is so important in any type of marketing. Establishing your brand, creating a style, and then using that style in all your content, including social media posts, images, and videos, will help your salon stand out. It may take a little longer to create the content. You will have to spend more time editing and adding style elements. But you will appreciate how each post, image, and video has a similar look and feel over time. It’s the way marketing professionals do it, and it pays off. People seeing your content will notice the consistency and appreciate your brand professionalism. That can only boost your success.”
Why Managing Your Online Presence is Important
Managing your online presence is more important than ever. According to an article published by Palowise, a social media analytics company, “84% of the worldwide population bases purchasing decisions on a company’s online reputation. This highlights the undeniable power your digital footprint holds in shaping brand perception and driving customer behavior.”
Your online presence, or digital footprint, is the collective impression you create through your online activities. It includes your social media profiles, comments, and content representing you and your business online. Making sure your digital footprint is accurate, consistent, and represents your desired brand is vital to your success. You must actively monitor and manage it. That’s because it’s easy for others to mention you and your business, to link to your salon website or booking page, and to create content about you. Often, these activities are done without you even knowing it. Therefore, keeping vigilant over your digital footprint can determine whether you have a great reputation and a thriving business.
Start with Monitoring Your Digital Footprint
Monitoring your online presence is the first step to properly promoting your brand. Actively monitoring the presentation of your brand online helps you stay aware of what’s said and allows you to respond quickly. Here are 3 activities to do:
1. Conduct an Online Search
Search your business name on Google. While Google isn’t the only search engine, it handles 90% of the world’s search volume, so it’s the best place to start. Be sure to conduct this search in an incognito window. That way, your results won’t be influenced by your search history.
Review the search results, including any images or videos. Also, if you are not already checking review sites like Yelp and your Google Business Profile, start now. For tips on managing your Google Business Profile, read our blog, “How a Google Business Profile Makes Your Salon More Successful.”
This exercise will give you a good idea of your brand perception and serve as a baseline for developing an action plan for improvement. Make monitoring your online presence a routine. Things can change quickly, and you need to stay on top of them. Create a weekly reminder in your calendar if needed.
2. Set Up Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a free tool that notifies you anytime your name or business name appears online. Therefore, you can stay updated on new mentions and quickly respond to reviews and content published about your salon. To get started, here is a guide from Google Support.
3. Use an Online Reputation Management Tool
Online Reputation Management tools are available to help you with the task of protecting your brand. While you certainly can do all the work yourself, these tools are a great solution for busy professionals. A Google search for “Online Reputation Management Companies” will yield dozens of companies providing varying degrees of service and pricing, so be sure to do your diligence to find the right one for you.
Build and Promote Your Brand
If you’ve heard the expression, “content is king”, believe it. Here are three tips to build and promote your brand.
1. Build Your Content
Building and promoting your brand depends largely on the content you create and publish. Social media posts, blogs, images, and videos that provide value to your audience will establish and enhance your reputation as an authority in your field.
To help increase your online visibility, develop a list of words for your most popular services and use those words consistently in your content. You may appear in search results when someone uses one of those words in their query.
2. Participate in Forums
Participate in online forums, like Reddit. Google favors forums in search results and has a business relationship with Reddit. By providing useful information and helpful advice in Reddit threads, you will enhance your brand’s visibility and may drive traffic to your salon’s website, booking page, or social media platforms. Plus, Google may include your content in the AI snippets appearing at the very top of their results pages.
3. Consistency is Key
In this case, consistency means the message and look of your content. Whether you create content once a week or seven times a week, the look and words you use in your content must be consistent. Make sure that your brand messaging is consistent. Use the same profile picture, logo, and color scheme. That way, your salon is instantly recognizable on every platform you choose to promote it. For more information about brand building, please read our blog, “How a Strong Brand Can Elevate Your Salon’s Success.”
Conclusion to How to Manage Your Online Presence
Monitoring and managing your online presence is key to your salon’s success. To get started, search for your company’s name on Google. Set up Google Alerts, and look into online reputation management tools. These activities will give you insight into how your business is currently presented online. Next, review and freshen your social media profiles and create fresh content for your website and booking platforms. All new content should look consistent with your brand style. Messaging should be consistent as well. That way, your brand becomes instantly recognizable across all platforms you use.
A tight presentation of your business spanning your digital footprint will boost your visibility and better promote your brand. As a result, more people will recognize your business, and those looking for a new stylist will consider you for their next service. bello Salon Suites can help with your online monitoring. We help salons build their business every day and are happy to review your digital footprint with you. If you want a fresh perspective on your content effectiveness and tips to improve it, just ask. It’s just one of the ways we provide support to our family of salon professionals.
bello Salon Suites is a collection of 106 custom, private salon suites for rent to hairstylists, barbers, and cosmetology professionals in Sacramento, California. Privately owned and locally based, our facility features four stylish lounges and an outside garden for a truly zen-like experience. On top of that, we offer more resources and amenities than any other salon suites company in town, like ample FREE parking steps from our front door. Take a tour today and see for yourself. For income potential, perks, and value, nothing compares to bello.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Conner
Tim Conner is the Founder, Owner, & CEO of bello Salon Suites. He brings nearly 50 years of experience in operations leadership and has helped build successful companies by driving process optimization and creating an extraordinary customer experience.