Hey guys!! So I need some help....I feel like I’m in a grey area with my marketing/advertisement. I want to grow my presence on social media. I’ve paid for ads, paid others to repost, etc but I’m still not getting the results I want. Any advice on what I should do?
Ok so this is extremely long. I'm sorry for such a long post, but I went through and tried to look at almost everything.
PROFILE PIC:
Your logo is pretty cool however it’s very hard to see it as a small profile pic. If I’m looking at comments from your page on someone else’s page, the icon is not anything that would grab my attention and stop me from scrolling. If possible, I’d say switch to something that has more contrast or a quality photograph of a handsome man with a full luscious beard if you can book a model for a shoot.
BIO:
Your bio is good. It’s short and straight to the point.
LINK:
Because your bio says products and services, when I clicked on the link, I was expecting to see which products are available and which services are available. If you want to gain income and followers beyond what’s local, it could be a good idea to start selling products online. Possibly having a home page link that provides two options:
- Shop online.
- Schedule a service.
Or simply have both options available in the menu of the website. This would open the door up to people who are not in Georgia if they’re interested in purchasing beard oil, a beard mask, a satin beard bonnet, etc. If you’re planning to get a website designer, make sure it’s someone who knows about SEO (search engine optimization) so you can rank nicely in search engines for your products. You’ll also need quality images of each product on the website.
PICTURES + VIDEOS:
This is where the page needs work. You can buy all the promo in the world, but if your page is not enticing when someone arrives, they’re not going to stay.
- Font choice. You have too many different fonts going on. There’s no branding or cohesiveness that makes me feel like, I know I’m looking at Beard Culture by BHB. Figure out which look you want to go with and stick with it or close to it when you’re planning to do something with words. Personally, clean, simple, and modern is always a win in my book but figure out your style.
- Aim to have high quality photos. Even if you are shooting images and videos with a phone, having natural light, and a clean lens can work wonders. Editing can also work wonders. Here’s a good video that discusses how to shoot products with your phone and how to edit with your phone:
- I’ve also seen some stylists have one section of their salon where there’s a selfie wall and a ring light. It’s a cool place where they can shoot client pics and get the same quality every time. Good natural light is usually king on Instagram though.
- Definitely keep it going with the videos that show your services here and there.
- Select the right cover for your video uploads. One upload was just a blue block until you click it. That method is not very engaging. Attractive covers on videos are important in general and increases engagement.
- Try not to use black boxes around your videos. Make them fill in the entire Instagram square. Film with Instagram's size in mind. Visually it just looks more put together. And it’s more likely fill up more the viewer’s screen when they’re clicking/scrolling - vs having it cropped in with black bars.
- The filter selfies bring down the quality of the page a bit. Just doesn’t seem necessary. There was also a post where you said “DM me for beard treatment appts” but used your feet as the promo. Feet have nothing to do with the company or services so you definitely have to think of those things before posting stuff for the company. Media should go hand-in-hand with what the company is about.
- If you’re going to post client selfies as the “Beard of the Day,” try to use pictures that focus on the face and beard. Full body shots are completely unnecessary unless they’re of quality. You want people to be able to see the detail of your work. Pictures should also be filter free. Just makes it easier to see.
- When posting text photos (your latest upload for example), it's probably best to not make it into a video. Your last upload scarificed a bit of the quality since it was video. Would have looked much better and much more clearer as a picture/easier to read the smaller text.
IDEAS:
Your page could also provide knowledge. These are things that can make viewers follow if they feel they’ll learn something from you - even if they’re not close enough to book your services. It could also lead to them buying products. Here’s a few ideas below. These could be video content if you’re going to shoot it well. Or could be text, but maybe mix it in with pictures (a pictorial) to keep it interesting. Just remember to not overdo it with wordy pics. In the words of my professor, “people are on Instagram for entertainment not press releases.” Here’s the ideas:
- 5 Tips For Growing Your Beard
- How To Fix a Patchy Beard
- Best Oils for stimulating hair growth
- How to Detangle Your Beard
- How to Trim Your Beard at Home
- Reasons to Use Beard Oil
- Reasons to Use Beard Mask
- Why Steams are Good
- How to Minimize razor bumps
- What does your beard say about you? (State things other’s think about beards)
That type of information could also be used as captions since many people love somewhat lengthy captions these days. Longer captions have higher engagement. Hashtags can be effective but you need more than hashtags for good engagement.
You MIGHT even be able to do posts of celebrities and repost their IG selfies with credit of course but don’t make it seem like they’re endorsing you or using your product if they’re not. I believe creative commons would cover the repost and protect you from copyright infringement since you’re doing it in a reporting manner and it’s not paid content, but do your research/due diligence. Example gallery posts could be:
- Best Beards in Basketball
- Best Beards in HollyWood
- Best Beards in the NFL
- Best Beards in Music
Posts that may lead to interaction:
- Which Beard Style Do You Have?
- Lace-front beard? Pass or No Pass?
- What does your beard say about you? (Allow them to tell how their beards are part of their self expression)
Pages to look at for inspiration:
https://instagram.com/beardbrand
https://instagram.com/blackmensbeard
Why should you do any of this?
The reason this stuff is important is because
quality original content attracts attention of viewers and ranks better with instagram’s algorithm. If Instagram can see that viewers are staying on your page longer, commenting, and clicking like, usually they’ll rank you with higher importance and show your content to your followers more. It can also land you on the explore page which is super good. Also you don’t want viewers to skip your posts too many times when it’s on the feed. To instagram that says, “people don’t want to see this content, let’s show it less.” Making quality original content is one of the best ways to have a high return on paid promos and a great way to gain and keep followers - and attract sales.
Anyway, I hope this helps! Wishing you a ton of success!!!!
