Figuring out the best way to navigate Facebook’s algorithm so your salon’s page reaches your customers can be frustrating. We get it! You are doing everything you can to put the best social foot forward only to get buried. Part of Facebook’s algorithm is to drive more authentic interactions. This means that brands are expected to promote quality content that drives real interactions and shares.

Where do you begin and how? Here are five ways to keep your salon in Facebook’s good graces.

1. Timing is Everything

Facebook prioritizes posts that have the most engagement, which is why timing your posts is everything. To tap into maximizing engagement, you need to post often and when most of your audience is active on social media. The average user is on Facebook for 5-6 times a day and 11 minutes on average per session. With a gazing average of 1.8 seconds, that window to get their attention gets small fast. Posting when your audience is typically most active can boost your chances of being seen by more followers. Posts lose steam within 3 hours. Scheduling posts throughout the day will give your page the best opportunity to be seen.

2. Video, Video, Video

You have heard it before! Video content drives higher engagement and interactions with your followers. It drives engagement 6x more than a picture. Video is perfect for starting conversations and keeping your customers engaged with your posts. The longer they are engaged, the more the algorithm wants to prioritize your video to keep it at the top of your followers feed. Video gives you the best opportunity to reach your customers throughout their day.

Learning to embrace Facebook Live to create real-time content will help prioritize your posts. Live produces notifications that ping your followers and helps your videos stand out. It can be a how-to tutorial, a tour of your salon, a spotlight on a stylist, or a product feature — pretty much anything you want to bring to your customer’s attention. You don’t need a big budget, and being spontaneous when going LIVE is a-ok!

Video is not about outsmarting Facebook’s algorithm as much as it is about giving it precisely what the platform wants. Facebook rewards organic reach to posts that engage and hold user’s attention. Video is a no brainer.

3. Sharing is Caring

The biggest secret to improving your reach is in the hands of everyone who works in your salon and your fan base. Facebook prioritizes content from friends and family over businesses. Now is the perfect time to start an advocacy program! With your page’s reach already restricted by the algorithm, encouraging your team to share your content instantly amplifies your reach. Not only that but since it is coming from friends and family versus your brand, people will be 16 times more likely to actually read it.

4. Mix Your Content Up

Keep your feed fresh with different types of content. With all the posting going on, you can imagine that it is easy to run out of material quickly. Running out of content can cause a salon to post the same types of content over and over or only posting content once. Consider reintroducing older pieces by repurposing the content and freshening up the description. Using apps like Desygner or Canva can take an older post and give it a set of fresh eyes in no time flat!

Using a posting strategy that gives you a mix of content that promotes your brand through pictures, links and video are vital to improving the engagement on your page. You have to post content that gets people to like, comment, and share.

- Awesome photos
- Quality links
- Ask Questions
- Contests

And the list goes on…

5. Pay to Play

There is no denying the power of Facebook ads. Data shows us that ads produce a positive ROI. When a post does well organically, it’s good content to boost. When you combine the power of ads with narrowing down your target audience to the area and demographics that best suit your page, you are giving your salon the best chance to get in front of the audience you want. You can also have a twofer by creating a video ad that grabs the attention of the followers. Putting the power of ads with your organic reach gives you the best of both worlds.

Nothing too complicated, right?