Your social media can make or break a business. In our industry, Instagram is the most visual platform a beauty pro can use – make sure it represents you and your brand. The way you brand yourself on Instagram can help you gain more clients, maintain existing clients, and gain followers. 

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Here are some simple tips:

1. Know Your Voice

When figuring out how you want to brand yourself overall and on social media specifically, there are some important questions you should ask yourself. How do I want clients to perceive my business? If I were my client, what would I want to see from me and my business?  What are my goals for my business and can I use Instagram to reach them?

These questions can help you figure out your own brand and guide you on what kind of posts are best fit for you. For example, if you are an esthetician, you might want your clients to perceive your business as a relaxing, healthy escape from their everyday lives. So, you might want to fill your feed with calming colors, peaceful images, and mindful quotes. People often view beauty treatments as a luxury, so they want to feel special and relaxed when they get treatments, and if your Instagram makes them feel calm and desire your care, they will be more inclined to book a treatment with you. 

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2. Be Consistent

Building your brand can be tricky. You want it to represent you and your business, but you also do not want to feel restricted. Your followers and clients are looking to your feed to see what you are about, so you need to make sure your feed is consistent with the message you want to put forth.   

Try to stick to a consistent theme, to make your branding and overall grid uniform to your audience. A strong brand presence can help show off strong work.

Check out Liz  Joel, Owner of Peridot Hair Studio’s Instagram grid. We love the neon signs in-between her work creating a consistent checkerboard effect. You can read more about Liz and Peridot Hair Studio here.

3. Brand Your Community

Hashtags are used for a myriad of reasons.  It is best to put your hashtags at the end of your captions, so they are not mixed in with your caption and make it hard to read. They can be used as a way for clients to find you, so for example if you are a makeup artist in Miami, you might want to use captions like #MiamiMUA so your profile will help people in your area find your business. You can also use #GlossGenius to help brand your business and help clients find you knowing they can easily book with you.  

Another great tool is to create your own signature hashtag to use with every post. Have fun and be creative with this but once you pick one, stick to it.  For example, if your name is Ashley Mark and you are a brow artist, you might want to do something like #BrowsByAshleyM.  Search your hashtag on Instagram before you choose yours to make sure it is not used by other artists and start using it with every post! This allows all of your work to show up on its own page when followers click your hashtag. This also allows clients to use your hashtag in Instagram stories or their own posts. Friends and family of your clients might see their posts, click the hashtag, love your work, and then through the hashtag they can find your page and book with you.

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4. Be Authentic

Building your brand can be challenging, but once you figure out how you want to represent your business, it will only grow.  Instagram is a great tool to define and build your brand, but you have to stay true to your business. Each business has their own style that does not work for everyone. Finding what you want to post, making a caption, picking a filter, and figuring out what hashtags to use can be daunting, but it is important to, not copy, but be inspired by other business’ styles. Individuality and creativity make a business stand out.

5. Promote Bookings

Your posts should make your followers and clients want to book with you, so you should always put a reminder at the end of your caption letting clients know where they can book with you. Instagram bios are the best spot to put your link because they are at the top of your profile and extremely easy to find. Let them know they can click book in your bio, linking straight to your booking site.  To set up Instagram booking, head inside of GlossGenius app and tap Settings > Website > Connect Social Accounts. You’ll receive personalized instructions to your inbox on how to set up IG booking. Check out this example to the right of a GlossGenius member sharing their story on where to book.

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