Salon Bogar in Londonderry, New Hampshire, http://www.salonbogar.com and http://www.facebook.com/salonbogar is a ‘brilliant’ example of how a salon owner with commitment and determination can:

• Re-image their salon without going broke.
• Make the internet and social media work harder.
• Motivate their staff.
• Expand and grow their connections with their clients.
• Get closer to their local press.
• Diversify product offerings to match their clientele’s wishes.

It all happened gradually and manageably over the past couple of years, in a tough economy, and (if you’ve visited their website already), the results speak for themselves. Larger than life?  Spectacular looking?  You be the judge.

Seems like Only Yesterday

Two to three years ago, Amy and Alfredo Lamparelli looked ahead at the future, their staff, their Aveda Concept Salon and tried to imagine it … better yet.

They had been an excellent, profitable, and client-retentive Aveda Concept salon for over 20 years.  They did great work.  Their clients loved them.  But, the winds of change (technology and the economy) were afoot and were blowing through every aspect of their salon.

Website, client attraction and retention programs, promotion, advertising, PR and newsworthiness, staff training & motivation, cost-cutting, retail sales, physical plant improvements … only Amy and Alfredo know all the areas they spent time, money and effort on every day.

We Helped … Just a Little

The morphing of the look and image of Salon Bogar into the new decade, new economy, new industry image, was an amazing journey for their salon … and a satisfying one for Sharon and I.  So much more than a website make-over, photo shoot, local imaging, industry activism … their journey perfectly illustrates the process salons (and individual stylists) in smaller communities need to think about as they look ahead and decide if they want to be on the map in 10 years … or not.

We are looking forward to sharing what we know about Salon Bogar’s story over the past couple of years. Amy has agreed to write posts in a series over the months ahead and contribute as the true subject matter experts they are. So, stick around. Subscribe to the blog.  Don’t miss a post.  It’s FREE of course.  We know you’ll learn a lot about what you need to do for yourself.

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We recently shared some knowledge with our class at the American Board of Certified Haircolorists (ABCH) Educational ‘Summit’.  For us it was a snapshot of 40 education-hungry colorists and what they knew about using social media to help them promote their business.  Only a few understood it much at all.

Of course everyone was on Facebook, but few people knew beyond the photos/videos tabs, the wall, and how to send messages.  Only one person had a plan and strategy for being there and was using it to attract more clients to their salon.

Back to Beauty School – Social Media Beauty School.

You know you can’t create a ‘look’ for your client without knowing the ‘techniques’ of how to get hair to do what you want it to do, right?  You have to know how to use a comb, scissors, razor, brush, dryer, iron, and chemicals before you can even begin to craft a look.  Each ‘look’ uses slightly different techniques and some tools more than others.

It’s no different for social media.  You have to understand the tools and what they can do for you before you can use them collectively to cultivate your own ‘look’ using your PR (and your marketing in general).

Bottom line: Go back to school. Use the same mindset you used when you knew you wanted to get started in the beauty industry.  Break out the books and mannequin heads (just kidding about the mannequin heads), and start reading, learning about your tools, and practicing basic skills.

Make the Investment

You aren’t going to learn about, or get good at social media strategy or technique in a couple of sittings, or with someone’s ‘get-rich-in-friends-quick’ book.  Think about it.  It took you over a thousand hours to learn just the basics of cosmetology in beauty school, didn’t it?

What makes you think you don’t need to approach social media with just a little bit of the same dedication you put into learning your beauty skills?  OK, not 1,000 hours, but still … take it seriously.  Start with the basics … read, and practice.

Resources

There are zillions of resources for information and technical expertise in each of the social media disciplines out there.  There’s certainly no shortage of internet marketing and social media gurus (most have become experts in the last year or so) vying for your dollar.

Who do you trust?  Where do you find them?  It takes a time and searching to find the good guys.

Save your money.  Read for free, you’ll learn whose stuff you really want to buy along the way.  Most everything you need to know is already out there and costs nothing.  You just need to find it and that’s what the download link is all about.

Here it is … and Yes, It’s Free

We’ve saved you a lot of time and searching by assembling a starter list of ‘trusted’ resources for Facebook, Twitter, LInkedIn, and Blogging knowledge.  These are tried and true experts who are really experts.  These are the people we learned from.  They’ve been at it the longest and have risen to the top of the heap.  We prepared it for our class at ABCH and it’s filled with great people and information to get you moving ahead.

Some First Ideas for you to Consider

• Subscribe to BeautyPRpro and join our fan page on Facebook.  (Had to get a plug in for our blog ).
• Make the commitment to spend one hour a day reading and practicing.
• Start with Facebook.  Read up on how the individual pieces and parts of Facebook work. You’ll find much of that information in the writings of the experts in the download PDF below.
  • Settings (account, privacy, application) and their impact on all the other parts of Facebook.
  • News feeds (top news, most recent),
  • Friend filters
  • Events
  • Messaging
  • Groups
  • Profiles (personal and Fan pages)
• Browse and read the articles and posts in the download PDF about how other companies and people are using Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, and Twitter to grow their fans and build their businesses.
• Subscribe to some of the blogs of the experts you will be reading and follow in their footsteps.  They’ve been there and freely share how it all works.
• Questions?  I sure hope so.  Drop by BeautyPRpro on Facebook and our blog.  Ask the new found experts whose articles you’ll be reading from the download list by leaving comments/questions on their blogs and websites.  All of us that blog love to hear from you and know that what we are giving away is being appreciated and doing what it is supposed to do.

Do you have a strategy you’d care to share?

Although this post is aimed a bit more at those who are newer to the game of getting media attention and what to do with it once you get it, we suspect a few old-timers could also use some brush-up on their interview skills as well.  Only the questions might change.

OK, you’ve been doing your homework.

You have been sending your local news releases out regularly when suddenly one day the front desk calls and tells you a local TV news person you’ve been wooing (who noticed you originally because you sent them a VIP card and a great news release) is on the line.  Wow!  … flurry of excitement.  You hurry to your office, take a deep breath, and pick up the phone.

You discover they are interested in the news release you sent out about your upcoming local charitable event.  Woo-Hoo!  Lightning strikes …. a ‘magic moment’ opportunity … a media interview.

Are You Ready for Your Media Interview?

Being prepared to ‘make the sale’ to someone in the media means you need to be comfortable and conversant talking about two things right at that moment.

Number 1 – Your Recent News Release

Your caller assumes you are the subject matter expert (SME).  That’s why they called you.  If your name is on the release, on first contact people grant you that authority.

How well-versed and conversant you are on your topic, and how you come across answering their questions is important.  Having background knowledge on your cause, thus your passion about it, and knowing what you wrote in your own news release goes a long way to preserving that credibility.  Too many, “I don’t know” or, “I’m not sure” during your media interview eats away at your credibility and may diminish interest.

Number 2 – You!

Your passion and personality, your ability to share who you are, what you believe in, and what you are doing in an easy-to-follow, simple explanation is important.  This takes pre-call, pre-interview rehearsal time practicing your answers to some of the fairly standard questions you might expect to be asked.  You need to ‘get your lines down’ as actors say.

You know the media likes ‘brief’.  They appreciate the quick-communicating ‘sound bite’.  These ‘bites’ are the most likely phrases to get ‘quoted’ in print, or edited into TV interview moments during segments.  Having a few ‘sound bites’ at your fingertips is good.

Preparing to Share You

There are some fairly standard questions you might expect an interviewer to ask.  Having a few pre-considered answers with those ‘sound bites’ at your fingertips, improves your chances of coming off as a fun interview during a magic moment.  Here’s a short list of questions designed to stimulate your thinking down that track.  How would you answer these?

• Tell me a little about yourself.
• Why did you choose to become a salon professional?
• What is really special and unique about your salon?
• What are your thoughts on what we’re seeing in hair fashion this season?  Where do you see it going next season?  Beyond?  Why?
• What is it you offer your clients that’s unusual and not easily found at other salons?
• Tell me about the community/cause-related activities you and your salon are involved with.
• As a professional, what products do you think are absolute ‘must-haves’ for your clients?
• Are there any simple regimens you can recommend your clients to do every day that will make a significant difference to how they look during the day?

Get Practice, and Have Some Fun Too.

Remember when you played ‘pretend’ as a kid.  A friend ‘pretended’ to be someone else, and you ‘pretended’ you were someone else, and the two of you pretended together.  It’s what actors do every day they are working … they play pretend, rehearsing to become natural ‘pretending’.  Playing pretend works … and it’s fun. J So here’s our suggestion:

• Find a friend you trust that you can ‘play’ with.
• Both of you sit down and develop good answers to the above questions.
• Stick a video camera down and turn it on. (gasp)
• Have your friend pretend to be the TV interviewer interviewing you.
• Now switch roles.
• Do that over several times.

Did you laugh a lot?

How horrified were you? 

Did you both get any better after a few repeats and answer rewrites?

We’ll bet with practice you get really good at this … when it doesn’t count … while you’re playing.  You’re also going to feel so much better going into your next ’magic moment’

Share Some of Your Fun with this Exercise. Comments? Experiences?

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Opportunities for PR happen not only because you are a talented salon professional and send out interesting news and photo releases. They happen because you are a part of people’s lives doing things that distinguish you from others in the crowd. You are a respected member of the community … a player .. you do things ‘differently’.  That’s ‘unique’.

I’ll disagree with my guest poster’s contention that you don’t see mentors in the news. Actually, we do every day. People like Beth Minardi, Brad Graham, Vivienne Mackinder, (uh) Don Bewley , and hundreds more on  the list. These individuals parlayed their love of the industry and their focus on support for the next generation as an ‘element’ of their overall industry reputation and recognition.

It’s true that thousands of others haven’t paid attention to the value of  a PR strategy for themselves and haven’t been recognized in the media, but that’s by their own doing … or lack of doing.  Mentoring is something that, coupled with good PR habits, does serve to get earn ‘stripes’, thus more people take notice.

PR is a very POOR motivation for mentoring, but the fringe benefit of being a caring and supportive industry professional certainly serves to enhance someone’s image in the eyes of others.

I thoroughly enjoyed what Don Bewley had to say about mentoring. It is truly the very foundational ingredient that has elevated the professional salon industry to what it is today. Read it … then don’t just sit there … get out and mentor someone.

Where Have All The Mentors Gone?

By Don Bewley, Eufora Intl.,  Co-founder – Reprinted with permission of Stylist Newspapers

When interviewing and hiring staff and educators at Eufora I always ask: who is your mentor? If the potential hire does not have one, I do not consider them for a position.

Why is this important? People who seek out and find mentorship are people who are committed to being successful.

There are many great mentors out there who truly care about the salon professional industry and nurturing the future generation. I have met many of them during my travels throughout North America. Sadly, these mentors often go unrecognized because they are rarely seen gracing the pages of our industry magazines, but they are definitely out there ready to share their expertise, provide guidance and serve as a sounding board.

So what is the definition of a mentor? A mentor is someone who has achieved a great level of success and sustained that success over time. They choose to share their expertise and success strategies and they do it based on their love of the hairdressing industry.

They are giving, humble leaders who are not afraid of someone becoming better than them, in fact they actually want their protégés to surpass their own level of success.

I have had three key mentors throughout my 30-year hairdressing career. It is difficult for one mentor to give you everything you need. Mentor Number One was an amazing hairdresser who understood the correlation between hair and fashion and the power of great technical cutting systems.

Mentor Number Two was a businessman who understood and excelled at the financial side of the business and taught me about profitability and how to drive points to my bottom line. And Mentor Number Three taught me how to be accountable for the goals that you set for yourself. All are important skills in becoming a success in the industry and are skills that continuously need nurturing and improvement.

It’s important to seek out your mentor and do not wait for them to find you. So where do you find these successful people willing to share their secrets to success?

Stylists should start with their salon owner. Salon owners obviously want you to make money, be your best and be happy, so it’s only natural that they would want to help you. However, if you’re not finding a mentor in your salon, it may be time to look elsewhere.

Industry networking groups are a great way to connect to successful salon professionals. We’re a tight knit community that can be very generous and loving; the entire salon industry wins if we help one another by acting as mentors because we elevate it as a whole. A great example of this is the Eufora Salon Owners Network. Salon owners, who are all competing in the same market, come together to discuss their common challenges and share solutions based on their own experiences. They are helping themselves while helping others.

Great mentors can also be found through premier industry business and creative educators. These professionals have dedicated a part of their career to helping other succeed either through haircutting and styling or business solutions. Most importantly, expose yourself to successful industry professionals through attending education. You‘ll discover talented and caring people more than willing to help you go to the next level

Everyone has something to offer and we shouldn’t be afraid to share our knowledge. Maybe reading this you realize that you are the successful professional that can reach out to help others. Since day one, Eufora has been dedicated to helping cultivate mentors through our education program. It starts with a desire to help others, a commitment to be the best. From this, success is nurtured. Educators are constantly in training themselves to better learn how to help fellow salon professionals achieve their goals and dreams.

If we all participated in the mentoring process by seeking the guidance of others, being mentors ourselves and helping develop mentors, the salon professional industry would be unstoppable. Just think of all the many opportunities it would yield for everyone of us to be prosperous and fulfilled.

Who is Your Mentor? Are You Mentoring?

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