“I can’t afford monthly PR agency fees“, or, “I can’t afford multi-month commitments right now“. Those two have always been among the biggies.  Well we’ve solved that one for you. Check out PR [...]]]> Some writings resonate

We’ve heard every reason and excuse in the book for salon professionals not becoming successful with their own PR.

“I can’t afford monthly PR agency fees“, or, “I can’t afford multi-month commitments right now“. Those two have always been among the biggies.  Well we’ve solved that one for you. Check out PR a la Carte.  Let’s not hear that particular excuse anymore. OK?

On that topic, here’s a post we received a copy of this morning from Seth Godin’s Blog . If you don’t subscribe to his blog, we suggest you do. Here it is, short and sweet.

you know how it looks … suddenly a zillion ‘From:’, ‘To:’, ‘Subject:’, and ‘Received:’  fields stream int and the top window darkens with unread emails..

You sigh, and scan for [...]]]> Just because you write doesn’t mean you’re read …

How do you look through your incoming email pile after you’ve been away from your desk?

you know how it looks … suddenly a zillion ‘From:’, ‘To:’, ‘Subject:’, and ‘Received:’  fields stream int and the top window darkens with unread emails..

You sigh, and scan for clients, and “most urgent” .. (people or subject) – 95% + don’t fit this category.  Few deletions have happened.

OK … Urgent emails are dealt with

here’s the critical part.  Reader’s final review  —- “Gotta check it out” … or …“It’s dumb,

I always get a perverse kick out of knocking down the number of emails I do that by scanning the ‘From:’,and ‘Subject:’, fields again.

Dumb , boring, or predictable  =  Delete

Interesting, appealing, engaging … Gotta check it out?  =  Save

So the next 30 seconds sound like this:

Delete … delete … delete …. don’t delete …  don’t delete … delete … delete … don’t delete
… delete … delete … don’t delete … delete

Sound familiar?  Am I wrong?

You spend a great deal of time and effort planning a promotion or offering etc.  But, unless you made the final email review cut, they never saw your offer. I know … you have great in-salon signage?

It’s the subject line

Just like newsstand magazines, it’s the headline that grabs ‘em long enough to get them started. Better have a good first paragraph.  Here is a link to a PDF of headline suggestions for your consideration … tried and true and offered by Chris Garrett  (http://www.chrisg.com) and Authority Blogger.  http://www.authorityblogger.com.

Download the PDF.

Enjoy.

The media loves the ‘bleeding edge’.  News is about ‘new’ after all.  As always, it’s the ‘early bird that gets the worm’.  In this case the ‘worm’ is neighborhood, industry, and even national news pickup.  What’s the scoop?

… Smart Phone Technology and ‘smart’ [...]]]>

Early Birds Get the Worms

The media loves the ‘bleeding edge’.  News is about ‘new’ after all.  As always, it’s the ‘early bird that gets the worm’.  In this case the ‘worm’ is neighborhood, industry, and even national news pickup.  What’s the scoop?

Geolocation, and QR codes

… Smart Phone Technology and ‘smart’ marketing!  It’s not the future … it’s now!

Although the mass appeal isn’t totally ‘mass’ yet, several of these new social media tools are hot-hot-hot and just starting to hit ‘in the news’.  You can be the first salon or stylist in your area to be really ‘cool’ and ‘in the news’ because you are using one or more of them in your salon to your client’s benefit.

It’s not difficult to grasp, but it does require you do more than read this post and move on.  It takes some looking into, thinking, and pondering.

Of course if you don’t … not a problem … it’ll be so much easier to learn about when the salon down the block shows you how.  (<sigh> how come he gets all the press?  Darn.)

Once you implement even the simplest idea using one of these concepts however, it’s only a matter of writing your news release and getting that news out to the media AND your clients.  I can almost promise you local news pickup.  Your clients love it when their salon is “a leader’ … and in the news.

“But So Few of My Clients are Techies”

Fine … who cares?  This is about marketing and pr leadership.  Don’t look at it strictly from a “how many of my clients use it now” point of view.  That’s not what this is about.  You’re first!  You’re going to share your knowledge with your clients and make life wonderful for them.  Trust me on this one.

Remember when you used to say “Facebook is for kids”?  Missed the Twitter curve eh?  Did you learn anything from that experience?  Smart Phone marketing is very shortly going to be a major component of everyone’s marketing and right now is your opportunity to have the world grow into your leadership for a change.

I’ll say it once again — Being first makes you newsworthy.  Remember the plethora of “Oxygen Bar’ stories around the country in the early 90s?  That was ‘cool news’ back then.  You remember the oxygen bars don’t you?  Well just in case you don’t … it was a unique and slightly controversial ‘service’.  It caused conversation, questions, and was a real curiosity.  Here are some leftovers from that ‘wave’.

• Oxygen Party Bar
• Solase Massage & Oxygen Bar
• Bubble Lounge
• Oxygen Salon & Spa

So What are These Smart Phone Hotties All About?

Geolocation Apps

Geolocation social networks are to 2010 what microblogging was in 2008.  Currently the geolocation leader is Foursquare, with Gowalla, MyTown and Loopt trailing along behind.  Here’s PC World’s recent explanation of Geolocation and here’s what readwriteweb.com has to say about it.  Start reading and watching this technology.  Although geolocation, and the apps for it have a way to go yet.  it needs your awareness.

QR Codes

QR Codes are absolutely now! …  And they are THE hot trend in Japan.  They contain addresses, information, and web URLs and are starting to appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or just about any object that users might need information about like the city of Manor, TX that gives users with a camera phone equipped with a ‘reader app’ guided tour information.

Lots of Apps

There are lots of apps (many free), like Quickmark (cool), neoreader, optiscan, to name a few with better reviews.  A quick Google search on “QR Codes” will net you lots of choices.  The phone scans the image of the QR Code causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL.  Techie phone users snap a picture and immediately are taken to a website’s special info, promotion page, special offer, value, coupon, and contest puzzle piece … whatever.

Happening Now

Don’t think this is where it’s going?  The Feds do.  Paper boarding passes will be ‘the old way’ within a couple of years.  The TSA pilot program is at 48 airports right now.  Read good info here. Here are more examples what’s happening right now.

… and it’s coming to Facebook soon too.

Stickybits

You can embed digital content on any ‘object’ and when someone scans that object they can “tune-in to the conversations around that product”.  Your object’s message and the conversations around it are delivered to those scanning with their smart phone and on the Stickybits website (which gets Googled).

It is your message and the social media conversations that form specifically around your object/product.  Ben & Jerry’s, Campbell Soup and Doritos already have content forming around their products.

What if your object is a bottle of shampoo or hairspray?  Prospective customers can view your video, photos, text, or audio right at the point of sale and make their own comments on it for the next prospect to see.  What’s that worth?  Your counter card might have a barcode that brings all the details of what your salon promotion is all about.  Tell a story.  Share your cause.  Whew.

Get Busy!  Be First!

Three new things to learn about shouldn’t be too difficult?  Huge payoff here.  It took me all of three hours to learn enough to ‘envision’ how a salon or stylist might use them and then find all this info for you.  Took a little longer to write the post though J.

After you do your own homework, come back and share some ideas with us.  We’ll share a few with you in future posts.

Question: How could you use QR Codes and geolocation in your salon or next public event?

I love meeting amazing and straightforward people like Thia Breen.  She lifts me up with her own phenomenal career success story but stops me cold with forehead-slapping simple solutions  to ‘OPSCOCC’ – other people’s self-created overly-complicated career challenges! (my term, not hers <g>) How does [...]]]>

Thia Breen - President, North America, Estee Lauder Companies

I love meeting amazing and straightforward people like Thia Breen.  She lifts me up with her own phenomenal career success story but stops me cold with forehead-slapping simple solutions  to ‘OPSCOCC’ – other people’s self-created overly-complicated career challenges! (my term, not hers <g>) How does Thia know about all that? She was one of those ‘other people’ once! I recently inhaled (along with 300 others) every word that Thia shared as guest speaker at the Beverly Hilton for the Cosmetic Executive Women. It was all part of CEW’s ‘West Coast Women In Beauty’ Series addressing “Building Beauty, Brands and Careers”. I have to admit to you that Thia won me over at the phrase…

… ‘bloggers are the new beauty editors’.

Remember that as you increase awareness of  ‘your’ brands: You, Your Salon and Your Services.

I figure that if anyone can keep any of us from catching ‘OPSCOCC’, it’s the person who oversees 29 of The Estee Lauder Companies’ brands for their North American operations (including our salon world giants Bumble & Bumble and Aveda). Surely, stress and hard work are no strangers to this role-model beauty industry career pro in the retail world and now professional side of beauty. We would all do well to pick up a few career-building tips from her no matter who we are and what our level of experience within the beauty field. New stylist … salon or spa owner… seasoned colorist … aspiring student … corporate exec or publicist/writer like me … we can never forget that at those times when our career feels like we’re running in place but going nowhere fast, it’s probably ‘little ole me’ who is standing in my own way and self-sabotaging my advancement.

Now in her later 50′s, Thia Breen remains a knowledge ‘sponge’ and a passionate powerhouse every day at work, be it at the office or most often, on the road and in department stores.  She inspires others to work smart – not harder, be organized and above all, ‘get a life’. Carving out quality, nurturing personal time is key to performing great on the job and getting ahead.

We all know we can get to feeling ‘sluggish’ at times and can easily drift toward blaming other people and things for our own ‘ho-hum status quo’ career.  I have no time. I can’t work any harder than I do. My boss doesn’t notice my good work. Or the flip-side classic: I know my boss sees what I do and will promote me soon.

These statements are all what I’ll call the ‘self sabotagers’ But after listening to my newest ‘fav’ role model, phrases like these are officially ‘shunned’ from my vocabulary and brain waves from this blog forward!

Allow me to share how Thia got through to me…and maybe you, too (if you’re open to what the President of 29 amazingly successful companies has to say <g>). Let’s start getting out of our own way and unleash  that career path!  As Thia quipped to us that night: “The beauty business is a great business to be in. Just think of what you looked like this morning – and now, how you look tonight.”

Top 10 Tips For Greater Beauty Career Success:  Inspirations from Estee Lauder’s Thia Breen

1. Compartmentalize:  -  Thia keeps her amazing focus on many different things during the day by ‘leaving work in her mind’ at night. She loves being home and turning off her Blackberry at 8pm to just relax and ‘be’. At 8am the next morning, the Blackberry is back on again and Thia is back at work and focused 100% on the work at hand.  (Thia admits that early on in her career, she was th essence of “all work and no balance”.
2. Make Something Happen: Thia encourages us all to not be afraid to make decisions. She says ‘Be Fearless!’
3. Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes: You don’t want to move too fast or quickly but just look around the corner, anticipate what’s coming, and MOVE.
4. Be Sensitive To Other People’s Feelings: It’s great to be an achiever and successful, but avoid that ‘killer instinct’ and the desire to be #1 at someone else’s personal expense. You don’t have to be ruthless or hurtful to get ahead. Be very aware of other people’s feelings!
5. Be Aware Of How Your Customer Is Responding: Thia reminds us that the consumer or client today has been changed forever by a number of things…technology, the economy, media, etc. She/he is thinking differently about everything. Some consumers just want information when she wants it and doesn’t want to be ‘sold’. Others love the element of ‘service’ like the ‘beauty advisor’ at the department store counter (and certainly the professional in the salon and spa!). Everyone today loves ‘value’ – and many love ‘options’ (like having choices of smaller-size products to try  before committing to the big size of something).
6. Manage Yourself, Too – Avoid the ‘24/7 Mentality’: You need down time! From the management perspective, Thia wants her team to have ‘non-work’ on their schedules to really look forward to. In my business, those who are working that 24/7 schedule are just plain working too hard. “They ‘crash and burn’ when I really need them…like over the holidays when things really get busy, etc.  I tell them: “Your jobs aren’t that hard!”  A good manager has to manage herself, too. You just get duller and duller with a 24/7 work mentality.“
7. Give Feedback To Others: Thia shared that a good manager has to give consistent feedback to be effective. According to this ‘ultimate manager’, good feedback means saying things ‘whether people like it or not’.
8. Get A Mentor: If you don’t have a career mentor, then get one. Thia reminds us that very often, you need mentors to advise you along your career path.  Says Thia: I had mentors…and remember one in particular early on in my career  who really believed in me…who took a chance on me. It made a big difference.
9. Make Your Own Career:  Sad but true…there are a lot more bosses that are ‘not great’ than bosses who are.  Don’t assume they are always going to recognize your talents and pave the way for your career promotions. Thia remembers learning a critical lesson in her first days working in a small-town drug store in Benson, MN. – “I learned the hard way that I am totally responsible for my own success.  Up until that time (that I first got fired’), I kept expecting – believing — that there would always be someone else there to take charge of my career. I also learned that it is entirely up to you, and you alone, to ask for what you need.”
10. Customer Service Reigns Supreme:  I couldn’t agree more with Thia…and what she says is as true of our professional side of the beauty biz as it is of her retail beauty world and brands.  “The only thing that really matters is customers coming to the beauty counter,” she says. “If someone gets great service, that’s the reflection of the brand.”

What was your biggest career success blunder?

What did you learn from the experience?

It stood out in the pile like a sore thumb.  Hand-written, imagine that.  Different … That took time.

We went back into the house where we usually toss the mail on the kitchen table for opening later, but not today.  We stayed together and [...]]]> Today was unusual.

We got a hand-written card in the mail.

It stood out in the pile like a sore thumb.  Hand-written, imagine that.  Different … That took time.

We went back into the house where we usually toss the mail on the kitchen table for opening later, but not today.  We stayed together and opened that piece.  We looked at the return address.  How ‘old-fashioned’.  We left all the other mail for later.

It was short, sweet, and thoughtful.  We commented on it and discussed that person and (I assume both) thought  to ourselves, ” Gee, they found this lovely card, sat down, thought of something original to write,  addressed it by hand, put a stamp on it, and took it to the post office.  Imagine that!  They spent time doing that for me.”

Good PR is Like That Because Editors are Real People

Short, sweet and personal.  No one likes to feel they’ve been ‘mass’ mailed.  Avoid what is known as ‘spray and pray’.  Each piece of news you send out should have a brief cover note written to that editor or producer, helping them understand how your news applies to their reader or viewer.  This approach to spreading news is always well received.

Perhaps your news doesn’t get used this time.  That’s OK.  You made an impression and will be a welcome guest in their mail box in future.  It’s clear you know what they write about, and that they are not just another email address on your (ugh) ‘media list’.  Remember, editors and writers save stuff for when they can use it.  So pick your target publications or TV/Radio programs, and go after them repeatedly over time with good information, well written, useful, helpful and of course … with your own personal touch.

Speaking of Thank You

Remember that thank you card?  Do you have any idea how many people don’t say thank you to the writer, editor, or producer who made a story happen?

When something editorial happens for you, or your salon, spa or product, for heaven’s sake … don’t forget to say thank you.  Believe it or not, you will be in the minority.  Acknowledgement done in a ‘special’ way, like that hand-written thank you note, separates you from the pack.  Time well spent.

Beyond a thank you note, what other editorial ‘thank you’ ideas have you used for someone who has gone the extra mile and done a story for you?

Who [...]]]>

Part 2 of a 3 part series

Followers & Following

In Part 1, Twitter ─ your ‘Aha’ Moment we looked at how to Twitter with a salon industry focus.  This part 2 is about who to follow and how to find the people you want to follow on Twitter.

Who Do You Follow?

Who you follow (and who you want to follow you) depends on why you are on Twitter in the first place.  Let’s begin by making sure we all understand the definitions of ‘following’ and ‘followers’.

What is Following?

Following someone on Twitter means getting their updates in your personal timeline.  If you follow someone, you’ll get their updates on your homepage when you log in.  You can see who gets your updates by looking on your followers page. You can make changes to who you follow on your following page.

What are Followers?

Followers are people who elect to receive other peoples’ Twitter updates. When you post an update to your Twitter account, your followers will get it on their home page and/or phone.  You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you, and unless an account is private, you can follow and un-follow whoever you want without them following back.  Mutual followers can send each other private messages (DMs), and you can choose to get notified by email when someone new follows you or sends you a private message.  Your follower/following stats are listed on your profile page.

Know Your Reasons for Twittering?

There are only three reasons I can think of to twitter:

• Business

  • Make other salon professionals and beauty industry businesses aware of you/your business.
  • Speak directly to consumers/client prospects for personal or company branding.
  • Develop new client/customer outreach channel (service, promotion).

• Recreation

  • Learn new things.
  • Have fun?
  • Learn more about social media.

• Get Lots of Followers.

  • Not a lot of good reasons here.  Gathering thousands of followers is not that hard.  There are lots of people out there that care about that.  To do that will overwhelm you with tweets and you’ll be one of those people with the most marketing & social media ‘mavens’, IT people, and media/journalism/PR experts’ on the block.  That is the largest population of active Twitter users on the planet. The social media mavens are dying for you to follow them.  My advice? Don’t follow every Tom, Dick or Harry.  Remember your goals.  Volume doesn’t count, especially when you are targeting specific audiences.  For me it’s about quality.

Deciding your priorities determines your strategy for following.  You might even choose to have more than one Twitter identity.  (More on that later).

Building Salon Industry Followers

I’m assuming you want to find other salon industry people and businesses on Twitter and connect with them as you do on Facebook or LinkedIn.  Twitter is a great place to ‘fish around’ to meet other salon industry people and businesses you haven’t met yet.  You do that by being interesting & personal, with the goal of bringing people closer to you and giving you and your business a personality … your personality.  Your goal is to be who you are.  Hopefully, that is someone people enjoy hearing from .

I say ‘ fish around’ because Twitter is where you can pique people’s curiousity (get a nibble) and be interesting enough for people to want to learn more about you (i.e. ‘landing’ them on to your website or other place of your choosing).

Twitter is not a great place for traditional marketing thinking.  It’s not about ads and selling and promoting your products and services in the usual ways.  People turn you off like a TV commercial.  They either stop following or stop reading your tweets.  You turn them on by being interesting & helpful, by engaging in conversation, and communicating on topics of interest to your followers.  It’s a very different form of outreach for most business and people to get used to.

Rule of thumb:  Spend 90-95% of your Twitter dialog on topics of interest to your followers.  You can use the other 5-10% for creative self-promotion.

Where do you find the followers you want?

• You hunt for them one at a time.
• You ‘search’ for them on Twitter.
• Yes, it is time-consuming.
• Yes, it is worth it.

How to Hunt on Twitter

Geographically, salon and spa pros are all over the world so you probably want to cast a wide net.  Here is a process you can use:

1. Search for someone (or a business) in the biz on Twitter.  If you already know someone you like and respect, start with them and jump ahead to step #3.
2. Here are a few suggestions for searching:
   • Twitter Search – Finds keywords in all twitter names and tweets (e.g. keywords ‘salon’, ‘spa’, etc.)
   • Twibs – Finds keywords in ‘businesses’ on Twitter.  (e.g. ‘beauty’, ‘beauty pr’ [ahem], etc.)
   • Twellow – Finds categorized Twitter accounts
   • Twellowhood – Finds Twitter Accounts geographically (You have to be registered with Twellow to use it.)
3. Click on the photos/avatars of their follows and followers one at a time and learn about them.
   • Read their tweets and bio information.
   • If there’s a link to their website, check it out.
4. If you decide they look like someone you are interested in, click to follow them.
5. They will be notified (by email) you are following them and probably will ‘check you out’ just as you just did  to decide if they want to follow you back.

Get Followers Using Traditional Marketing Tools

This part is much easier for traditionalists.  Let everyone in the industry around you, including your customers, know you are on Twitter and ask them to follow you:

• Put “Follow me on Twitter” reminders on all your marketing material (website, emails, ads, flyers, signage, biz cards, etc).  Motivate them to do so. Here are some good Twitter graphics.
• Email your contact list(s) a link to follow you on Twitter.  (Here’s the email service we use).
• Include your Twitter URL in your email signature.
• You know the rest.

Tweet for Your Salon Industry Business

The nature of your salon industry business determines your Twitter follow strategy.  Three options here:

• You are a salon (spa) owner or independent contractor looking to grow your client roster.
• You are a distributor looking to reach your customer’s clients to help pull your manufacturer’s products through and support your salon industry customers.
• You are a salon industry manufacturer looking to brand your company and bring your products to the attention of the consumer.

The Primary Search Difference?  Geography.

• Salon owners and independents seeking to grow their client base are going to be interested in finding followers within a defined geographic area.  The tools to locate ‘Tweeple’ (See the Twitter dictionary) geographically are listed above under ‘Hunting on Twitter’.
• Distributors will be interested in a geographic area that matches their territory. That will include their industry customers (salon professionals).  They may also be interested in reaching consumers in their territory.  Here is where the two identities I mentioned might come in.  You can have a Twitter identity (e.g. AcmeBeautyPro) that serves the needs of your customers (for branding, customer service, and value awareness) and another (AcmeBeauty) for outreach to your customer’s customers to help promote your product lines to consumers (your salon customers will like that).
• Manufacturers want to reach everyone at every level of the distribution chain.  Their customers (distributors and beauty stores); Their customer’s customers (salon owners and independent contractors); Their customer’s customer’s customer (consumers);  All with branding, promotional support for pull-through, and customer service Twitter activity.

No matter which category you fall into, the tools mentioned above in “Hunting on Twitter” will serve you in locating people on Twitter.  In many of the links in this post you will find myriad other Twitter tools to search with as well.

For all of you, you now have the magic formula (90/10) for being a good Twitizen.  Now, here’s some last minute advice in a recent post on Twitip.com on the proper way to pitch on Twitter.

Twitter For Recreation

Beyond its business applications, Twitter is simply a lot of fun.  It’s a great way to learn, get the hottest news, find interesting places to go on the web, discover things you would never think of yourself, meet new friends, and much more.  There’s no shortage of writings on the internet on the topic of Twitter so have fun playing, learning and growing.

Twitter Etiquette

You’ll definitely want to learn more about the etiquette of Twitter. That is easily done here, here and here.

Two Bits of Last Minute Advice

Don’t over follow – Only select 10-30 (at most) people at a time to follow.  Let a day go by while you watch many of them follow you back.  Continue to tweet things of interest to your prospective followers.

Don’t follow every Tom, Dick or Harry.  Remember your goals.  Volume doesn’t count. Quality matters.  You simply won’t believe how many people will want you to follow them once you start tweeting.

Excellent Twitter Resources

How to Attract and Influence People on Twitter

How to Get More Followers on Twitter

Mashable Twitter Guide Book

Twitter’s Own Guide

That’s it for Part 2

• Part 1 – Getting Started on Twitter
• Part 2 – Followers & Following
• Part 3 – Twitter Tools Make Life with Twitter Easier (future post)

What Good Advice Do You Have for a Twitter Newbie?  Leave a  Comment.

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