February - Stylist and Salon Newspapers

Venture Into Viral Video
Beauty
Business Buzz
Charlene Abretske
What possibly could Susan Boyle, the
recent protests in Iran and a wedding party
dancing down the aisle all have in common?
If you guessed they were watched by billions
of people worldwide on YouTube, you
are correct. What this could possibly have in
common with your salon -- a lot more than
you might think!
We are all looking for cost effective ways
to promote and educate our salons, right?
Why not use something completely free and
post the link to your Facebook, Twitter, blast
the link through e-mail, and embed into your
web pages?
Gone are the days when you had to have a
huge production budget to create a promotional
video or have to pay huge web development
fees to get it loaded to your website. It is easy,
can help your clients tremendously on a day-today
basis and it gives you instant access to:
• Promote special events
• Showcase individual talent
• Let your clients in on insider beauty tips
• Instruct clients on styling tips
• Recruit new team members
• Share product knowledge
You don’t need millions of viewers to
make an impact on your business. If you
are trying to build or grow, video gives the
unique opportunity to your prospective
clients of actually feeling like they are already
part of your business. New customers begin
experiencing your talent, expertise
and vibe long before they walk
through the door. In this cash
strapped economy you can offer
more value to your existing clients
by instructing them at their leisure
in a fun way. Think about it, there
are no other mass mediums for
your message that allow the client
to feel so immersed as video.
The viral nature of video and
YouTube allows you to begin
with a message to your clients,
your clients can pass it on to their
friends and they can pass it on to
their friends, and so on, and so
on. Originally what might have 50
views by your direct customers can be spread
on to hundreds and thousands of people in a
few short days. Using the power of video in
conjunction with your other tech endeavors
like Facebook, Yelp and Twitter can only
maximize the effect.
Remember you are in a visual field and
the power of the work you do is best appreciated
when it is actually seen. Imagine
when you do a makeover on a client and you
record the before and after. Pictures are great
to capture the moment, but how much more
gratifying is it to get a testimonial from the
client that is over the moon happy, you can
hear it in their voice, you can see it in their
smile, it creates loads of excitement which
becomes palpable and tangible to others who
A Few Facts about YouTube
• People are watching hundreds of millions of videos a day on
YouTube and uploading hundreds of thousands of videos daily.
In fact, every minute, 20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
• User base is broad in age range, 18-55, evenly divided between
males and females, and spanning all geographies. 51 percent of
users go to YouTube weekly or more often, and 52 percent of
18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues
• Can be used for video embedding: Users can insert a YouTube
video into Facebook and MySpace accounts, blogs, or other
websites where anyone can watch them.
• Can be used for public or private videos: Users can elect to
broadcast their videos publicly or share them privately with
friends and family upon upload. — YouTube factsheet
will want that same feeling on their visit.
I searched “how to style your hair”
on YouTube - there were 138,000 videos.
Topics range from: the perfect French twist,
blow-dry your bangs, to how to style your
Mohawk, and everything in-between. These
videos were created by stylists in their bathroom,
to top celebrity salons and world-wide
product companies. The number of hits were
staggering from the tens of thousands to the
millions, imagine what numbers like that can
translate to for your business?
Before you post your video consider:
• What will appeal to the type of clients you
currently have, they will be the ones hitting
it and spreading it to their friends who are
interested in your message.
• Be comfortable and have fun, the
entertainment value alone can set
you apart from other videos.
• Make sure your message is conveyed
the way you want it to be,
you can always reshoot!
• Watch several of the existing
popular video to get ideas and stay
original to the mission and values
of the salon.
Break out your video camera,
get creative, this may just the
thing to excite the team and
propel your business. As a stylist,
be ahead of the game, show your
flair, creativity and the fruits of
your education. As a business
owner increase your credibility and show you
take technology as seriously as your clients
do, actually be on the leading edge before
your competitors know it exists.
Charlene Abretske is a business advisor with Your Beauty Network and supports
salons and spas with growing their businesses through on-demand
back office tools designed for beauty professionals. For more information
call (866)364-4926 or email info@iybn.com.
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CALIFORNIA STYLIST & SALON | FEBRUARY 2010 |