NAANA Awards, Let's Get This Party Started!

      So I did it to myself again last night. I stayed up till 2 watching the livestream of the Naha awards. The North American Hairstyling awards. It was this time last year, watching them that I got inspired, then angry. Nails used to be a category, but got kicked out a few years ago. I can't even tell you when because they even took the past winners off their site. But the winners for best permanent wave are still up there... really? Nails magazine and the industry source, nailco at the time used to sponsor the AVA awards. You may have heard us talk about them in previous shows. The artist and visionary awards honored top Nail artists, our own Oscars. They were fabulous and so many nail artists were recognized for their talent and contribution. But now, no shows, no honors, no Oscars for nails. So I got charged up and created the NAANA's the Nail Artist Awards North America. I started a Facebook page and quickly grew to almost 400 members. I asked everyone to share the link, encourage friends, manufacturers and other media outlets to get on board. I called magazines, companies and everyone I could think of that might want to support this vision of honoring the amazingly talented nail artists out here. Right about this time we traveled to the Olympia beauty show in London for a special cocktail party for Scratch magazine and a very special announcement. Scratch launched their Scratch Stars competition.

      What do they say about great minds? Alex Fox and her team created a very similar competition to honor nail stars in the UK. Through Scratch, Alex has the good fortune to have an advertising base to get sponsors to fund the event. I have unfortunately gotten no traction. I have to admit, we are all busy and I am no exception to this. But watching that broadcast last night made me really mad, then motivated. We can have our own awards show. The one thing I've learned over time but never mastered it to ask for help. So tonight I am asking for your help. We need to get this award program going so if you would like to help in any capacity, I'm opening up the opportunity for people that might share this vision to come onboard. We need sponsors to fund an Oscar like event. It wouldn't be huge, a small investment of a $250 as an artist sponsor and $500 as a visionary sponsor with enough signed on should get the ball rolling. Any of you that work for manufacturers I encourage you to bring this award show to your companies and lets spread the word. I don't want to watch one more year go by without our special event. Please go to the Facebook page NAANA Nail Artist Awards North America and ask to join.

      Add your friends, coworkers, bosses and employees. Let's restart this revolution. Taking a cue from the NAHA categories I thought I would give the categories a stab. Master Nail Artist, an invitation only category for the truly well rounded high profile nail artist that is proficient in all categories of nail enhancements and photo styling. Nail Stylist of the Year open to anyone, again for the truly well rounded nail artist proficient in all categories of nail enhancements and photo styling. Master Gel Artist, entrants must submit a collection of gel nails representing his/her best work. Master Acrylic Artist, entrants submit a collection of their best acrylic work. Nail Art Flat, entrant submits a collection of their best work using any flat art medium. 3D/Mixed Media Nail Art. Entrant submits a collection of their best work using any art medium. Nail Make-over, entrants submit a collection of before and after nail styles. Editorial Nail Stylist. Entrants submit a collection of their best editorial work. Fashion Forward, entrants submit a collection of future trends in nail styles, colors and textures. Student Nail Artist, entrant must be a current student at the time of the collection of work, submitting their best work in any area. Fantasy Nail Artist, entrant submits an entry of their own creation, their own theme. Nail Salon Team Award, entrants submit a collection of work by multiple nail stylists in their nail salon team. Any medium, any theme. Nail Salon Design, entrants submit photos of their salon. So if you haven’t already, check out the NAHA photos and get inspired, get angry, whatever it takes just get busy. Inbox me if you would like to help. naanaawards@gmail.com

Don't Just Sit There...Promote! Social Media Marketing Strategy part 3

     No online content will bring in traffic if it just sits there. You've got to go promote it in social media. Each social media platform has different traits so we need to be aware of the differences and use them in their own unique ways. Once you have a blog post up, you can go to Twitter and tweet the headline, or a provocative question about the content in your twitter feed. and remember you can schedule these to hit at various times of the day or night. whenever you feel you get the most response from the time you write it to the time you post your next blog. Depending on your followers twitter feed your post can get buried quick. On Facebook posting the same headline several times would get obnoxious and your potential new guests would tune you out in a hurry. Look at maybe one Facebook post at the perfect time, usually between 7 and 9 am or 7 and 9 pm, wherever you find you get the most engagement meaning likes comments and shares. Over at Linked in you want to post your status update promoting the blog but then you want to cast an even wider net. You want to post to the groups you are a part of begin a discussion post centered around your blogs content. So great headlines, reaching the various stages of the buying cycle and promoting at the different social media vehicles your content now has some traction.

      Ultimately conversion is what you really want to gain from your efforts so how do we convert all of this into sales? We need to be intentional and make sure everywhere a potential customer engages with us we are providing the opportunity for them to take that next step. Slack calls on the 90/10 rule. 90 percent of the content we are providing has to add value, be useful and beneficial to them. If 90 percent of our posts follow these social media guidelines then 10 percent of the time we can promote ourselves and our businesses. We can include a link with a special offer or coupon or discount code. He also recognizes two different types of buyers. the Now buyer, ready to strike and the future buyer, someone just looking around, maybe not even realizing they need your services. The now buyer may not be your best conversion because by the time they find you they may have already formulated their buying criteria and if you don't fit exactly into this mold they have set your conversions may not happen. Focusing on the future buyer, the one living with the challenge hoping to find solutions may be a better target. if your content gives them information and is helpful while they are formulating their buying criteria, that's a much better position to be.

      You've got to help people, not push them into buying your products or services. The more they line up with your story, your helpful information, the more they are lining up with your unique selling proposition. Use both passive and active calls to action. Remember passive is simply providing your contact information on every page they engage with. Active calls to action give them a reason to take the next step, be parental, tell people what to do next. A link that says book now or check availability. Make sure you have all of these conversion elements on all your social media tools for potential clients to easily engage. What's most important? Slack recommends first step back, take a deep breath and don't let it overwhelm you. Second focus on your niche, your usp, what it is that you offer that no one else does. Spend some time on this one and once you have it locked down, you are in the best position to build a content plan that begins with this end in mind. Providing unique content making sure your customers know you are the go to company is a great social media strategy.

Social Media Digging Deeper Pt 2

5 Steps To Success in Social Media

      What are the things you need to do on a regular basis, day in and day out on each social media platform to be sure you are adhering to best practices?

1 Listen. Listen to the conversations that are going on in social media. Pay attention to your potential customers conversations so you can reach out and help them. Know your key phrases like shellac, or pedicure or minx, you can search for these words on any social media platform.

2 Building community. You need to get people to like, friend and follow your business. After community building you want to start number 3.

3 Broadcasting. Talking to our customers and potential customers in social media.

4 Content. So seeing as broadcasting is the hook, content answers why they are going there in the first place. This is where we can lead with value and help our customers make educated buying decisions. Content needs to be valuable enough that they will read and share.

5 Conversion. All these efforts must result in our potential customer asking for additional information from us or about our business. Make sure there are plenty of opportunities within your content and on your pages to assist them in taking action.

     What is the best way to build community? Paul Slack uses the acronym BAM. We've got to build community before we can activate community, before we can monetize community. The easiest thing to do is to utilize the traffic you already have coming to your site. Simply make sure that the follow us information is on every page of your website. He recommends these icons placed in the top right of every page. Make it easy for your visitors to connect with via social media. Another recommendation is to cross promote. let visitors know on Facebook that you are active on twitter , maybe you have an active you tube channel or are on linked in. Send out an email to your database that you are active on social media. Constant contact has templates specifically designed for these types of messages. His number one strategy is search engine optimization. He believes social media marketing and seo are synonymous today. Offer a reason to follow you, maybe alerts for specials and contests. Tell people to like you follow you and share your content. Social media marketing is traditional marketing turned inside out and upside down. we are no longer in control of the conversation, our customers are. we are simply along for the ride, not pushing our products and services but providing help and opportunity when appropriate. The number one platform he recommends is a blog.

     Your blog should be your central command post. The shelf life of blog posts are infinite as opposed to a tweet or status update. When your blog is at the center of your social media you are in a much better position to capture customers over in the long run. Remember we don't own the database on any other platform but this. If you get locked out of Facebook your contacts are lost. So what does a winning blog campaign look like? You must have remarkable content. Your followers must want to read it and share it. Stories are a great way to deliver content, a good blogger is a good storyteller. Figure out the questions your customers want answered and answer it by telling a great story. make sure your content is organized. No one wants to read a thousand word copy with no images. Write in bullet points so your information is easily scanned. Make sure you have great headlines and great sub headlines, asking a question is always good. Make sure what impact your blog is having by measuring how much it is shared. We also want to be able to measure conversation, by how many people took that next step. You also need a strong content plan. he refers back to the universal marketing funnel.

      Awareness stage, creating appealing content. Evaluation or is your content helping your potential customer make a buying decision. Lastly decision content should explain to them why they should buy from you and no one else. Plan your content strategy a quarter at a time. That would look like one blog post per week, 12 every quarter. 2 should be decision pieces e why they should buy from you, 5 should be awareness pieces, something that would benefit them even when they are not in the market for it the other 5 should be evaluation pieces, helping them decide what their buying criteria is. These posts intermixed will address different buyer types at the various stages of the buying process. Next you have to have a promotion schedule. Tune in next week for part three.

Social Media..Digging Deeper

      The traditional marketing practice of interruption marketing like television and radio advertisements are becoming obsolete. Today we look toward gaining customers, keeping customers and turning those customers into walking billboards for your business we need to constantly nurture relationships. Companies that will jump ahead of the herd will be those that have figured out how to win at the social media game. Success magazines cd this month interviews a master social media expert, Paul Slack on how to actually gain traction and move the bottom line in your business. He stresses that all businesses need to engage in social media in a way that gets real results. There are three important reasons.

1. Quite simply because that's where your customers are. Facebook alone is now over 800 million active users. Linked In has over 100 million users, most of them making 60 to 70 thousand dollars per year if not more. Many making well over 100 thousand. Who doesn't want to tap into that market? Social media is the most effective way.
2. Think in terms of the old adage of word of mouth advertising. In social media one happy customer can tell thousands about how fantastic your business is and why they should do business with you. Results don't happen overnight, you have to have a plan to be successful.
3. People don't necessarily believe the marketing messages from traditional marketing venues.

      There are plenty of mistakes businesses are making in the social media world.
1.The biggest mistake businesses are making is failing to plan their social media strategy. You have to understand what you are trying to accomplish before just jumping in. If you have already jumped in without a life raft, take a step back. Identify, define and document what a winning plan looks like for your business. Figure out where your target audience is hanging out and how can I help them.
2 Right behind no plan is not seeing the plan through and giving up before even making a dent. Your business won't necessarily grow at the same rate of social media and get a quick fix. You may have to spend 4-6 months building up your community before you ever see results.

 

      So what's really useful? And what is a waste of time?
First understand what he calls your "social media currency" What are you giving away in order for your customers to engage with your business. Leading with value, through your social media currency is the way. What is it that our customers don't have that if we provided them with they could make better purchasing decisions. An example would be knowledge. As an expert in your field you have information that is valuable to your potential customer during their buying process, and if you can share that knowledge and help them make better they will beat a path to your doors. we also need to have a next step in mind for these potential customers, what do we want them to do once we h have engaged them in the process. We want our clients to wither pick up the phone and schedule an appointment or book online. Make sure you provide an opportunity for them to easily do these things from your engagement pages whether its Facebook or your blog or twitter etc.

      We also need to have a content plan that answers what our potential customers are researching. Discovering the questions and providing answers will be key to your content. The key secret to success is to then build a blog for the content to exist. Your blog containing all this great content is what you can then promote on social media. Dropping links will draw your audience back to a site that you own and control. You want to become a long term trusted advisor. Stay tuned for part 2 next week.