So if your a self employed beauty gal, you probably have a very love hate relationship with instagram. Is it great for free advertisement? Yes. Is it a place you go to compare literally everything about your work to someone else’s? Probably, yes. Whether you are in the industry or not, instagram is usually a place where one’s self confidence goes to die a slow, painful death.
Running your instagram is pretty much another full time job in itself. From the minute I wake up I’m checking my DMs, responding to messages and keeping on top of my interactions (all before the school run). Because we all know if we don’t, we get punished with 3 likes on our posts for the next month. It literally takes up SO much of our time and most of the time (for me anyway) it makes me anxious and so self critical of my work. I honestly have hundreds of pictures on my camera roll that I will never upload because there is one brow hair out of place, the lighting isn’t quite right or the angle isn’t what’s most popular at the moment, and to be honest that goes with my personal pictures too (I currently have a selfie on there I want to post but I’m too scared). If it’s not perfect, I won’t post it. So is the over thinking, anxiety and how critical we are to ourselves really worth the custom we get off the app?! I’m honestly not sure….
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve built probably a big chunk of my client base off advertising on social media over the past 8 years. But a lot of my clients are also from word of mouth, their sister comes to me for their brows or their work bestie and they decided to give it a go too. A mixture of a good reputation and good social media presence is a good recipe for a large and loyal client base (and obviously being good at your job). On the other hand, I know beauty therapists who have been in the game since BEFORE the instagram hype and they are killing it with a full diary every week. My best friend literally posts on instagram a handful of times a year and she’s the busiest beauty therapist I know, absolutely smashing it. So it goes to show, it’s possible to do it without the gram.
But these days, if you’re just starting, trying to add more clients to your diary or just trying to stay present you pretty much need to know your way around social media. Please tell me how after doing 10 clients in one day, working our little assess off, we then have to go home, pick a picture we like best out of the 100 we have taken, edit it and then post it with a catchy or inspiring caption? I don’t know about you, but some days I simply just cannot be assed. After having the ‘what you having for tea’ convo 10 times a day (not complaining I love this by the way) I struggle to string a sentence together when I get home, never mind a catchy caption. Not to mention, after said 10 client day, you’re more than likely going home to an inbox full of people wanting to book in (hopefully), responding to that message from 3 days you’ve forgot about and booking appointments…. Anyone fancy a job as a PA?!
So as well as being just a massive chore added to our list of jobs and hats we wear. It can also be crippling to your self confidence, which is where it gets me. Every picture I post, I examine it from corner to corner to make sure it is perfect. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I will post a pic that (to me) isn’t perfect, because I need bloody content. But why am I this critical of a picture? My client will leave telling me how happy they are, take selfies of their new brows, leave me an amazing review and re book 3 appointments ahead… all of which goes straight over my head if that bloody picture isn’t good enough for social media. So if instagram wasn’t there…. I would surely be so happy about my clients reaction and the fact they are booking back in and leaving good reviews, wouldn’t I? The positives ( the things that really matter) would take the lime light, but instead the shit picture I took on my I phone makes me doubt myself.
But it is there. It’s everywhere. Every time I open my phone I see these art gallery worthy photos that look so perfect they make me want to shut up shop and not bother, because will I EVER be able to post that good? And if I can’t, will I ever reach my goals? Will I ever get the client base I want? Will I ever get the growth I want? Without, THAT insta post?!! Sometimes I wish we could all delete the app and go back to the good old days. The good old days where you only compared your work, to your work 6 months ago and not every other beautician you see on your phone. Where people would book appointments with beauticians from hearing such good things about them or loving their treatments on their friends, instead of who’s got the biggest social media presence (don’t even get me started on this). Some people are massively talented in their job as a beautician, they just don’t know how to grow and get interactions on social media. This doesn’t mean they aren’t AMAZING.
So how am I tackling this you ask?! Lately I’ve been really trying to post my work, even if I don’t think it’s 100% the perfect picture. It’s also worth mentioning that we live in a world where probably 80% of posts you see are MASSIVELY edited. I don’t mean softening the skin and blurring out the spot your client said you MUST get rid of before you post (I’ve got you girls). I mean editing, editing. If you’re in this job, I’m hoping it’s because you love it, and my thing now is just to post what I love. Whether that’s on my work or my personal. Instagram is a highlight reel of everyone’s lives, beautician or not. No one posts the lashes that didn’t go quite right, the day where everything went wrong or that they had a quite week.
My only big sis advice after nearly 8 years in the industry is to focus on YOU. Don’t look at other people’s work, scroll down your own insta and look at the work you were doing 6 months ago and see how much you’ve improved!! Don’t worry about posting every day or not having the sleekest content, a before and after picture is all you need. Just love what you do, work hard everyday, be consistent and the rest will come. It’s hard to be in an industry where your work has to be put out to the world & judged… So let’s be kinder to ourselves & to each other. Remember that everyone is on their own journey and instagram followers and instagram likes does NOT equal success in your business or personally with your clients. If you’re busy every week & your clients are happy, THATS what matters. So to answer my own question.. is it good for us? I’d say, with balance YES. As long as we don’t obsess, YES. It’s just not the be all and end all, that’s the important thing to remember.
WOW that was a long one. Like I said, I have a lot of thoughts lol. If you’ve made it to the end, thank you so so much again, I’m not even sure if I’ve come to a conclusion on this one, but to stay in tune with the blog I’m not going to over read this and analyse it, I’m just going to upload it.
Till next time my loves, Lydia Lee xx