“We are massively underestimating this culture shift… We are in the era of the humanization of business. We’re living by small town rules again.”

Gary Vaynerchuk

Watch Gary Vee as he passionately shares his thoughts on the social revolution and what it means for our businesses.  Listen at your own risk, lots of f-bombs and passion inside.

What excites us most about the social web for salons is most salons have always acted by “small town rules”.  Salons and hairdressers are social by nature.  Many of you have always cared deeply about your clients, your team and your community.  A big first step is to take all of those values and principles you practice every day and apply them to the web. Ta-Da!

The social web is…
1. About people.
2. About listening.
3. About caring and loving.
4. About building relationships.
5. About meaningful conversations.
6. About giving a sh#t!
7. About authenticity.
8. About saying thank you.
9. About providing valuable + engaging content.
10. About building and growing word of mouth, referrals, organic discovery and your business.

The social web is not…
1. About selling.
2. About spamming.
3. About self-promotion.
4. About collecting likes and fans like baseball cards.
5. About asking people (over and over) to like and follow you.
6. About getting before you give.
7. About hype.
8. About bragging.
9. About posting just to post.
10. About outsourcing. (Can you really outsource listening to your clients? Think about it.)

Now you may be saying, wait a minute, I have to make money to pay my bills and I have to sell more stuff to do that.  We understand, trust us, we have lots of bills too.  With the new social economy and the connected consumer, you must first deliver value on your social pages, just like you do in your salon every day.  You have to earn the business in the social space, not expect it because you have a website and Facebook page.

The first step is to understand, practice and consistently execute Steps 1-9 on the first list.

It takes time, but it is well worth it when you build an engaged community that loves you, what you stand for, the results you provide and they become raving fans on the web which turns into word of mouth and referrals! How awesome is that?

If you are looking for help to better understand the power of the social web and how it can help you grow, click here.  We look forward to hearing from you and growing with you.

PS: This blog post was inspired by two of our social + digital heroes, author of The Thank You Economy Gary Vaynerchuk and author of The End Of Business As Usual Brian Solis.  A big shout out of thanks to these two leaders who speak their truth, how refreshing.

(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)