Use Social Media Professionally to Grow Your Mary Kay Business

Staying in touch is easier than ever…or is it?

You can Facebook, Tweet, Instagram, snap chat, text or email. How can you keep track of it all? What is the best way to reach your customers and how does she prefer to be contacted? Where does the professionalism fall? Is it unprofessional to send a snap chat? Let’s review each of these social media venues, how they work and how you can make them work for you.

Facebook.

Many of us are more familiar with our Facebook accounts than our email accounts. If that is true for you, you can might consider your self and “older adult.” (Read this article to learn more.) Use Facebook to create events with easy invitations, post pictures of products or even have a “page” just for your business. You can invite your customers to a private page that will let them know all about specials, new products and events. This will provide a sense of exclusivity and allow them to feel part of a special group. Face book is also a handy tool to send messages. Install the Facebook Messenger app to your phone to quickly chat with customers, even if you aren’t an older adult, Facebook is a great tool to contact large numbers of people in less time.

Linkedin.

Find professionals, read resumés and connect with people in various fields. People tend to view linked in as professional. This is off limits for cutesy quotes and any over the top photos. Take your self seriously on this social media outlet.

Instagram.

This is all about pictures. Post pictures of skin care parties, color consultations and before and after makeovers. Show your latest bundles and packaging that wows. Get a good following and watch your customer base increase. Be sure to put your contact information including a link to your website in the caption of each photo so customers will know where to buy. To get more followers spend some time following others. Search for topics that you and your customers may be interested in. When you find accounts that interest you, follow them. When they follow you back they will see everything you post. So post away and make ’em good shots. Use filters to enhance colors and spice them up. Instagram is growing in popularity with all ages so use this to your advantage.

Twitter.

Mary Kay would have loved Twitter. Keep it simple sweetie! You’ve got limited space here so make it count, only 140 characters. Link to your blog or your website and make that tweet interesting! You can post pictures on Twitter but is more about a quick bit of information that makes people click. You might link to a beauty article you find interesting or a picture of a model with the latest seasonal colors, perhaps something about Project Runway. The idea is to get them interested in what you tweet. Get more followers by following others. While people of all ages use Twitter, this is a great way to reach the younger generation. If you are in you 20’s you already knew that! Keep that in mind with the content you link to or tweet.

Snap Chat.

You have to have specific contact with people to send them a snap chat. It would be great to send your hostesses a snap chat before a party. Send them a picture of a spread of the products you are going to show them or of the gift they will earn if they have a certain number of guests at their party. You could also snap chat current customers to show them a great gift for an upcoming holiday. Snap chats disappear after they are viewed so this isn’t great for information you want them to retain or be able to refer back to.

Email.

Good ole’ email. Don’t you feel a little bad for email, like it is going the way of the dodo bird? Emails are great for information that you will need to get again. They are great to send flyers or invitations. But be careful. Some people have their spam filters set so high that your emails may not be getting through. So be cautious not to over send. If they mark you as spam, that is the last time they’ll ever hear from you!

Texts.

Texting is a great way to contact someone instantly. As long as the person your texting doesn’t feel like they HAVE to respond immediately and you don’t expect an answer that second that is a great, maybe the best, way to communicate quickly. Be sure to respect your customers texting wishes and don’t group text. We all know how annoying it is to hear the ding ding ding of all 25 people responding on group texts.

A final word

Be sure to take notes in the “notes” section for your contacts in Pink Office so you can record how to best reach each customer. That way you can contact her on her favorite form of social media. Also, don’t forget, that it is sometimes nice to hear a voice on the phone. It can be encouraging and uplifting to get a cheerful phone message or quick call to check in. Use social media to your advantage and understand the technology that is available to you.