ASK THE Experts

I’m a salon owner who wants to promote my services on social media. At the same time, I want to be mindful of my clients’ wellbeing. How do I go about marrying the two?

Image from Shutterstock

The past few years have seen an increase of concern about how the beauty and aesthetics industries operate on social media and how that affects the public’s mental health.

To give an overseas example, in the UK there has been a move to encourage advertisers and influencers not to doctor images. In addition, it’s recommended that commercial images should carry a logo if digitally altered and that diagnosis and treatment of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) should be made a priority.

This has been a great start to demonstrate the massive impact that images and social media have on people’s mental health. Ultimately, Gen Z doesn’t know a world that doesn’t involve TikTok or Instagram, so seeing all these things really impacts their mental health.

Here are my Do’s and Don’ts for beauty and aesthetics professionals to responsibly engage with their audience on social media, while promoting their services successfully.

The Do’s

1. Have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition): What makes you special on social media?

2. Stand for something. What are the things you do and don’t stand for? You need to have a viewpoint. If you stand for nothing you fall for everything, and I really believe that’s true where social media is concerned.

3. Be consistent. I know everyone says that consistency is key on social media, but it’s true! I have posted three to five stories every day for the past six years.

4. Push video content: Instagram is all about video at the moment, and as the fastest-growing social platform, TikTik is too. So, thinking about how to adapt your content to appease the algorithms of these sites will be important for your business in the next few years.

5. Diversify. Don’t stick to one platform – use TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest – do something else, not just Instagram!

The Don’ts

1. Don’t compare yourself to others: Don’t look at others and be envious of them because nobody wins that way, and you just end up feeling awful about yourself. Be yourself and show your personality.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: Don’t think that you can do everything yourself. Nobody expects you to be a videographer or photographer extraordinaire. When you need help, don’t be afraid to ask.

3. Don’t edit photos for social media: Editing or photoshopping pictures before posting is an absolute no-no. It’s so unethical and diminishes trust, while being exploitative and potentially harmful to vulnerable people.

Source: https://professionalbeauty.co.uk/site/newsdetails/how-to-aesthetic-treatments-social-media-ethically

Dr Ahmed El Muntasar is a GP and facial aesthetics expert who runs regular clinics in London, Leeds and Manchester. He has over 900k followers on Instagram and 19k followers on TikTok.