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Social Foundation

FACEBOOK

As the world’s largest social media network, Facebook is a platform that allows users and businesses to connect with friends, family and clients. After registering for the site, users can create a profile and add other users as friends. They can also exchange messages using Facebook Messenger, post status updates and photos, share videos, and receive notifications when others update their profiles. Users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, as well as “like” pages for brands, artists, and interests. Audience size: 1.79 billion monthly active users.

FACEBOOK LIVE

Facebook Live is Facebook's answer to live video streaming, allowing people, public figures and businesses to share live video with their fans and friends on Facebook. The videos can be published to the Page or profile following the live stream so that fans and friends who missed it can watch at a later time. Great for how-to and tutorial content, this platform is rising in popularity as more users turn to video content on the web.

PINTEREST

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform that allows users to pin things online just as you would pin them to a bulletin board. Users can search through the site for content and create boards based on interests, from healthy food to classic cars. Audience size: 150 million monthly active users.

YOUTUBE

Have you ever watched a video online? More often than not, it’s a YouTube video. YouTube is a free video sharing website that makes it easy to consume and upload your own videos to share friends, family, and the world. Over 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, with content featuring everything from beauty tutorials to DIY home renovations. Each day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube. Audience size: 1 billion monthly active users.

HASHTAGS

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic on social media. Hashtags are predominantly used on Twitter and Instagram. Adding hashtags to images can make them show up in user searches, great for branding and tracking similar conversations. By adding a hashtag to your content, you can increase viewership and engagement to your photos and videos. Popular hashtags for hairdressers include hair techniques like #balayage and #ombre, as well as stylist specific hashtags like #hairstylist. 
  • #hairdresser: 4.1 million posts
  • #hairstylist: 9.6 million posts
  • #balayage: 4.8 million posts
  • #ombre: 7.6 million posts 

SNAPCHAT

Snapchat is a fast-paced, ephemeral social media app, driven by millennials and used by over 150 million people. The app initially started as a way to share quickly-dissolving photos with users, and has evolved into a platform that hosts everything from produced, movie-like stories, to “Discover” pages from various news outlets. One can use Snapchat to share fun moments with friends and family by “Snapping” them photos via the app, or can post a series of photos and videos that display as the user’s “story,” visible either to the general public, or to whoever the user allows to “friend” them on the app. Because it’s so visual, it’s a great application for stylists and colorists to use to share their work and follow other users that also share their work.

SNAPCHAT GEOFILTERS

Snapchat Geofilters are beyond exciting because they connect places and events with Snapchat users and can be part of their Snapchat story – often times, Snapchatters utilize Geofilters to show that they are at an exclusive event. A Geofilter can be created and scheduled by anyone! Geofilters are a great advertising tool for salons. The filters can be associated with a place, (like a salon or business), or an event, (like a holiday haircolor promotion). Cities and major events often have their own Geofilters that Snapchat moderates, which is why you can see so many different filters each time you login to Snap! To create and schedule a Geofilter, click this link: https://www.snapchat.com/on-demand.

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is a photo and video based social sharing mobile application which allows users to upload photos to their page! Many users now try to give their Instagram pages a uniform look or feel, and some even stick to one theme like food or hairstyling. The application allows users to “follow” other users that they either know personally, or enjoy the photos from, so that a constant stream of photos is available for viewing upon logging in to the app. Users can then “like” and comment on photos, and it becomes a very socially-driven application. In 2016 Instagram announced that the application had 500 million active users – making it one of the most popular social media platforms (2nd to Facebook).

INSTAGRAM STORIES

A new feature just released this past year, Instagram stories allows users to upload videos and photos that live on their profile for a 24-hour period. Usually used to share more off-the-cuff content, Instagram stories gives Instagram users a chance to show their personalities more and upload what they’re up to day-to-day, which is important especially now that so many Instagram users keep their feeds so specific!

INSTAGRAM LIVE

Also new to Instagram, the live feature allows users to broadcast live-stream videos onto their Instagram pages, and notifies their followers that they are live! Used for anything from showing a really cool scene, to sharing a funny story, Instagram live stories are a great way to share your life with your followers.