Key Takeaways: Influencing the future of barbering, educating clients, and connecting with fellow barbering professionals are just a few of the compelling reasons to become a barber content creator. Here are five simple steps to kickstart your foray into this exciting new facet of barbering.
The world of barbering is full of potential, allowing people with different skill sets, passions, and approaches to thrive. For many barbers, success looks like opening their own shop and connecting with loyal clients. For others, it might be developing a line of barbering products or teaching the next generation of barbers how to succeed.
Now, there’s a new form of barbering success–creating barber content. This relatively recent revelation has created a new breed of barber that could be described as a social media savant, influencer, or barber content creator. If you want to join these exciting, inspiring figures by becoming a barber content creator yourself, there are a few things you should know.
How to Create Barber Content for Your Business
Find a Unique Brand Voice and Style
Thanks to the massive popularity of social media and the desire of many people to gain recognition on a variety of platforms, there are a lot of cookie-cutter profiles and copycat approaches to content creation. Thankfully, you can learn from these examples and focus on finding a brand voice and visual style that is unique to you.
Why not just adopt a formula that has worked for other people? Because you want to stand out from the crowd!
Your barber shop is an extension of you. If you don’t want it to be just another run-of-the-mill shop that blends in with all the rest, you need to focus on telling your unique story by imbuing your content with personality, thoughtful branding, and intentionality.
It takes time, effort, and a lot of hard work to develop and refine a barber content style, but the reward is worth the investment.
Prioritize Engagement (Not Promotion)
If you’ve spent more than 10 seconds on social media lately, you have noticed that it has devolved into a tool for marketing. Very few people engage in real ways with their audience; instead, they focus on selling.
It’s frustrating as a user and can be a turnoff for your potential customers.
What should you do instead? Engage with your audience by starting conversations, sharing authentic barber content, and forging genuine relationships. From asking for opinions on your latest handiwork to building a community both online and in your town, acting like an actual person (rather than an advertising machine) helps build trust, grow your community, and connect with people in real, lasting ways.
Be Authentic and Transparent
Social media users are saturated with targeted marketing campaigns and posts designed specifically to sell them something. In a world where most barber content is focused on making a sale, authenticity stands out more than ever.
What does authentic barber content creation look like? You, simply being you.
Create content that reflects your personality, the values of your barber business, and the real-life things happening in and around your shop. Whether you’re sharing inspiring customer testimonials (with their permission), educational tips, or behind-the-scenes looks at how your barbering biz operates, being genuine and transparent is sure to resonate with your audience and potential clients.
Collaborate and Embrace User-Generated Content
Connecting with people and building relationships are two of the most rewarding (and effective) aspects of social media. If you want to be a successful barber content creator, embracing a collaborative approach to content is among the best ways to improve your presence and reach more people.
The first step to collaboration is to work with other barber pros and barber content creators. Not only does this allow you to expand your professional network, but it also helps you grow your creative process, reach a larger audience, and even access new industries.
Another form of collaboration involves working with customers to share their experiences with your audience. When happy customers post about their new hairstyle or the great experience they had at your shop, you have the opportunity to feature them on your platform (with their permission, of course).
"What does authentic barber content creation really look like? Easy – just you, being you."
To encourage more user-generated content, you can encourage customers to do before-and-after posts, use your custom hashtag, tag your business profile, provide testimonials, and more.
Be Consistent and Build Momentum
While some barber content goes viral overnight, most creators will need to do things the old-fashioned way–by remaining consistent and building momentum over time. So, while it may be discouraging to not experience immediate success, stick to your plan and maintain consistency even when the going gets tough.
As you do so, focus on the relationships you are building and measure your success not in raw numbers and data but in the connections you make. If you are persistent, you will reach the goals you set for yourself!
Whether you’re determined to be a barber influencer or simply want to expand the reach of your shop, barber content is a must. For more barbering business tips, subscribe to the National Association of Barbers and visit our blog!
