While focusing on other aspects of your social media presence, it may be tempting to neglect review sites. But not only do they increase your salon’s visibility, they can also reap big rewards. “We’ve built our business on reviews,” states Danielle Keasling, owner of Salon Karma in Bluffton, South Carolina and Matrix Artistic Director. “Last year we launched a ‘March Madness/Salon Karma is Going Mad’ promotion and offered people 30 ‘Karma Koins,’ worth $30 toward services, for writing a Google review on us. It absolutely blew up our Google presence.” Here, we tackle the pros and cons of each platform.
Yelp
- Pros
- Biggest online review platform (145 million unique monthly visitors).
- Encourage reviews by adding the "Yelp Review" button to your website.
- Cons
- Directly asking for reviews is strongly discouraged.
- Algorithm determines which reviews are displayed.
- Takeaway
- Don’t let a negative review go unanswered. “You should answer all bad reviews,” states Keasling.
- “It shows that you are responsible and ready to respond to clients, which counteracts negative reviews’ effects.”
- Pros
- The average Facebook user is on the platform 15 hours a week.
- Facebook reviews are incorporated into Google.
- Cons
- Users typically don’t search for reviews; more of a casual go-to.
- Businesses can’t respond to negative reviews.
- Takeaway
- Encourage clients to leave positive reviews and “Like” all positive reviews.
Google Local Search
- Pros
- Reviews show up first in Google search results.
- Easy for clients to post reviews.
- Owners can solicit reviews.
- Cons
- To verify your business, you need to set up a Google My Business account.
- Takeaway
- Claim your business and get noticed.
- “When someone is new in town and Googles ‘salons,’ you want your business’s name to come out on top,” Keasling points out.
Many thanks to our sponsors Redken, Pureology, Matrix, L’Oreal Professionnel, Baxter of California, Level Loyalty and Salon Centric for making this digital supplement possible.
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