ETS Tanning Bed Blog

If the only web presence your tanning salon has is a static web page that hasn't changed in three years, you're missing out on the power of social media marketing. Whether it's Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or even just simple email, please do me a favor and get out there and start connecting with your clients. Go to where they are. Here's where you can find them.

Facebook

Most of the successful tanning salons I know have a Facebook presence. They use their Facebook salon profile as a way to stay in touch with clients, allow clients to become "fans" of their business and advertise secret, "friends-only" promotions.

Twitter

Twitter is a free social networking service (often referred to as "micro-blogging") that allows its users to send and read other users' updates on what they're doing. If you're a Facebook user, think of Twitter as a feed that consists solely of status updates.

A tanning salon can use Twitter to keep clients abreast of upcoming specials, tanning tips or new lotions. Even if you don't plan on maintaining a regular presence on Twitter, you should check it regularly for mentions of your salon, both positive and negative. You can also find me on twitter at @RonWilsonETS .

MySpace

If your clients are using MySpace, your tanning salon should be too. Get on there, create a simple and clean profile (avoid the hard-to-read backgrounds and over-the-top dancing bologna) and let your clients add you as a friend. Like Facebook and Twitter, you can use the social networking site to send out updates and messages.

Email

If your staff and your tanning salon software have been doing their job, you should have an email address and contact information for every client. With the right salon software, you can even set up automated emails to remind clients of an upcoming membership renewal, special or anniversary.

Don't Be a Spammer

Social media and social networking may seem like a cheap and easy way to advertise, but if done incorrectly, it can backfire.

The last thing you want to do is spam your clients. If you start sending out daily messages about salon specials to your clients' inboxes, people will drop you as a friend and contact. Instead, limit social networking messages to items that have a purpose. For example, letting clients know about an occasional special, a new tanning bed, a change in hours, or an upcoming event, not endless drivel about how you're the best tanning salon in town.

A few months ago, we discussed a few ways to bring college students to your tanning salon, using things like Freshmen Welcome Packs, On Campus Bulletin Boards, and Free Weekly Papers .

These are great techniques, and we can't recommend them enough. But don't forget, most of these students are so plugged in to social media and the Internet, you're missing some valuable channels if you ignore the online world. Here are a few places you can find and attract college students.

Facebook - Facebook is one of the most popular social networks out there. You can find friends you went to high school and college with, join causes and nonprofits, or become fans of bands, actors, and even companies. Have your employees sign up for Facebook and friend the people they know from the local college or university.

Twitter - We talked about Twitter a few weeks ago as a way to reach customers. College students are using Twitter like crazy, and it's a fast and easy way to send out messages to your Twitter followers. Let clients set appointments through messages, or send out your own messages like "We have a cancellation for 7 tonight. First to respond gets it."

Text Clubs - Companies like Connective Mobile give you the ability to create opt-in text clubs. Send out messages wishing people a fun Spring Break, good luck with finals, and even special promotions you offer. (Make sure to balance the non-commercial/friendly messages with the commercial ones. See the important note below.) A lot of restaurants are using text clubs as a way to make special announcements, like "1/2 price appetizers from 5 - 7 tonight" to their text club members. Text clubs and Twitter are a great way to make customers feel like they're part of a special, elite group, which increases their loyalty.

One important note: Avoid blatant commercial messages like "We're having a sale on tanning packages this week only!" Today's social media users don't respond well to commercial spam, and will stop paying attention to you altogether if you do. Instead focus on the relationships with the people, and they'll become interested in who you are as much as what you do. This isn't true for text clubs, because that's what they're for. But social media users are about the conversation, not commerce. Make them like you with what you have to say, and they'll come to you for what you offer later.

Yesterday, we talked about how tanning salons can get started on Twitter. Today, I want to give you some ideas on how you can use Twitter to grow your tanning business.

CoffeeGroundz, a coffee shop in Houston, Texas, is credited with having one of the first commercial transactions on Twitter. It all started when one of their regulars sent a direct message (DM) to the shop for a breakfast burrito pickup. Since then, they have turned their Twitter presence into a regular communication method with their customers, even holding a special Twitter meetup (called a Tweetup) that not only let their regulars meet with each other, but brought in big sales that day.

So how can you use Twitter to grow your business?

CoffeeGroundz tapped their regulars for their efforts, so start with yours. Ask them if they're on Twitter – if they're not, get them on it – and start following them. Send out regular Tweets to your clients, and build the expectation that you use it regularly. When that happens, your clients will start communicating with you too.

Once you've built up a Twitter following, and are using it on a regular basis, here are some ways to use it.

• Send out announcements, sales, and special offers to your followers. ("Special Twitter sale: Refer a new member, get 2 weeks of free upgrades.")
• Send out cancellation notices to fill a spot: ("We had a spot open up from 3:30 - 4:00. First DM gets it.")
• Forward articles to your followers about the industry, tanning techniques, and things that might affect them (this is where it pays to get to know your clients).
• Create a "message-ahead" program. Let clients DM you for appointments and cancellations.
• Use GroupTweet.com to create groups of clients. Maybe you can communicate with your premier members with one message, regular members with another, and a third to occasional members.
• Run Twitter-based contests where the winner gets a special prize. ("Tell us your most outrageous vacation story, win a free bottle of tanning lotion."
• Make sure you send Tweets that are actually interesting to your clients. While it's good to have 1-on-1 conversations with your followers, if that's all you're doing, your followers will get bored. Get a personal Twitter account if you want the personal conversations.
• On the other hand, participate in group conversations with your clients. See if you can stimulate conversations between them, and build a community of Twitter tanners (Twanners? Why not?). (Asking questions to your followers, like the outrageous vacation example above, will generate this conversation.)
• Use a program like Tweetdeck – a Twitter client that sits on your desktop – and keep it open all the time. If you have an iPhone or BlackBerry, there are special Twitter clients for them too.
• If your clients are going on vacation and putting their tan to use, encourage them to Tweet photos to you via TwitPic , and retweet them to all of your followers. This will help build your community.

If you can build your Twitter following, you will have made your tanning salon a special place to be for your clients. The more they feel a sense of belonging – a sense of community – the more they'll stay involved. Occasional clients will become regulars, regulars will become premier members, and they'll refer their friends.

That's a great ROI for a free application that only lets you send 140-character messages.

Twitter has been in the mainstream media for the last several weeks, which means it has probably reached its tipping point. It was on Charlie Rose last night, on our local FOX station this morning, in the New York Times, and a lot of other mainstream media outlets.

Tanning salons are in a great position to take advantage of social networking tools like Twitter. Twitter is an important way for people to communicate with a lot of people quickly and easily. By typing a 140-character message, you can ask questions, provide information, tell people about books or articles you're reading, and even make plans with friends.

You build up your readers – called followers in the "Twitterverse" – by following them, and they'll follow you in return. Pretty soon, you have a small community of people with shared interests, geography, or relationships. Then, when you send out a message, your followers will see it, and respond. If they write a message back, their followers will see the response. It's like instant messaging in a crowded room.