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[00:00:00] If you're like me, you probably have a love hate relationship with social media and I totally get it But what i'm here to tell you in this episode is that if you are a makeup artist And you're not using social media to promote your business You are losing out and I want to get you on the right track today in this episode We're going to talk about mindset around social I'm going to share some things that you can probably do with your social media as you're listening to this episode to actually get it Promoting your business in the right way.
If you're new to the podcast, my name is Angie. I'm a full time freelance makeup artist and makeup artist educator, and this episode is all about promoting your business on social media. I think it's important to start with mindset around the whole thing because this seems to be the biggest roadblock a lot of the MUAs that I talk to need to get over.
If you're working as an artist in 2024, you need to use social media. You do not need to use 20 different platforms. You can focus on one. You don't need to post on these platforms five, ten times a day. And you don't need to become an influencer. And this is a point I want to make so [00:01:00] clear about what's going on with this episode.
If you want to be an influencer, just stop listening to this episode right now. This is not for you because that's a whole different type of industry within our industry, and I'm not an influencer, so I can't really help you with that. But if you feel like you can't promote your business because you don't have enough followers, then I'm here to tell you that you are wrong, and you may be approaching social media in a way that can actually cost you jobs and money, especially if your thoughts around social media are preventing you from posting.
The only influencing I want you to focus on as a professional working makeup artist is Influencing potential clients to book you. That's your goal. It's as simple as that. You do not need half a million followers to book out your entire year. You do not need to go viral to make money from Instagram. So let's put all of that to the side and I need you to really get rid of those beliefs.
Those are what we call limiting beliefs and we do not need those in our business. All you need to do is convince paying clients in your market to book you and to [00:02:00] convince other pros and other vendors in your market to work with you. And you do this by showing that you can do the work they need a makeup artist for.
You want to show that you're trustworthy, professional, and you want to show that you can do the job you say you can do or others say you can do if they refer you. And that's it. This is what you want to come back to if you're hesitating on leaning into social, you don't know what to post or what to show on your social, come back to this.
It is very helpful to remember that social media is where clients find you. People are using these platforms as search engines. It's not just for entertainment anymore. If you're referred to someone for a job, this is where potential clients look for proof you can do what other people say you can do. So this is.
It's part of the whole thing that we just need to accept. You can think of social media, if it helps as a member of your marketing team, you can think of social as a tool for marketing, whatever you got to do to just wrap your head around using this more in your business and approaching it in a way that makes it feel like.
This is something that is going to help your business and not [00:03:00] necessarily as a hindrance or something annoying that you have to keep up with. Before we get into everything I want to cover on this episode, I will say if you haven't separated your personal account from your makeup artist account, please consider doing that as soon as possible.
Potential clients. Do not really want to see 10 posts of your personal stuff in between one or two posts of your work. Yes, they want to see who you are, but when you're posting in this way, it actually looks like you aren't working and you don't have a full body of work. Also, if you want to protect your mental health, get a separate Instagram going just for your business.
So you can kind of get in and out and then you can be more strategic about what you're posting and you just don't get caught up on Instagram, let's say for too long. I think the best way to do things and if you are creating a new account for yourself on Instagram, which is the main platform that I use and I think it's the best for our business, just do creator or personal account.
Don't get into the details about having a business account right now. The point of this episode is just to get you doing something productive with your social [00:04:00] media so that you can start to use it in the. best way possible for your business. What I want to do for you in this episode is just run off a list of some really easy things that you can do with your social and provide you with reasons why you should be doing these things.
And you can kind of pick from the list of whatever works best for you and implement that in your business. And these are things that are not on the to do list for next week or next month. Try to start getting this stuff done. Right now as soon as you finish listening to this podcast and remember you always need to think about what you're posting on social From the perspective of clients who are looking to hire some really easy stuff to start with if you're starting a new instagram account Let's say don't overthink your instagram handle But remember you are going to be repeating it a million times.
You might be putting it on printed materials in your email signature. It has to be something that you're comfortable with saying out loud in front of a room of people. I've always kept this very simple. My personal Instagram is at Angie D I B, which is the first three letters of my last name. My last [00:05:00] name is D Batista and it's very annoying to spell out loud over and over.
So I made my Instagram very simple and now people know it's Angie Dib or Angie D B and It's just easy for me to say, and people get it, and it's very easy to search on Instagram. So that has worked out for me. I would say don't pick anything too elaborate, just keep it very simple and straightforward, as simple as you can make it.
When it comes to your profile picture, it should either be a clear, distinct, easy to read logo, because remember when you are looking at your phone, the logos are very small, so you don't need an elaborate logo. It's not going to read well. Or a nice, Picture of you smiling looking friendly eyes to camera that kind of looks like a headshot If you don't have a headshot, you can easily stage one I actually think a photo is better because it just makes everything more human to people plus no one else looks like you So that's kind of good to help you stand out and it Also helps when you're DMing people or networking.
It helps associate a face to a name. So I think that's nice in your bio. You want to let people know what you do and where you do it. You also want to [00:06:00] make sure you have a link somewhere where people can contact you. I think mine says makeup and hair artists. And I mentioned I'm in Toronto. And again, don't overthink it.
If you work in bridal, you can say that if you work in commercial, say that just make it clear to people who visit your profile. And this is also the section that you want to use. for SEO. And if you don't know what SEO means, it stands for search engine optimization. Optimizing your Instagram bio for SEO means making it easier for people to find your profile when they search for related keywords on Instagram.
I said earlier in this episode, people are using social media platforms. as search engines. So what this means is in your bio, you want to use relevant keywords like your makeup style or location. So for example, maybe you're a Nashville makeup artist specializing in natural bridal makeup, something like that.
When you treat the wording of your bio in this way, you have a higher chance of your profile showing up when people are searching for a makeup artist. So it can increase your [00:07:00] visibility on the platform. form. There's also something I want to touch on when it comes to your Instagram bio. This could be an unpopular opinion.
You may feel attacked if you're listening to this. I promise you this is not my intention. I'm just trying to help here. What I would stay away from in your bio is trying to really prove yourself by listing your number of years of experience or awards or certifications that you've won, putting certain words in your bio, like Expert or uh, celebrity makeup artist is one of my favorites.
I see all the time your content needs to back up Everything you say in your bio or the effect that you think your bio is having when you include this stuff It's actually going to have the opposite effect. So let me explain what I mean if I Have somebody that says they are award winning um 10 years of experience and I scroll down to the instagram and I only see six or seven posts of work that's posted, you know, seven years ago, three years ago.
It's showing me that you're not really working and you're obviously trying to [00:08:00] stretch your credentials by including this in your bio. If you say you're a celebrity makeup artist, I hope you are a celebrity makeup artist and I better see your Instagram loaded with celebrity photos, not one time that you work with a celebrity.
three, four, five months ago. So this is stuff you want to be careful of when you're networking with other pros. When you say I have five years of experience, like you're very seasoned pros, looking at your Instagram profile are going to know five years is really nothing in the grand scheme of things. And it shows us that you're trying to look like more than you are.
And that's not a good look as well. So I would say let your work speak for itself and just keep your Instagram bio as a way to help people find you on Instagram. Don't use it as a resume. Let the post that you're sharing be your resume. There's a lot of stuff like this that I see on social and I just wanted to call that out because I think it's a mistake.
I used to do things like this as well when I was First starting you constantly feel like you have to prove yourself by talking about all the things that you've done But it's like the proof is in your work. So always remember that [00:09:00] in that bio on Instagram You also want to make sure you're not making people do extra work to connect with you to inquire about your services or to book with you.
So you want to have a way where potential clients or anyone interested in working with you can connect with you right then and there on the app. This could mean having a link tree with contact info, setting up your contact buttons, whatever you're comfortable with, but make sure they don't have to go off the app or do too much to connect with you because people have a very short attention span and people want things in an instant.
So make sure you have that information. front and center in your Instagram bio. Next thing you want to tackle is your highlights, and with your highlights you can get as branded as you have time for, but I really think the point that I want to get across is that just get this stuff going and you can refine it all later.
So your highlights of course will highlight what you have to offer. Some ideas for you. Now, this is going to be different for everybody, depending on what area of the industry you're working in, but you can show your work if you want to divide [00:10:00] up your work into different categories, you can do that in your highlights, you can have an about me section with a little bit more about you and pictures of you on the job, your headshot, you can have a highlight about how to book you, your booking process.
For those of you who are working with more personal clients, like in bridal and events, you may want to have one about how to prepare for a booking with you or how your clients can prepare, I should say. Again, don't overthink it. Just get that stuff up there and then you can brand it more as you go. And the next time you're on social, instead of just aimlessly kind of scrolling.
Do your research and take a look at how makeup artists that you follow or ones in your market are using their highlights. Just use the highlights as another way to present what you have to offer to potential clients. And remember it's the, the first three to five, probably three highlights are going to be the most important and the rest people may not have the attention span for.
So put your best stuff in those first couple of highlights and just remember to keep them updated. Stop yourself if you're going to do this right now from overthinking what the covers of the [00:11:00] highlights are going to look like on your Instagram or if you have to have branded covers. I've seen it all.
I've seen insanely successful makeup artists just have their highlights with no branded cover. I've seen some very nice branded covers. on Instagram. Instagram feeds. So it's, it's not something you need to overthink. I think what's more important is what's in the highlights. Okay, let's get to content now.
So it's going to be helpful to have a good balance of reels, carousels, and static posts or just image posts. And all of this stuff you'll probably see, especially if you're researching how to use Instagram for marketing. There's things that go on. Uh, it goes in trends what the algorithm favors and I don't want you to get too caught up in what's going on with The algorithm because again, it's not our intention to be an influencer.
It's not in our intention to go viral All you should be caring about is what a client would want to see if they visited your instagram because your instagram is your sales pitch It's your elevator pitch and you always want to come back to that and clients will want to see A mix of your [00:12:00] work. They want to see it in video.
They want to see behind the scenes photos professional photos So make sure you're offering up that variety. Only posting photos by photographers is not really allowing clients to see your work organically, which is what people want to see. They want to see what your work looks like on video from a phone because that's a more authentic representation of what you can do.
They want to see behind the scenes to know that you're kind of integrated into the industry. And I also don't want you to get too caught up in the whole branding of it all right now, especially if you're just getting the hang of it. You don't need to create all these overproduced reels, just keep it simple to start and just start posting.
And even on my own personal account, I just have a quick video of a makeup application that I put to music. I list the products and these things get tons of views. So remember all of this the next time you're thinking about posting on social. time you're scrolling through social, it's research time when you're scrolling.
If you see something that catches your eye from another artist, save that post and create something similar with your work. I did want to [00:13:00] share some general tips about creating and posting your work on social. I'm not going to be able to tell you what's going to work best, for your social media account in every situation because it's also dependent on your location, the type of work you do, that type of thing.
So this is just general stuff. I also want to be clear that all you really need is your cell phone camera. You don't need a crazy camera for posting content. Cell phone camera is good enough. And I think also, I'm sure some of you are thinking like, well, how often do I post so I can, people can see my work and all of that stuff.
I think it's more, what's more important here is. What you're posting and not how often you're posting and remember who you're speaking to with what you post It's for potential clients It's for people who are searching to hire a makeup artist or if someone is referred to you You want to be able to show your best work?
They're not gonna care how often you're posting They're not gonna care that you didn't Post three times today. They wanna just get a sense of who you are, what you have to offer, where your skillset is at, and that's just done through like a very quick scroll. So remember [00:14:00] that one thing. Promise me you'll do this.
A lot of people do not do this. It drives me crazy. Before you take photos of your work or you film anything, just clean off the lens on your, on your camera, on your phone. Two seconds, wipe it on your shirt. I always keep Windex in my kit to do this because there's nothing worse than videos and photo of people's work that looks like there's like Vaseline smeared all over the lens.
So just do that before you do anything. Remember to, when you're taking photos and video, it's all about the makeup. I do not need to see an entire background of someone's house on their wedding day. Someone's pajamas covered in cat hair, half their boobs hanging out, what's on the table in front of you.
Just be mindful of your Cropping of your photos. It's really just about the head and a little bit more of the torso And if you want to get the hair in there, that's what it's about I don't want to be able to place the person. You know what I mean? I don't want to see the whole background I just want to see a beautiful photo of well lit makeup and that's all clients really want to see and speaking of lighting Please your makeup will look Thousand times better [00:15:00] in great lighting.
Of course, natural light is our first choice and great quality. Artificial lighting is your second choice, and there will be situations where you need to do a combo of both, especially if your natural light source is not bright enough for a good photo. Lighting changes everything. It's an absolute kit essential.
You need lighting to obviously do this job. Good lighting will help you see undertones better in your products and people's skin and good lighting makes your content look better And we want to optimize everything right when we're on the job We may only have 10 seconds to take a photo of our clients We want to make sure that that client the makeup is well lit So in that 10 seconds, we can at least get one photo to use for social so please invest in decent quality lighting if you can for me the makeup light is The best it's the one i've used the longest it's bright.
It's super high quality. I film content with it I take all my photos and videos with the makeup light. It's just an amazing system in the show notes I'll include a link for you What I have in my kit and just some other info but makeup [00:16:00] light is where it's at for me Some lighting is better than no lighting.
So if you can't do the makeup light right now just get something to light your space. And that added lighting for your photos is going to help. And if you are on the job and you have some time to take a photo, your client does not have to stay glued to their chair. You can take them somewhere where the lighting is better to grab that photo.
So your client or your talent, whoever you're working with, they don't have to necessarily stay in their chair for the photo. You can take them to a window and remember natural lighting, always your first option and your best option for your photos. This may seem obvious, but I want to mention it because sometimes this gets me too, and I've seen a lot of people's work.
You want to make sure that your client or your talent is in focus before you take the photo. I know it's simple, but we forget to do this, right? Sometimes we're rushing, sometimes you're just not paying attention. You just want to make sure, tap that focus window on your phone to make sure your makeup and everything is in focus.
And the reason why it's just important for me to remind you of this is because we've all been in those situations where We do a job and when you leave that job, sometimes if you don't take [00:17:00] photos of your work, there's going to be nothing that you can actually use in your portfolio. I do tons of work that is not, I can't really share it on my Instagram because it's not my best work.
The photos might not be that great. This happens in bridal sometimes, you know, bridal photographers, they're not beauty photographers, but you still need to get a beautiful shot of your makeup. So that comes down to what you can take with your phone and your camera. Sometimes that's all you have. And you want to be able to get photos of your work no matter what, because we need stuff to populate our social media accounts.
So making sure the lens is clean, making sure the crop is right, making sure Your client or talent is in focus. These are quick little things that you can do, making sure you have good lighting so that you can for sure leave a job with something to show for what you've done. I wanna end this episode with just a few more kind of quick and easy things you can think about when you're either creating content or posting content.
And I think the first thing would be we don't need to see on your. feed. Three photos of the same makeup look. It's kind of redundant. One really nice photo. One [00:18:00] good video might be all you need. People want to see variety in your work. They don't want to see three and four of the same look. Again, it's a bit repetitive and it's not giving you the opportunity to make a quick impact on someone that ends up landing on your profile.
You want to show variety and you want to show that variety quickly because that's just going to show there's diversity in your portfolio. So try to minimize posting a bunch of photos of the same look. You can do like a photo and then maybe a behind the You can post more in your stories if you want, that's great, but as far as what's on your feed, I would just be careful about posting multiples of the same look.
Oh, can we talk about the before and afters? Please be sure it's a good before and after because sometimes the after is not better than before and I'll just leave it. at that. So if you're gonna do a before and after, just make sure lighting is good, makeup looks good, all your details are, you know, spot on with your makeup applications, because sometimes before and afters, especially if the person's uncomfortable in the photo, it doesn't do your work justice.
So just keep that in mind. Not trying to be mean, but it's just something I want you to think [00:19:00] about. And also be mindful of the type of makeup looks that you post. So maybe you did a really editorial Makeup look and the model had like black lipstick. I don't know. I'm just thinking of something off the top of my head Is this gonna be something that brides who want to book you do they want to see this black lipstick?
Look, do they want to see crazy avant garde makeup looks you have to think about the people that are Booking in your market who's currently hiring you who you want to work with and make sure that the looks that you're showing are Helping you and not deterring anybody from booking you now Only you are going to know the answer to that from your own research and from what you get to know about your market But I do want you to keep that in mind.
I get booked because I do natural makeup looks on a variety of skin tones So that's what I do. That's what I post I should say. Can I do other things? Yes Will I sprinkle in the odd thing? Every so often, yes, but my money maker is natural makeup. So that's what I focus on. The quality of what you're posting is more important than quantity.
We talked about that already. A few other things you may want to think about. You [00:20:00] might want to add a location to your post. This is especially helpful if you're in bridal makeup or you're doing makeup for special events. Don't forget about sharing what you're doing in your stories. You can get a little more It's a little bit more experimental here.
You can get more personal here if you want. They disappear after 24 hours, so it might be fun to play around with that. When you post in stories, it just kind of keeps you top of mind in people's feed. For instance, maybe you're networking with people or you followed someone, they followed you back. You want to make sure you're regularly posting in stories because, again, it just kind of gets you in front of people.
It's another way to show that, hey, I'm a makeup artist, this is what I do. People can see that in your stories. And it's nice to show kind of more. in the moment things. What sets you're on, where you're shooting, maybe some landscapes, some like cute pictures of stuff from set, maybe some looks that you want to throw back to.
Just a way to stay top of mind for people. You can use your stories for that. And you can see kind of what you're following on social media, even if it's small, what they like to see. If you get a lot of reaction with a certain post or a certain story, I should say, [00:21:00] do more of that. Keeps people engaged with your content and keeps you top of mind.
You do want to make sure you're, of course, responding to comments. You want to engage with people who are following you. If someone took the time to say, love your work, love this makeup look, you know, check out who they are. Respond with a nice thank you. Say something about their work, like genuine connections and genuine.
Engagement with people is very important and it's better than just, you know, aimlessly scrolling and liking and whatever like really take a look and see who's commenting, what they're saying, like pay attention to all of this stuff. If you get sucked into the social media vortex, you may want to set.
Timers for your scrolling time. If you're going to be networking on social media, you may want to set a timer for that. If you're doing research, you also may want to set a timer. It just gets you in and out. Part of using social media is making sure you're using it in a healthy way. That's not going to trigger anything negative.
Imposter syndrome, I know, is a big one for a lot of people, or feeling like your work's not good enough, or you're never going to [00:22:00] Whatever it is, if this happens to you when you go on social, we have to use social. It's like such a great marketing tool, but I don't want it to derail what you're doing. So set 10 minute timer, 15 minute timer, whatever it is, for your scrolling, for your research, for your responding to comments, for your networking with other people.
That can be really helpful. Don't forget to respond to your DMs. That's important, too. If someone's asking you a question about something or they want to know something about a product you use, just take some time to respond to DMs. You don't have to spend all day in your DMs, but just respond to people that are engaging with you.
I would say also, too, any negative comments, any negative DMs, just block and delete. Don't think twice about it. You don't have to explain everything to everybody. If someone posts a negative comment, you can just delete them and move on with your life. Remember, we're running a business. Time is money and we just don't have time for all this kind of nonsense, right?
The other last thing that you can do, which is very, very easy, is to check your analytics. each month because this will actually tell you what your [00:23:00] following is enjoying with your content. Now it could be that they're engaging most with an Instagram story you posted with a poll, or it could be there's a certain makeup look that everyone really liked.
When you pay attention to your analytics, and it is helpful to get into the habit of doing this every month, it'll tell you what content is resonating and you want to do more of the same because the more eyes on your work, the higher the chance that you're going to run into somebody that is going to book you in your market.
to do makeup, right? So that's the end of the day, what we're looking for. So don't forget about checking your analytics. I think that's everything that I wanted to cover in this episode about using social media and Instagram more specifically to really help your business. It's a marketing tool. It's a networking tool.
It really is not about going viral. It's just about using social media with intention, posting with intention. We're here to convince. potential clients to book us for jobs. That's as, it's as simple as that. And I really don't want you to overthink things because I know it can be easy to do that. And I really hope after this episode, when you go back [00:24:00] to social, I'm sure you're going to pop on your phone and just scroll for a little bit, really think about things as research.
See what other artists in your market specifically are doing, especially ones that are doing well. And you want to do something similar. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You just need to get in a habit where you're posting. You need to be creating content. that makes your work look good. So those simple little things we talked about today.
So that when someone stumbles across your profile, whether they're referred to you by somebody else or they're just doing a search for a makeup artist in their area, that Instagram becomes your pitch and it becomes a no brainer for people to immediately hit that button to reach out to you and inquire about booking you for a job.
That's at the end of the day, what we're trying to do here. And that is everything for this week's episode. I hope this episode was helpful for you when it comes to navigating social media and Instagram when it comes to using it as a great way to promote your business. So don't hesitate, get on that right away.
And I guess I will talk to you next week. If you like what you were hearing here, don't [00:25:00] forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and that's it. Have a good day.
