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48 | BEAUTY LAUNCHPAD | MAY 2016 Social media guru and savvy stylist Patrick McIvor shares his best strategies for marketing yourself across major social media platforms. Live & Learn/ Social Network Social Skills REMEMBER YOUR AUDIENCE. Most importantly, remember it differs across each platform. Be sure to cater your content to your intended social media audience by platform, but also don't be afraid of overlapping posts because, chances are, a single post isn't reaching all your followers. For instance, if you post a hairstyle to Snapchat, clients above the age of 30 will most likely not see it, whereas an older demographic invests more heavily on Facebook. INVEST IN PLATFORMS THAT APPEAL TO YOUR BRAND. While it is important as a general rule to broadcast yourself in all arenas, sometimes time constraints make it nearly impossible. So if you have to focus your efforts, make sure you're tapping into the social networks that fi t best with your personal brand. Do you cater to millennials? Tune into Snapchat and Instagram. Are your clients primarily women? Delve into Pinterest, as the overwhelming majority of its users are female. DON'T IGNORE TWITTER. Since Twitter isn't image-based, stylists have a tendency to let this platform fall to the wayside. Don't! It's actually a great forum to connect with media outlets and bloggers for stories they may be working on, and can lead to direct conversation. Get your voice heard. PAY TO PLAY. Sad but true: When it comes to Facebook, only a small percentage of your friends may see your post in their mini feed if you choose not to boost it for a fee. If you want to showcase a particularly stunning hair look, you might want to invest in a paid post. Just remember that only 20 percent of an image can be text if you're looking to boost it. Be concise. A beautiful image will speak for itself. SHOOT VIDEO ACCORDING TO THE PLATFORM. Keep in mind that unlike YouTube's horizontal video format, outlets like Snapchat and Periscope require that you shoot video vertically. Sounds simple, but it's easy to forget when you're navigating multiple platforms, and oftentimes all at once. INTERACTION RULES WITH PERISCOPE—NOT JUST SOLID CONTENT. If you are using Periscope, make sure you're interacting with your live followers, both answering questions and watching how many hearts you are getting. Hearts let you know if your audience is enjoying what they're viewing—like a good DJ who makes sure he/she doesn't turn on a song that clears the dance fl oor, make sure you're giving your audience members what they want. Periscope is not YouTube! The viewers shouldn't be passive. POST DAILY (NOT ONLY THE DAYS YOU WORK!). It can't be said enough—post every day on all social media platforms you're using. Systems like Hootsuite make it easy to schedule posts on days the salon is closed. Social media is about content—you can no longer say you're a great stylist and not have something to share. As told to Alyson Osterman-Kerr Patrick MvIcor is the Artistic and TechniCulture Director for Goldwell and KMS California and Techni-Color Director of ARROJO A younger demographic tunes into Inst agram for graphic-heavy content.