A Guide to Linking on Social Media for Hair Salons 

Do you own or manage a hair salon? Are you a stylist? If either describes you, then you probably know the value of promoting your services on social media. But you may have questions about linking on social media for hair salons. 

In this post, learn why social media linking is essential to grow your business. You’ll also get strategies for choosing the right platform and top tips for creating links. Get ready to become a pro at analyzing your linking campaigns. And get essential information on how to boost your total online presence with the right software for hair salon management. 

The Power of Linking on Social Media for Hair Salons 

Linking on social media is the process of including URLs or hyperlinks somewhere in your posted content or account information. A URL is when you type or paste in the entire web address string. A hyperlink is when you highlight a word or phrase and attach a link without the URL showing. 

What’s the purpose of this? 

The benefits are really threefold. First, you can direct clients to your website to book a first appointment if they like what they see. You can also upsell existing clients this way. 

For example, say a current customer has been only coming to your salon for haircuts. Then, they love a picture on Instagram with a link to your coloring services. Maybe they’ve been considering a change to freshen their look. They can click through to add coloring to their next hair appointment. 

Secondly, using linking on social media can indirectly affect your overall search rankings on engines like Google. When someone shares your post, it creates what’s called a backlink from their own account or website. 

Sites with more organic backlinks are considered more trustworthy by search engines. Therefore, they rank higher in searches. Ranking higher (ideally on page one) lets new customers find you online when they’re seeking a salon. 

The third upside is boosting your authority. While most of your links will be to your own website, you can also link to other URLs. You can share information from other sites such as: 

• Industry news 
• Beauty and wellness trends 
• Important statistics 
• Best practices 
• Tutorials 
• Product reviews 
  

Try to make these links from noncompetitors like industry publications, government agencies, or educational institutions. That will help establish your salon as one that always offers value-added resources for clients. 

RELATED ARTICLE: Daily Salon Social Media Marketing Ideas: How to Engage Your Audience 

Choosing the Right Platforms 

Before you dive into linking on your social media, you should choose the best platform for your target audience. It’s best to pick just a couple rather than trying to master them all. What’s the right social media choice for your hair salon? 

It’s the one where the greatest number of your customers or potential customers hang out. That might not necessarily be the trendiest or most popular platform. 

How do you know where your clients spend the most time on social media? You could make a guess based on your customer demographics. 

For instance, if you serve an older clientele, they’re probably more likely to be on Facebook than TikTok. But if your customers are 20-somethings, TikTok might be perfect. Nearly 30% of TikTok users are between 20 and 29. 

RELATED ARTICLE: 9 Salon TikTok Ideas 

You also have to look at your unique geography. In a big city, you’ll find people using a wide variety of social media platforms to find services like hairstyling. However, in a rural area, it may be that everyone gets their recommendations from the local Facebook page — even teens and people in their 20s. 

What’s another way to find out where your clients spend time online? Ask them. 

A simple survey can yield objective results. You’ll get hard numbers on which social media platforms your customers prefer. 

Just keep in mind that if you want to expand to a different client base, you may have to switch to other channels. Not sure which one is best for a demographic you don’t currently serve? You could see which platforms your competitors in that category are using. 

A major consideration for hair salons is that your business is primarily a visual one. You want to be sure to leverage that when choosing social media platforms. 

These days, the biggest social media sites offer some type of photo and/or video option with posts. However, some platforms are more inherently visual, like Instagram (used by about 50% of American adults) and Pinterest. And of course, TikTok and YouTube are focused on videos, not still photography. 

It is tempting to cross-post, using the same post on multiple linked platforms to save time. But remember, each platform has its own unique audience. With that in mind, you’ll need to craft your social media posts and make them each a little different. 

Strategies for Linking on Social Media for Hair Salons 

You can read more below about using features of specific social media platforms to enhance your linking. But first, let’s learn more about general linking strategies. 

Your tactics will largely depend on your goals for using social media to begin with. Some common hair salon social media drivers include: 

• Opening a brand-new salon 
• Adding a new location 
• Building a unique brand 
• Introducing new staff 
• Showing off services 
• Launching new products 
• Offering discounts or memberships 
• Announcing contests 
• Sharing reviews and testimonials 
  

How you employ linking will differ based on your intentions. For example, links related to new stylists would go to their “about” page or photos of their work. Showing your range of services would send people to your gallery of before-and-after images. 

If you’re opening a second location, you want to link to a map and photo of the storefront so customers can find it. You might also link to a page about serving the local community or how you will fill a niche that’s currently unfulfilled. 

Maybe your salon is an authority in a specialty market, like styling Black hair or working with young children. Your links would then go to your website’s photo gallery. This lets prospective clients see examples of your work, with a teaser in social media. 

RELATED ARTICLE: 4 Social Media Theme Ideas for Salons 

Where to include links 

Where do you include links once you decide on their purpose? 

The next section goes into more detail about specific social media platforms. But for now, think about these general opportunities for linking: 

• In the body of longer content 
• Attached to images or videos 
• As the focus of the post itself 
• Within trending hashtags 
• In comments or replies 
  

For instance, you can write a Facebook post about new trends in hair coloring. Inside the post, you can link pertinent words or phrases to your website services page. Or you could link to your image gallery so potential customers can see that you keep up with trends. 

Alternatively, a customer might respond to a Pinterest pin with a question about easy updos for weddings. You could link in your reply to some photos of wedding styles on your website. You might also link to your “book an appointment” page if you think the person might use your services. 

Another more recent linking strategy is to use what’s called deep linking. This is a link that sends recipients to a specific page inside your app. 

Deep links help your app function like the web. And if a customer doesn’t have your app yet, a deep link may encourage them to download it. You can entice them with discount codes or special features not found elsewhere. 

Using Social Media Features to Enhance Linking 

As mentioned above, different social media platforms bring various features to their users. You can take advantage of these features and site mechanisms to get the most out of linking. 

Pinterest 

Pinterest offers business accounts promoted pins for a fee. When a user clicks on a promoted pin, they’re taken to your website. There, you can introduce your brand or convert them to customers. You can also include product links and shopping suggestions in a Pinterest pin. 

X  

X (formerly known as Twitter) has a limitation on characters. Therefore, you need to make the most of a small space. Use shortened URLs and hashtags for links instead of taking up characters with long web addresses. 

Instagram 

Putting a link to your website’s “home” or “about” page is a must for Instagram bios. If you have more than 10,000 followers, you can also employ the Swipe Up feature. This takes viewers to the link of your choice if they swipe upwards while viewing one of your stories. 

RELATED ARTICLE: 3 Instagram Story Ideas for Salons 

Facebook 

Facebook offers many ways to include links, both paid and unpaid. In addition to Facebook advertising, which costs money, you can use links on a business page. You can also include links inside posts. Don’t forget about using a call-to-action button like “Schedule an Appointment” on your business page. 

TikTok 

On TikTok, there are two primary ways to add links. You can connect a link to your video to take viewers to a third-party site. And you can add a link in your bio, just as with Instagram. 

YouTube 

YouTube is one of the most-used platforms, along with Facebook. It lets you add tons of links just below your videos. Viewers click “more” in the video description to go to your website as well as other social media accounts. You can also add links to products used in makeovers and tutorials. 

Once you have an established YouTube channel, you can also add links to your previous videos. This keeps viewers engaged with your content and helps build your brand. 

Tracking and Analyzing Salon Link Performance 

To really see if your social media linking is effective, you need to monitor it. You want to see if users are viewing your posts and then clicking on your links. 

Rather than using anecdotal evidence, you want hard data. This information can be useful in evaluating individual posts. It’s also great to examine social media trends over time and how they relate to your business goals. 

You want to use your linking successes as examples for future social media posts. And if your links aren’t engaging, you need to change your strategy. 

One way to monitor links is through your website on the destination end. You should be able to see where some traffic is coming from via your website analytics. 

On the other end, you can use your dashboard on social media platforms to also get helpful analysis. In general, platform analytics are much more powerful for business accounts than for personal accounts. 

Pinterest, for example, will show you your most popular pins for the month. It will also show how many people pinned (saved) your content and how many clicked through to the link you provided. The site will graph your performance too, so you can see trends over time. 

There are also third-party monitoring tools. These provide various types of analysis, including shares and mentions. Some of the most popular include: 

• HubSpot 
• Mention 
• SproutSocial 
• Keyhole 
• Agorapulse 
• Brand24 
• Zoho Social 
• Brandwatch 
• Cyfe 
• Hootsuite 

• Reputology 

The important thing is to choose platforms that best work for your one-of-a-kind hair salon business. Your budget, available time, and social platforms used will influence your selection. 

Slay Your Social Media Links with SalonBiz 

Using social media today is necessary for all kinds of businesses, including hair salons. You can take your social media campaigns to the next level by using linking to your advantage. 

By linking strategically, you can increase engagement with your existing clients. You can also bring new customers into your salon when they see your work online. Your business can become the local authority in hairstyling and coloring. And tactical linking will help you rank higher in searches—another way of letting new clients find you. 

Your social media usage is just one aspect of your hair salon’s online presence. You can coordinate many other functions to grow your shop’s reputation and revenue with software for salon management, like SalonBiz. 

SalonBiz lets you: 

• Offer convenient 24/7 appointment scheduling online for clients 
• Maintain a virtual appointment book integrated with scheduling in real time 
• Empower staff and guests at checkout with an efficient point-of-sale system 
• Create both preconfigured and custom marketing campaigns for growth 
• Track product usage, manage inventory, and automate product ordering 
• Connect stylists, clients, and your business management via apps 
• Generate detailed reports on performance metrics and financials 

You will appreciate how SalonBiz makes it easier to run a hair salon of any size. It’s designed to grow with you, whether you’re a startup business or an established company with multiple locations. 

SalonBiz understands every hair salon is unique. To see how this software solution would work for your salon, schedule a demo today.