Namita Ramani, owner and co-founder of Salony Creations and SpaGenie.ae, explains how to get on online. Namita Ramani, owner and co-founder of Salony Creations and SpaGenie.ae, explains how to get on online.

 Namita Ramani, owner and founder of Salony Creations and SpaGenie.ae, explains how to implement a social media campaign and kick-start your online presence.

Before implementing a social media campaign for your spa, it is very important to understand what the concept of social media actually means. Traditional media is like a one-way road, restricting the populace to just getting the information rather than giving their reviews or comments.

However, social media can be viewed as a two-way road, giving you as a business manager the power of communication through direct engagement with your niche target audience.

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Social media is a wide term, covering a variety of tools and intermediaries. The common link between these various intermediaries is that they each offer a one-to-one approach to your market and, as a social media strategy develops, these tools can be cross-connected.

In my view, a few great examples of established social media tools are:
• Social Networking: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Hi5, Last.FM
• Social Bookmarking: Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Simpy
• Social News: Digg, Propeller, Reddit
• Social Photo and Video Sharing: YouTube, Flickr
• Wikis: Wikipedia, Wikia

Today, social media marketing is essential for any spa, since it allows your brand to receive authentic support from its best audience. And importantly, when it is done properly, cost effective social media marketing can help spas to increase their revenue.

With so many social media forums now in the market, knowing which one to choose and where to start can be confusing. Here are five quick tips recommended to kick-start your spa’s presence in the social media marketplace: 

1. Establish an appropriate profile: Ensure that the basic attributes such as the spa’s information, picture gallery and monthly specials feature on the spa’s profile — it should be a replica of your spa concept and the services it has to offer.

Having dedicated tabs for secondary attributes such as treatment menu and price list would further help get those quick conversions from engagement to increasing foot fall in the spa.

Quick Tip: Use the ‘About’ tab for writing one line about the spa and the current deal of the month.

2. Know your audience: Customers viewing your Facebook page will be interested in different content than information seekers following your Twitter feed. These two different channels also require different tones.

3. Engage with your niche: Knowing your audience on each social media channel enables you to develop posts and other content that is relevant and appropriate.

Quick Tip: Recently Facebook launched a new question tool. Create questions related to a particular treatment or product you would like to create awareness for. Provide multiple choices and ask your fans to visit your website to look for answers and reward them with a small giveaway.
So far, this has been the most popular way of promotions and it’s absolutely free.

4. Be more social: You may run a business with the aim of earning profit, but don’t always be a corporate maniac. Having an informal approach to followers will truly help.

Social media is actually like a forum for discussion that allows relationships to build naturally and keeps followers coming back for more. To engage followers, ask their opinion and respond appropriately.

5. Monitor the conversation and post regularly: Rumours, untruths, and unhappy customers can become magnified online. Tune in to what’s being said about your spa and respond quickly.

When you create good content and interesting interaction, your followers want more. This is true for blogging as well; create a list of topics that can be shared anytime. It’s important to engage followers all day.

Namita Ramani is an online marketing consultant and spa marketing specialist. Visit her website: www.spagenie.ae