5. My Strategy for Balancing the Personal with the Business on Social Media

Have you ever been scrolling through a business page on Instagram and you’re not sure whether a human being is even running the account? You see no personality whatsoever behind the grid. That’s what I want you to avoid. In this episode, we’re laying a foundation for your social media. To separate the business from the personal or not to separate the business and the personal? That is the question. People are in my DMs wondering what the right answer is all the time. And honestly, there is no hard and fast rule that says you have to do it one way or another. But I know what works for myself and my clients. So i’m sharing my strategy to help you strike a balance that will get your ideal client in the chair!

In this Episode, I Cover: 

• The function of a personal account vs. business account 
• How audience expectations shifted in 2020 - strictly business no longer entices clients
• My strategy for combining the two types of accounts effectively 
• The magic of calling in clients that like you personally 

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Transcript

Welcome, welcome to the Social Stylist Podcast. My name is Lindsey Pruitt, and I'm here to help you navigate the social space.
So, grab your favorite drink, pull up a chair, and let's get social.
Hello, hello, welcome back to the Social Stylist Podcast. I am very excited about this topic today.
This is a topic that gets into my DMs quite frequently, and it is do you have a personal account and a business account separate on Instagram?
Do you combine them? If you combine them, how do you do that effectively without one overpowering the other?
So we are going to be diving into should you separate your accounts or should you keep them together?

[1:01] So first, let's talk about a personal page, right? So obviously a personal page is your personal life.
You're truly sharing whatever you want there.
There's really not like a rhyme or reason to it unless you're trying to attract businesses and stuff like that to work with you for different products and things like that.
But when it comes to your business page as a hairstylist, I truly believe that you need to share your personal life and share your personal stories.
But there is a finesse to this. It's not like you're going to share 50-50.
There's going to be a real balance that you need to create with these things.
The reason why you need to bring them together in a very strategic way is because your personal life will help you create connections with your ideal audience.
Because here's the thing, ever since 2019, really 2020, right when the world kind of was on fire, everyone started craving connection again.
I don't know about you, but I was, just because I wasn't able to connect with my people as much and so a lot of people turned to social media to kind of fill that void.
But what was happening back then was a lot of people were just sharing pain points and stuff like that and not sharing the nitty-gritty of like what was going on in their day to day.

[2:23] Now some people really figured out that this was a great opportunity to create connection and those are the people that truly stood out in that time. I mean think about how TikTok became to be. TikTok had been around for years already but because it was a platform that you didn't have to be a certain person, you didn't have to show up super curated, you could just share your thoughts and feelings. To me, that's truly why TikTok took off. It was like you could be and do anything you wanted there. And those people that saw that opportunity and jumped on that really made an impact for themselves within their businesses. So when, it comes to social media, I really do feel like nowadays, it is very important for you to have both on your page.
Now, I'm not saying posting photos of your dog all the time and your kids and stuff like that.
There is definitely a balance to it.
And we're gonna kind of walk through that today. But truly, this is very important to help you connect with your ideal audience.

[3:22] The number one reason why it helps you connect with your ideal audience is because it helps them to see that you are a real person and not just a little worker bee.
You know, you're not just in the salon all the time and that's all that you do.
It's very important for you to humanize yourself a little bit and going back to your audience wanting to feel a connection to you, this is really gonna help bring in your ideal dream, however you wanna call it, clients, because they're already gonna know you to a degree.
I remember when I was working behind the chair last year, I had really started sharing more of my story and Lennon and my husband and stuff like that.
And I had new clients come in and just ask me questions about Lennon.
They already knew her name. they already knew what was going on in our life.
And I mean, I don't really share that much just because that's a personal preference of mine, but it was just really nice to already feel this connection to this client.
There really wasn't an awkward, Hey, let's get to know each other.
It was like we kind of already had this mutual understanding of knowing each other.

[4:31] So that's why it's important to show who you are already because it's already going to establish that super easy connection with that guest when they first come into your space. at this natural icebreaker.
Then back whenever I started doing hair, it was like, they would walk in and sit in your chair and you're like, I have no freaking clue where you're even from.
You couldn't creep on them before. It was a lot harder to create those connections with your guests.
So this is why social media is also so amazing to really attract those ideal clients.
But the way that you do that is truly sharing who you are.
Okay, so there is truly a balance when it comes to sharing your personal story and your business, because ultimately this is still a business.
So we're still wanting to make sure that it is crystal clear that we do hair, whether you're a salon owner, you're showing that you're like running the salon and all the things.
So there's really a balance to this.

[5:31] How do you do this? So the number one thing is I want you to think of stories in your life that could possibly relate to your ideal client.
Now, this is key because I'm not telling you to share any and every story that you could possibly share from your life.
These are stories that your ideal client can specifically identify with.
That is what's very important to know about this.
I'm not gonna share I was a cheerleader in high school and stuff on my social media.
I am personally attracting mothers because that's the season of life that I'm in and that feels really good to share and connect with moms, just like me, and so I am sharing behind the scenes of my mom life, how I'm balancing business and being a mother, things like that.

[6:19] Now, if you don't wanna share your children, I totally get it.
I share Lennon here and there, but there are still incredible stories that you can share about them without sharing photos of them or anything like that.
The number one thing, again, that I want you to remember is that it needs to align with your ideal client and create a connection with them.
That goes for sharing in your stories, that goes for sharing on your feed, you can truly share on both.
But the main thing that's super amazing that you can also do with Instagram right now and just like posts in general, whether you're on Instagram, whether you're on TikTok as a stylist or both, you can share behind the scenes footage and overlay text on top of it.
You can do so many things to share the behind the scenes and almost make it subliminal in a way, so you're still talking about your business, you're still promoting the things that you are selling at the end of the day, but you are also sharing who you are as well.
When it comes to knowing where to share this content, you can share this in your stories, you can share this on your feed in Reels or whatever.
My favorite way is to share it within Reels or to even take a branded photo and in the caption kind of explain something that's going on in my life or whatever story that I'm trying to tell.

[7:47] That's in relation to A, what I'm selling or B, I'm just literally trying to create a connection with my ideal client.
So those are my two favorite ways to share my story.
But here's the thing too, I know that it can be extremely hard to open up and share your story.
This podcast, it has been thought about for probably over a year now, and it took some time for me to gain the courage that I needed to actually step out and do this.
And so that is why I am sharing this with you today. I know that it's not easy, but if you are wanting to really create connection with your ideal client, this is the golden way to do that.
So if you don't have time to have an engagement strategy or do the extra steps on social media, this is the best way that you can start creating that connection, like a deeper connection with your ideal client.
So I'm gonna challenge you today to sit down and think about A, who your ideal client is if you don't already know, B, make sure that the stories that you come up with Make sense and align with that ideal client. That's going to be the homework for today, and I want you to.

[9:10] Sit in those stories and think about okay what are the key points and main reasons why I feel like that story will actually connect with my ideal client and.

[9:20] Possibly give them that one extra step that they needed to actually come and sit in your chair Sometimes, it is just one post that they are needing to be like, I am ready to come and see her. I want you to think about that today and really make that a priority in the next couple of days that you'll sit down and do this little homework assignment.
I would love to know what you come up with. Please tag me in these story posts that you create.
I would love to hear more about you, learn more about you, see your business, see your life.
I just think it is so fun to connect in this way as well. So, please tag me at Lux with Linz.
I'd love to see those. I hope you guys have a great rest of your week.
And as always, if you have any episode ideas that you're like, Lindsey, I have this question, like I just need some clarity around this, please feel free to DM me.
My DMs are always open to you with any questions that you have. Will see you guys.