Jamie Dana is devoted to the hair industry and helping hairdressers attract their dream salon clients through Instagram. We spoke to Jamie, based in California, to find out about her journey from hairstylist to an educator and Instagram expert, and what her top tips are for Instagram beginners, enthusiasts and everyone in between.
Where did your Instagram journey begin?
I’ve been in the hair world for about 12 to 13 years now - way before Instagram! Around 2014 when Instagram was blossoming, I was using it like a regular person – I didn’t have a strategy or anything like that. Then I thought: you know what? I think that there's an opportunity for business here. I posted hair photos to put myself out there, but nothing was working. I invested in learning a strategy and it started to work - I feel like I cracked the code. I knew I wanted to eventually go into education and that I wanted to be independent. I then decided to do online education and teach other hairstylists how to grow their business on Instagram, and started doing that full time in 2018.
Do you think it’s harder grow on Instagram now than it was back then?
Nowadays, I do think if you want to grow a following or an education business it might be a little bit more challenging. It is possible if you have a strategy and you're wanting to put in the work, and you want to make that happen. It was only because I went into education that I grew but I don't think as a hairstylist behind the chair you need to have a big following. In fact, when I was completely booked up and making good money in the salon, I only had a thousand followers. I was getting clients because I had a strategy for Instagram, not because of my following.
What do you think are some of the common mistakes that people make?
One of the big mistakes is thinking that you need to have followers in order to have a successful business. I have students that have 200 followers and they're getting booked through their Instagram. What you should focus on is setting up your Instagram profile to be very optimised. One of the things that I like to teach is the follower experience. This is what someone experiences when they land on your Instagram page. They're going to decide that they want to click the follow button and continue to invest and see what you’re going to share. When somebody doesn't click the follow button, that's not a bad thing on you. It might mean that that you're not as optimised. Optimising your page could be making sure your bio has all of the information that someone would need to make a decision. For example, what you specialise in or the kind of clientele that you serve. A lot of times I see stylists say things like balayage, haircuts, and colour, but we want to give a little more personality. So, you could say, “I help women feel more confident with lived-in natural colour.” Another thing is making sure you have your location in your bio. So often people do not have the location in their bio or anywhere on their page, so when a client lands on their Instagram page, they don’t know where they are. It's also fine to have a little bit of information about you. I think today's consumers are looking for somebody that they're going to enjoy spending their time with in the chair.
What’s your advice for those who would say they’re not ‘social media savvy’?
When we became hairstylists, we did not sign up for this. We signed up to make our clients feel amazing and confident. And we did it for the love of human beings and the love of hair. What I would say to someone who is feeling overwhelmed is just focus on a few things. You don't have to be doing it all. You don't have to be posting Reels. Pick three things that you're going to focus on, whether that's photos or Reels and captions. Captions are the thing that can turn a lurking follower into a client, so we should be focusing on them. You don't need to post every day. Once your followers are there, serve them with good quality content instead of feeling like you have to post all the time. But don’t do what a lot of people do which is post and ghost! They'll post three days in a row because they're motivated and then three weeks go by, and they didn't post anything. So, try to find your rhythm.
If you were going to start all over again, what would you do differently?
I would first make sure that my profile is optimised. I would make sure I understand who I'm speaking to every time I create content. Finally, there’s a lot of tools and resources out there. I wouldn't do it all myself. I would utilise resources and invest in resources that make my life easier so that I'm not having to do it on my own, and I can focus on my clients and my business.
Want to know how to take the perfect picture for Instagram? Check out these expert tips here.
