Here are 12 Barber Shop Social Media Marketing Ideas to increase appointment bookings, attract walk-in customers, and ultimately foster the growth and success of your barber shop.

These ideas come years of experience in local marketing, and can be personalized to fit your barber shop’s audience and voice.

Provide a Friendly, Casual Atmosphere

Barbershops have a reputation for being friendly and inviting places. Lean into this image on your social media in order to get people looking.

While professionalism will remain paramount, you want your local community to feel that your business is welcoming and active. Post pictures of your business in operation. Let the community know when you’re doing discount cuts and generally just be an active presence on social media.

If you’re already good at what you do, then this little push can be just the thing you need to get yourself known in the community. Just like any other business, publicity will do you a world of good. 

Don’t be afraid to showcase yourself and show the community what an experience in your barber shop is like.

Boye Fajinmi, Co-Founder & President, TheFutureParty

Be An Active Commenter

As the owner of a local barbershop, active posting can help. Posting about sales, cool cuts you’ve done, and other events are all great ideas. 

But what most barber shop owners forget is commenting. Posting is just one-half of the equation on social. You also have to be actively involved in commenting on others’ posts and news items.

Don’t be afraid to share your opinion on others’ posts and give encouragement to others. The more you comment, the more exposure you create for your shop, and your shop’s name will flow through hundreds of other feeds.

John Ross, CEO, Test Prep Insight

Encourage UGC to Help Drive Leads

Create user-generated content to support your favorite local barber through social media sharing. The more UGC small businesses can show users, the better these businesses can ‌ drive leads through social media.

UGC acts as social proof to attract new consumers to your business. When customers go out of their way to promote a business, it says a lot about the quality of that business’s product and service.

Social proof significantly improves a business’s conversions because consumers tend to believe other consumers over a business’s marketing efforts. Share your take and results to support those locals who help keep your look fresh.

Zach Goldstein, CEO & Founder, Public Rec

Create a Google Business Profile to Stand Out

Getting a Google Business Profile is the best way for a small business, such as your local barber shop, to attract more business.

Three main benefits to the free service include increased search visibility, engagement with your customers, and implement local SEO as a way to stand out in your local geographical area. 

The ability to upload dozens of photos and respond to customer reviews is simply the icing on the cake.

Jonathan Zacharias, Founder, GR0

Make Sure Your Profile is 100% Complete.

This process includes adding a profile picture, and a cover photo, and filling out your biography.

You should make sure your website and contact information are listed, and also post about special promotions, new products, or events taking place at your barber shop. You can use hashtags to help people find your posts.

The reason having a complete profile is so important is that it boosts your results in the algorithms, which means more people will find and engage with your social media efforts.

Carly Hill, Operations Manager, VirtualHolidayParty.com

Have Customers Tag their Location

When clients are happy with their cut and want to post it on social media, ask them if they are comfortable including the location.

Many people find service providers by simply searching their location on Instagram and scrolling through photos. It’s easy to tell when an image is taken in a barber shop, and someone can easily click on the photo and either message the user or click your tagged business page to find out more information.

Cesar Cruz, Co-Founder, Sebastian Cruz Couture

Post Video Evidence

Video is your best friend for social media, ‌but it can specifically help promote your barbershop through recording actual haircuts. Seems a bit long for content, right? But luckily there are many features on phones and apps that allow you to speed up the process by bringing a 20-minute haircut down to 1 minute.

Of course, photos are more likely to be your media of choice, but these sped-up videos can give a much more real sense of your process and allow the customer to see what you are really capable of. Often photos can be ignored because the lighting, angles, and features can all be played with, whereas video helps to show things exactly as they are, proving your skills.

Video is taking over social media with apps like TikTok, and a proven track record for higher engagement, so using it to promote your services and skills is becoming ever more vital if you want to make an impact.

Brett Downes, Founder, Haro Helpers

Take the Perfect Shot

Photos are everything for a barber shop. The outcome of what you do is very visual, so it only makes sense that your primary marketing tool would be just as visual as well. One mistake barbers make, though, is to keep changing the angles in the before and after photos. Instead, make sure you take the pictures from the same place in order to get the clearest difference on display.

Something you could even do is have a space dedicated to these photos along one unused wall. This could even double as a selfie area for your clients, which will mean they are also creating customer-generated content from within your actual store, which will also go to help push your marketing even further.

Alex Mastin, CEO & Founder, Home Grounds

Use Paid Advertisement

Social media platforms offer access to a large audience; hence, it provides a lucrative channel where you can promote a barbershop.

The platform utilizes updates about your shop, special offers, and events to promote it to prospective social media users. Running paid advertisements on the forum is a sure and quick way to get the word out about your barbershop.

Curate these paid ads, and tailor them for a target audience. This ensures that your ads go straight to the intended prospective clients for your business.

Making the posts more engaging encourages people to interact with your company and enquire more about your offers and how they can access your services.

Yongming Song, CEO, Live Poll for Slides

Reward Customers Engaging With Your Haircut Photos

Being a local barber, you can massively boost your credibility by posting happy customer haircuts and having those customers engage with these posts on social media.

A significant number of people living in a locality are connected on social media. They see and interact with what they post. If one customer positively engages with your post on the haircut you gave him, their peers around the locality will see the post, too, and learn about you.

Therefore, at the end of a customer’s experience, ask them to let you post a picture of the haircut on social media. Next, encourage that customer to engage with the posts via rewards (say, discount on haircut fees).

The more positive their review on the social media post, the more your credibility is consolidated in the neighborhood, and the more their friends in the locality take note of you.

Lotus Felix, CEO, Lotusbrains Studio

Capture the Organic Dialogue

If barber shops can have reality shows and movies where barber dialogue carries the content, why can’t social media posts?

Barber shops have a pretty chill client base who might be open to being recorded when talking about a subject.

Maybe this is a predetermined topic of the day that your team discusses and then records people’s responses. Or, you just let the camera roll and record off-the-cuff topics.

Either way works, so chop it up!

Jason Vaught, Director of Content, SmashBrand

Promote a Referral Program

Many people I know will find a barber they trust and stick with them unless something changes their minds and shows that they are the better option.

As such, it is vital for local barber shops to find new ways to promote themselves within their community. If you can turn your loyal clients into brand advocates through a referral program, you can find a whole new customer base of people who will trust you with one of the most personal displays of self—their hair.

An easy way to get this started is to share a post with your audience and have them repost, tag you, comment, tag friends, or follow another sharing option. Once they do this, add them to your list of brand advocates, and if someone comes in and says they were referred by them, both they and their referral receive a modest discount or free swag.

If you can afford it, a referral program is a great way to grow your customer base using social media.

Owen Piehl, Freelance Digital Marketer, Piehl Marketing Management

Advertising a Barber Shop

Getting your Barber Shop’s name out is key to having people get familiar with your brand. Once they start to see your name, and your positive reviews, they are more likely to try you out. Especially new customers who move to your area.

It is important to consistently be advertising your barber shop online through search, social media, and targeted display ads. And when you target a specific zip code or geofence your advertising, it keeps your barber shop advertising budget small and effective.

Takeaways to Better Market Barber Shops on Social Media

Being consistent is key when trying to market Barber Shops on social media. Each and every tip mentioned above will only be effective if you take the time to engage through social media regularly.

Need help? The Local Marketer can provide social marketing services for your Barber Shop to help it grow and get discovered online. Reach out today!