Salon Chat: How to overcome the pressures of social media

Salon Chat hosts, Kelly Colley of Lavish Nails and Isabel Porter of The Beauty Garage, share their thoughts on the nail sector…

I’m typing this out on a bank holiday Monday morning having already posted by ‘mandatory’ Instagram post. Mandatory I say because, without it, my posts won’t be seen, no one will interact with me and all my hard work building my page will be worthless. This is the pressure of social media – today’s topic.

Keeping on top of social media is quite simply our biggest stress these days. Considering collectively we have five children living at home between us, it’s insane to think that ‘social media posting’ is one of the biggest stresses in our lives. This really says something about modern life!

While the dream of having a large amount of followers comes with its benefits, which of course we’re both grateful for, it does afford immense pressure, too. On the downside, you begin to doubt and question your nail work, you feel you have to post every single day, you wrack your brands trying to navigate how you’re meant to get your reach further despite the algorithms, and so on.

We feel this way of thinking will ring true to most of our readers and that it’s mostly due to the fact its becoming a taboo subject. No-one really knows the do’s and don’ts of social media and or full understands the dreaded algorithms. We fret about whether we have to invest in a media company to manage our pages, since we are bothered by companies persistently offering this services.

“While the dream of having a large amount of followers comes with its benefits, which of course we’re both grateful for, it does afford immense pressure, too.”

It’s such a grey area that we just post, and post, and post, testing and trying to see what works and what doesn’t. Do we add hashtags, do we tag companies, do we add watermarks? Do we post in the morning, evening or the middle of the night? The answer is that nobody really knows. No two accounts are the same and so we have to go with the flow.

When we started Salon Chat, our objective was to get all talented nail techs seen, because their low following meant their amazing talent wasn’t being exposed. Luckily, they now all have a steady following behind them – including us. However, there are times when Bella and I wish it was the way it used to be, because now the pressure is real. It’s like a dark cloud somedays that you wish you could push away. While we can’t deny that hitting a ‘follow’ milestone gives us a buzz, there are times we both wish it was the day it was before; pressure free!

We’ve come to realise and accept that in order to not go absolutely bonkers we need to take a few days off. Who cares if the likes are not as high as they were or the interactions have dropped? Did the client, who paid for your service, like her nails? This is what counts and this is what we should be concentrating on. Don’t be afraid to take a breather. Step back and remind yourself you’re in the real world. A world that doesn’t involve your phone. Its all about balance and absolutely never compare yourself to others.

With love,
Kelly & Bella.

Watch Salon Chat and join the community on Sunday at 7pm on Instagram via Kelly at @lavishnailsss or Isabel at @bella_beautygarage on Instagram.