As a makeup artist, we understand the importance of showcasing your work in the best way possible. We also understand that social media has become a regular tool in this day and age. For business and freelance purposes, having social media will not only help your image through showcasing talent, but it will also represent your professionalism and credibility. Building online presence as a professional makeup artist is the best way to engage the online makeup community as well as have potential clients find you.
At Chic Studios, LA makeup school, we understand just how important social media can be! We’re constantly posting on our social channels about the latest trends, makeup tutorials, and news in our Chic classroom. We’re so serious about it that we also offer a Digital Beauty course at our Los Angeles location! In this special 14 hour workshop, we teach students how to brand themselves online and elevate their social presence. Not only do we go over every popular social platform, but also apps and tools to utilize when editing photos and videos, scheduling posts and gaining followers. We encourage our LA makeup school students to record themselves and create video tutorials that they can post on their pages along with “going live” and creating looks for their followers to re-create.
Social media has taken on its own entity in the past years as soon as the Internet came about. It all started with blogging and from there, developed into a place where people could stay connected with their family and friends. They were also able to stay up to date with the latest trends, watch people record their lives, and create a platform where their voice could be heard. Social media may look easy, but there’s so much that goes into it…
Create Content Focused on Makeup
By only creating original content, it pushes you to think outside the box and force yourself to update your feed constantly. Brands love seeing how their customers interact with their products in interesting and well-thought-out images. So have a little fun with how you play with makeup! If you want to keep your followers, you have to make sure you’re pushing out an image or post that they can interact with daily. If you only post once in a blue moon, you’ll run the risk of your followers losing interest and unfollowing you. Don’t mix business with pleasure! Keep certain photos and videos on your personal page that only your closest friends and family will see. Your social media is an updated and more humanized version of your portfolio. Have a little fun with it, and post a quote that inspires you or ask your followers questions about their favorite beauty products. Having engagement with your posts not only shows your followers that you have personality, but it’ll boost views and comments as well.
Post Before and After Photos
When it comes to being a makeup artist, we suggest to our aspiring students to take before and after pictures of their clients so people can marvel at what a difference makeup can make. It’s one of the best ways to get noticed by brands and keep your social media active! Creating your own content shows your audience and potential clients what you like and showcases your skills. Social media is all about visuals and showing a before and after photo tells a story! Potential clients can see how you can elevate their beauty and become more inclined to hire you in the future. For great photos, lighting is key! Once you find great lighting (we always suggest anywhere near a window), make sure both photos are taken at the same angle so it’s consistent and looks clean. Along with that, we suggest that your photos are free of background distractions! Ask your clients if they can post in front of a wall since you want to make sure your makeup is the main focus.
Tag Makeup Brands and Use Hashtags
Every time you post a photo, always keep the brands you used on a client or yourself in mind! It’s a great way to build your social presence and have more eyes on your makeup page. So many makeup brands look for quality content and repost photos that reflect and showcase customers using and loving their products. Tagging makeup brands increase the likelihood that the makeup company will repost your picture and share it on their platform (which usually consists of millions of people). Having even one company repost your photo can result in a huge spark of followers and of course, potential clients. The more people that see how talented you are, the better. If you’re posting a look on a client, remember to always list down the products you used in the caption or description box. We definitely suggest not only tagging the brands but also using their hashtags. This is the easiest way people will find you and like your content. You can hashtag makeup brands, makeup techniques and essentially anything relevant to your account that can boost engagement and followers.
Engage, Interact and Humanize
Social media brings people from all over the world together. It’s great to push out content, but if you want to further your social media, you should be able to engage with your audience and give them another reason why they should follow you. Usually, with brands, they have a hard time with this as they’re more focused on selling their products instead of giving their company a personality. It’s great to answer someone’s question or concern, leave encouraging comments, and insert yourself into a conversation on social media. Along with just posting images of your finished work, we encourage you to use features like Instagram Live/Stories and Facebook Live to showcase your work behind the scenes. Show them the process it takes to work on a photoshoot or movie set and include your weekly outings to Sephora or makeup supply outlet. If your clients are comfortable with it, showcase them on your stories and ask them questions about makeup trends and products that they’re loving. It’s all about showing your followers that your life is more than just posting photos online.
Here are the top social media platform recommendations that we use to build our brand image: Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp.
Good luck beauties and remember to stay social!
