The Missing Curriculum: How Teaching Social Media Marketing Creates Success for Schools and Students
Can you think of anything in the last decade that has impacted the beauty industry as much as social media? We’ve seen entire beauty empires, worth millions, sometimes billions, of dollars created through communities that were built on Instagram and YouTube.
Think of brands like Huda Beauty, with more than 47 million followers on Instagram and recently valued by Forbes at $1 billion. Or, influencers like Yuya, a Mexican beauty and fashion YouTuber with more than 23 million subscribers who is estimated to make between $74,000-$100,000 per month from her channel.
On a more relatable level, Instagram especially has become the perfect platform for stylists to show off their work and engage with current and future clients. It’s the one-stop shop for marketing, customer service and community-building.
Hundreds of thousands of people are discovering or re-discovering their passion for beauty via social media. They shop for beauty products, they watch tutorials, they see the beauty industry through these platforms. Why wouldn’t those who choose to pursue that passion expect social media to be a part of their beauty education?
The more pressing and immediate question they’re wondering about is, “Do I even need to go to beauty school at all?”
With all these inspirational and powerful examples of how lucrative beauty can be, you’d expect to see an uptick in people searching for education to start down this career path. Instead, the industry is working to tackle the perception that while beauty is great, school may be an unnecessary roadblock. So much so that Beauty Changes Lives has just launched a, “disruptive, hyper-targeted, digital and social advertising campaign” to show Gen Z the importance of learning the craft.
“It’s time to come together for the love of the craft and the future of our industry. It’s our responsibility to ignite the next generation and change their perceptions once and for all. How do we get them on board? We don’t tell them. We inspire them to make their mark!”
This is what the Make Your Mark promotional video touts.
It’s time to tell the right story in the place where people are already consuming content: social media.
How Can a School Do This?
User-generated content. In this case, students are the users of your school’s education.
A good social media strategy is talking about who you are and what you do. A great social media strategy is when others talk about who you are and what you do: your students.
They are the ones who did choose to go to school. It’s important to amplify why their experience looks, feels, and creates different results from a person who believes they can learn everything through YouTube.
But, this is not as easy as it sounds.
Simply search #cosmetologyschool or #beautyschool on Instagram and you’ll see why.
You’ll find photos that feel random, have bad lighting, and overall don’t feel like much thought was given to them.
Compare that to the content being created by beauty brands and influencers. Those who are taking time to craft a beautiful message to show off beautiful work.
It’s easy to see why some people believe you can skip the foundations and end up with a better result.
If the most powerful advocates for beauty education are students who are the future licensed stylists of the world, they need to be able to create social content that competes.
This Is the Missing Curriculum
Every class of new students begins to encompass a group that has social media basically their entire lives. Their first phones were smartphones, and they have always been connected to all the digital platforms.
The misconception is that it equates to knowledge of how to use these platforms strategically.
Up until now, most students have been passive consumers of social media. They get on to be entertained, to check up on friends and family and to share what they are doing.
Many know that there’s a strategy behind that brand or influencer they love to follow, what they want to know is how they can learn similar strategies and tactics to use it to set them up for success in their professional career.
Some schools bring in stylists who have had success on social media to talk to their students for a one-time class. Other schools have teachers who have cultivated thousands of followers on Instagram and are sharing their experience with students.
While those are valuable experiences to share and do a great job of pumping students up to jumping into using social media for their careers, they don’t do much in the way of telling students exactly how to execute things like how to set up an account properly, what content to make or how to make great content that’s relevant to their goals.
Enter Beauty As A Business (BAAB)
Beauty As A Business is the first social media curriculum for schools to give to students. BAAB covers strategic marketing topics like personal branding and tactical social media topics like how to run a giveaway on Instagram.
With videos, discussion points, activities and worksheets, the curriculum carves out a space within school for students to return to the place where they were inspired- the beauty community on social media. Plus, it’s fun! This is work people are excited to do and try.
This digital curriculum allows consistency in knowledge across students in the school, the right way to start building their social presence while they’re a student. This has a big benefit to schools in the form of user-generated content:
1. Brand Awareness
An army of students tagging the school and using the school’s hashtag on social media means the school’s brand is showing up more to students’ friends, family and followers.
2. Telling the Story of Cosmetology School
This content will reach Gen Z and Millennials who may be skeptical about going to school, giving them the social proof that others who are entering the industry are benefiting from doing more than watching YouTube videos.
3. More Marketing Material for Your School
Increased social posting from students means the opportunity to choose the best photos and videos to potentially run as ads or use in marketing for the school.
4. More Enrollments
For a potential student, the more times they see your school’s name on social media, the more likely they are to visit your school’s social media profiles, then Google the school and visit your website. This means they’re never checking out another school!
Get Your Free Demo
It’s clear that the role of social media in the industry is only becoming more omnipresent. Those who know how to leverage these powerful platforms will have the advantage. If you’re ready to start teaching your students how to harness the power of social media for their future career, get your demo of the Beauty As A Business social media curriculum.
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