Through Instagram, David and Alexis Thurston have grown their Butterfly Loft Salons into a national brand. Now, they are sharing social media tips with others. Photo by Matt Mackey III. Makeup by Allison Brooke.
Through Instagram, David and Alexis Thurston have grown their Butterfly Loft Salons into a national brand. Now, they are sharing social media tips with others. Photo by Matt Mackey III. Makeup by Allison Brooke.

As David and Alexis Thurston, owners of Butterfly Loft Salons and founders of Butterfly Circus, started hosting dinners with their stylists to discuss social media best practices, they developed a solid list of tips for creating the best social images:

Take lots of photos. With even the most attractive model, you can take 10 or more images and only one will look good.

Find the spot. All salons have spots where the light or the background is better. Grab a co-worker and walk around your space and take pictures. Take 100 of them, you can delete them later. That’ll help you find the best light, background and angle in your work space.

Solid backgrounds work best. Make sure things are out of your picture, like your client’s cup from Starbucks or the mirror, which can be distracting.

Find a story. Try to tell your story with as few images as possible.

Create the kind of work you want to be known for. Get some models if you need to, but showcase what you want to be.

Remove yourself from your work. Take pictures that cater to your audience. I know stylists who will spend three hours creating a shade, and they are so proud, they’ll grab a camera and take a close-up shot of the hair. Your audience wants to see the whole thing. That would be like building a house just to show people the color on a certain wall.

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