1 mins
HJ VOICENOTES
Simon Townley chats social media, fake friends and how to make the online world a more positive place
SIMON TOWNLEY
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE AN AMAZING HAIRDRESSER TO GET AN AMAZING FOLLOWING NOWADAYS. IT'S ABOUT CREATING VIRAL CONTENT THAT PEOPLE WANT"
I've really noticed how it’s become a one way relationship on social media and how certain people tag me in their hairdressing posts, but are totally silent when it comes to liking my content. It should be a two way street, not just transactional.
The problem is, we’re always trying to appear more popular than we are on social media. Let's face it, the channels are designed that way. We’re desperate for comments and interaction, because that’s what the algorithm favours. We want brands to recognise us and we want the algorithm to love us. But where’s the authenticity in that, how is that genuine connection?
On social media I can make a bad haircut look good with the right filters, camera angles and lighting; and conversely I can make a good haircut look bad if I don’t have the right social media skills. You don’t have to be an amazing hairdresser to get an amazing following nowadays. It’s about creating viral content that people want and, more importantly, the algorithm favours.
I don’t see it as a positive or negative, but how many hairdressers can you think of that now focus on hairdressing lifestyle content rather than hair? Memes taking the mick out of hairdressers and barbers have become as popular as beautiful hair images or videos. I wouldn’t say I’m trying to change the type of content people are producing, it clearly resonates with people, but I have become more conscious of the shift away from showing hair content and it’s one of the reasons I’ve created the Hair Socials Pro Team.
Back in lockdown, like most people, I didn’t have the platform or stages available to me that I wanted to be performing on, so I created Hair Socials. We have 24,000 hairdressers on our Facebook page and another 25,000 on our Facebook Group and we delivered content, support and community during lockdown that I know got people through tough times.
I watch certain hairdresser’s content and think: they’re not getting the views they deserve – the algorithm isn’t showing them to as many people as it should. I think we need to widen the pool of who we follow and engage more meaningfully with the community.