The beauty industry is ever evolving and social media plays such a huge part in our advertising and interaction with clients. And it is now also becoming a way for us to interact with our peer’s.
I am sure most of you guys are members of various different beauty forums. You know how it goes, you have just qualified in a new treatment and you see a specialist forum for it online and think great!! This will be full of lots of top tips and encouraging therapists from around the world.
But is that the reality of the forum…
For those of you who have been in the industry (longer than we care to remember) these platforms simply didn’t exist back then. The downside being we didn’t readily have access to see other therapists work online or ask advice at the touch of a button.
If you had a question or a problem with a treatment or product you asked a colleague, mentor or contacted your training company. And you received quite clear, concise advice.
You didn’t post online and have 40 conflicting comments with “Sandra in Hull” who has been in the industry 2minutes giving you her opinion on what the protocol should be. Or someone affiliated with another brand giving you conflicting advice.
In this digital age we are seeing a growing number of beauty forums cropping up online. Not all, but a high volume of admins and active members for these forums or groups are affiliated with brands which leads to those on there receiving what is essentially biased opinions, advice and propaganda.
Now some of these forums have thousands of members, but we only hear from the same people (pushing products or training) giving biased opinions. Or the handful of people who seem to be on there every day commenting or complaining about a product or this or that. So these people dominate the content and what is fed into the forum.
Now don’t get me wrong in such a fast paced ever-changing industry it is good to get an insight into someone else techniques, tips or tricks. That is what the forums were designed for. And that is fantastic. But they are becoming a breeding ground for negativity.
How many of you have perhaps thought about sharing a picture etc on these forums but then thought twice about it, as you know there will be one negative person with a comment on it.
Or you see a post with 89 comments and just know that a war of words has erupted between one of the “dominating characters” and someone else.
Now for most people, life is busy, business is busy, you don’t have time to argue with people on forums or defend your work. Yet some people appear to thrive on this.
There is no doubt that with certain treatments there are black and white rules, but within the beauty industry there are a number or different techniques which can result in the same outcome. This doesn’t make one person wrong and another right. However more often than not you see comments on such forums condemning one persons techniques, or out rightly critiquing someone’s work…..but putting “hun” on the end of the passive aggressive comment (as that seems to make it ok).
Social media which was designed to connect and unite people is increasingly having the opposite effect. It is dividing people, and as a result effecting confidence and self esteem.
What happened to just thinking something in your head. The age old saying “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all”. Unless someone specifically asks for you opinion, who are you to comment online.
Our diet isn’t just what we eat it is what we feed our minds
And a diet of negativity, passive aggressive comments and propaganda from those associated with brands probably isn’t healthy.
Let’s strive to be better than this. Let’s promote positivity and professionalism in the industry.
