How hair accessories' company Pigtails and Ponys built brand awareness on Facebook

Youngsters in the West might be going off Facebook for good, but the social media platform still is the favoured choice to reach people in India. Facebook has changed over the past couple of years. It is no longer just a social media platform, where family and friends come together, post photos and enjoy the occasional poke. Many businesses now bank on the platform for their growth.

One such business is Pigtails and Ponys. This is a Bangalore-based company, which provides its customers with unique handmade hair accessories. They embarked on a journey via Facebook to build brand awareness, but what they got was much more. They have acquired around 70 per cent of their customer base via Facebook. They get over 100 prospective customers daily through Facebook.

When it was founded in 2011, Pigtails and Ponys sold handmade headbands in local flea markets. Founders Nikita Dawar and Nivedha Charles, inspired by positive responses to their designs on Facebook, built a virtual business that now sells hair clips, combs, hair ties and extensions for all ages across India.

With little money for advertising, they chose Facebook, building a business page that was as colourful and cheerful as the brand image they intended to project. They targeted their Facebook ads using likes and interests to reach the people who would most likely become fans of their hair accessories, and were clear about where and how customers could buy products, leading them to the company’s website.

There are dozens of such start-ups that use Facebook as the preferred platform for promotions. All one needs is a bit of advertising knowledge and a lot of conviction.