A common misconception some businesses operating in certain markets often hold to is the assumption that their industry is too dry and unentertaining to make representing themselves on social media a worthwhile venture when it comes to marketing their business. Accounting firms and CPAs are often among those who feel that their industry does not necessarily lend itself to marketing online as the goal of social media marketing is to entertain and engage an audience. It is often incorrectly assumed that an audience cannot be engaged with a somewhat stale and numbers based industry.
For accountants, the truth of the matter is that it’s not about whether or not your firm should be investing some time and resources in social media marketing. Rather, representing your accounting firm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, and other social media platforms should be a given. The question you should be asking, instead, is how do you market your accounting firm effectively and appropriately on social media?
While there are unique challenges facing CPAs and accounting firms as they seek to market their business via social media, engaging your audience and growing your accounting firm’s business with social media marketing is not, by any means, impossible. Instead of focusing on the obstacles associated with marketing for accountants, think of the process of social media marketing as a fluid,dynamic, and constantly evolving activity for your business. Do not assume that social media marketing is a destination but rather a journey you share with your clients and audience. Think in terms of an ongoing process.
1. Your customers and prospective clients are online, its a great place for them to get to know you.
2. Like it or not people are talking about you online. If you are not participating then you are not part of the conversation and have no chance to influence it. Sticking your head in the sand won’t make it go away.
3. You want to increase your business! Online marketing is a great place to do so very cost effectively and Social Media is a vital part of the overall online marketing mix.
4. Networking is always important to your business, now a lot of it happens online in social media. You used to go to BNI or local business meetings, now you can network from your desk.
So there are lots of good reasons you should be using social media marketing, here are some tips to get you started:
When your accounting firm begins its initial foray into social media marketing, it is important to have a plan of attack. Like all good battle plans, the more detailed and thought out your objectives are, the better. Set a goal, and determine the objective you wish to achieve with social media marketing.
Here are some things you can leverage with social media:
Part of reaching your goal will include measuring your progress. When deciding upon your accounting firm’s objectives, decide too what tools you are going to use to measure your anabasis. For tips on measuring your social media success, check out this article by Forbes.
There are heaps of options when it comes to choosing what social media platforms to utilize for your accounting firm’s marketing purposes. Representing yourself on every social media site would be tedious and cumbersome at best. To ensure you are being most effective with your social media marketing efforts, market yourself in the places that make the most sense. If your firm does a lot of business work then LinkedIn might be great. Do you produce a lot of good tax tips? Then Twitter might be a worthy place to share your wisdom.
In order to determine the best places to market your accounting business, it is necessary to first determine where your audience is spending their time. Here are some tips for Finding Your Online Community.
In addition to marketing your business in the places where your audience is already hanging out, it is important to remember that the behaviour of social media users is different from platform to platform. For this reason, it is necessary to post different material on different sites. Depending upon the content that you have to share, it is important to think about the best medium that will do your content the most justice.
While the main focus of your accounting firm’s efforts should not be search engine optimization when it comes to social media marketing, SEO should not be forgotten about either. SEO is a necessary means of drawing attention to your social media profiles and thereby to your firm’s website as well.
Social media marketing for accountants and accounting firms can be difficult and presents its own unique set of challenges. Having acknowledged that, there are also some universal tips, rules, and best-practices which will help any business market themselves successfully. For some excellent advice on social media marketing which will improve your efforts substantially, have a look through some of our past blogs full of tips on social media marketing.
Simple things like utilizing sites such as Hootsuite, hashtagging appropriately, posting regularly and consistently, and sharing excellent and appropriate content, will help your social media marketing efforts significantly.
A lot of businesses make the mistake of making their social media posts a monologue all about themselves. This is contradictory to the entire point of social media marketing. The real reason your accounting firm would want to bother with social media marketing in the first place is to engage clients and customers. Engagement isn’t likely to occur if you are selfishly going on and on about yourself.
Engage prospective clients, nurture the relationship, and you will have lots of chances to convert them to customers.
Instead, share other people’s content, ask open-ended questions of your audience, respond to questions and inquiries, and speak to anyone who speaks to you. The rule of speaking to those who speak to you also extends to those who may offer up criticism of your accounting firm.
In cases where your audience has reacted negatively to something you’ve said or done, or to an encounter they may have had with your accounting firm, think of it less as something that needs to be covered up and more as a learning experience and opportunity. For someone who has had a negative experience with your firm, this is an opportunity to show your audience that you care by resolving the matter with the offended party. For those who respond negatively to content that you have posted, think of it is a learning experience in terms of what type of content you might want to create and post going forward.
Successful social media marketing is not a single action or a single tactic which will take your accounting firm where you want it to go. Rather, social media marketing is an ongoing process and one which you will have to commit to on an ongoing basis. With considerable work, attention to detail, and routine maintenance, social media can be a path to expanding your accounting firms reach and garnering more business making the entire process worthwhile.
Guaranteed SEO has been working in the field of online marketing for more than seventeen years now. Our expert knowledge combined with practical experience comes together to garner success for our clients. Given our experience working with accountant and accounting firms, Guaranteed SEO can help your accounting business make the most of social media marketing and show you how to use it effectively.
