4 minute read.
In our recent survey we found that only 30% of small accounting firms were using social media to market their practice. Many accountants feel that social media is not relevant for their firm or will take too much time to implement into their marketing strategy. However, not only is social media a positive and powerful marketing tool, not having social media can be actively detrimental to your firm by restricting your ability to present your voice online and by affecting the trustworthiness of your firm if clients are suspicious of your lack of presence.
The best social media for accountants
There are five main social media platforms used for marketing: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. Each platform has positives and negatives and different types of audiences. In deciding which to use for your firm, it’s important to consider whether your firm is more business to business, business to consumer, or both. If you’re mainly targeting sole traders, self-employed people and contractors a consumer-focused platform is a better option. If most of your clients are established businesses, partnerships and high net worth individuals a business to business platform would be more suited to your firm.
Twitter for accountants
Accountants can use Twitter to increase brand awareness, generate leads and as a customer support channel. When compared to other social media, posts have a much shorter shelf life, so you’ll need to post more often to Twitter than to other channels. Commenting on news stories, sharing blog posts, running polls and retweeting and replying are all good ways to build a following and keep your followers engaged.
Facebook for accountants
Algorithm changes have made promoting a business organically on Facebook more challenging, however Facebook is the best social media platform if you’re targeting a local client base. Facebook is great for SEO and driving traffic to your website, building trust with potential clients, doing targeted advertising, generating leads and for customer service. Use Facebook to connect with local businesses and groups, post and share articles and encourage and respond to reviews. You will likely get enquiries and comments on your Facebook page, so make sure you regularly check your page.
LinkedIn for accountants
LinkedIn is the main business to business platform so is the best way to increase credibility among business clients and to build good business networks. As a business orientated platform, it is best to schedule posts for Monday to Friday during the work day, and to focus posts on demonstrating thought leadership and industry expertise. Creating your own content is a great way to do this, but if you don’t have the time, reposting and commenting on news stories or industry blog posts is a good strategy too.
Instagram for accountants
Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform, and predominantly leans towards a younger audience. Industries which are mostly featured on Instagram are in the health and wellness, fitness, food and beauty industries so while not traditionally thought of as an ideal social media tool for accountants, if you’re targeting a niche such as salons and barbershops it could be worth having a presence on Instagram. However, as Instagram is a photo driven platform, make sure you can dedicate the time to creating a consistent strategy of well-shot, interesting images to gain and keep followers.
Pinterest for accountants
Pinterest’s strengths lie in quick conversion of sales in the home décor, clothing, travel, food and wedding industries, and is more suited to product-based businesses. Because of this, in terms of social media for accountants Pinterest should be last on your list if at all.
