With the millions of users on social media, it’s fairly obvious that your firm needs social media presence. Whatever platform you are active on, it’s important to consistently post new and engaging content on your social media profiles. If you’re like many firms, you might be wondering what to post on social media.
We understand if you’re a tad apprehensive about social media for your firm.
It may seem like just another “thing” in the marketing toolkit that some firms tend to pay little attention to. But don’t underestimate the importance of building a presence on social media to influence client decisions, build credibility, and inspire referrals. Over 500 million people are active on LinkedIn alone.
We dare say a good portion of your clients and contacts are active on the platform also. Taking just that number into account should be enough to convince you to consistently engage with your audience on social media.
There are 2 problems we often hear from accountants who are wanting to be more active on social media:
- “I don’t have time.” Well, you need to make time… if you really want to do it.
- “I don’t have enough to post on social media.” Or a variation of that, “I don’t know what to post on social media.”
Well, we can’t give you more time in your day, but we can give you some ideas on what you should be posting on social media. Whether you’re active on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or any other social media platform, here is what accountants should be posting to social media on a consistent basis as a bare minimum.
Related: Download the full “An Accounting Firm’s Guide to Social Media” ebook here.
Important dates to remember
Every month brings new accounting and tax dates to remember for businesses and individuals. As the accountant, you may be thinking about these dates. You may even have them on your calendar. But a majority of your clients will not. They have hundreds of other things to remember each month.
As you build your audience on social media, publish important upcoming tax dates they need to remember.
Encourage your audience to add these dates to their calendars to ensure nothing is missed and they are aware of what is coming to avoid any surprises or last-minute panic.
Important firm milestones
Just like a friend on Facebook would post about their birthday, an engagement, or a pregnancy announcement, your firm should be celebrating important milestones on your social media pages.
There are often many reasons to celebrate each month; you just need to know what to look out for. Get your phones ready to capture each moment and share them on social media.
Be on the lookout for things like:
- New starters joining the team
- Employee birthdays
- Client testimonials
- Firm celebrating its 1st, 2nd, 5th, or 10th birthday? Congrats! Share a pic of the partners or the entire team with a post caption to celebrate with your online audience!
- Team member promotions
- Team members completing their CA
- New partner or shareholder appointments
The list can go on.
The point is if there is something you celebrate, share it on socials to give your audience a chance to join in and congratulate the firm and your people.
Related video: How Accountants Can Increase Their Social Media Engagement
Celebrating the wins is very important. This demonstrates growth and shows your audience just how much you enjoy doing what you do as an accountant.
Bite-sized tips
Sharing bite-sized, practical bits of advice is a great way to add a lot of value to your social media audience.
Perhaps there is a cool tip or trick you know on Excel that you think would help your clients. Share it!
Maybe you have a tip about using Xero that will help clients navigate through their own Xero a little easier. Share it!
Or perhaps there is a new piece of accounting tech that your clients could benefit from. Give your opinions on it and why you think it will make their lives easier. Share it!
Whatever your tip, tool or trick is, share them with your audience. You can use an image or a short video to attract attention and make it more engaging. These tips may sometimes seem obvious to you as an accountant, but they are often extremely valuable to your clients and contacts.
News alerts and updates
There have been many updates, changes, and alerts around things like JobKeeper and Government Grants over the past 18 months.
Sure, your clients may have this information from other online sources. You should be one of these online sources too!
Whenever something is announced, updates are made or new initiatives are launched, share the link with your audience on social media with a call to action to get in touch with your firm if they need to make sense of it for their specific circumstances.
There’s an obvious benefit to showing your clients you’re on top of what’s going on and can be relied on to give them good advice.
Be more social
Ok, this isn’t something you should post, it’s more like how you should approach some of your posts. Don’t forget one of the core reasons for the existence of social media…to BE MORE SOCIAL.
You can have too many links, articles, news alerts, and updates. But, if you fail to inject some of the human element into your posts and genuinely try to be “social” in some of your posts, your audience will begin to grow weary and your engagement will drop.
Focusing on the firm and employee milestones, with pictures of your “people”, will generate far more engagement than any link or article could. There’s evidence that people like the occasional self-portrait on a social media feed, even if that’s not the primary reason they’re there. People like to see smiles and put faces to names.
Don’t forget to be consistent
“Out of sight, out of mind” certainly applies to your digital marketing. Make sure you’re consistent with your social media activity and find your rhythm. The key is to not overthink it. Just stick with it consistently over time and you’ll find what gets more engagement and what doesn’t work at all. That’s the beauty of digital marketing…you can measure and analyse everything!
Ok, we get that many accountants really don’t have the time to be constantly active on social media. If you’re one of these accountants, perhaps you need some help? Get in touch with us at Practice + Pixels to chat about how we can help you build your firm on social media with our monthly digital marketing retainers.
