Voices

LinkedIn and Facebook best practices for accountants

Developing a social media presence for your accounting firm can have a sizable impact on your marketing efforts. However, building a sustainable and impactful strategy is an important aspect of making the whole process worthwhile. If you are thinking about undertaking social media management for your own firm, there are a couple of best practices to keep in mind while building a strategy — regardless of the platform you are using.

Overall best practices

  • Always think about your brand first: Before any strategy can be built, it is important to define your brand and values, which will define the content you create or share. Anything you post will be a direct link back to your brand so it’s important to ensure you aren’t posting anything that can end up being damaging to your business. You should choose a voice and tone for all of your social posts, across platforms, and make sure you keep a consistent tone. 
  • Identify who you want your audience to be: Instead of trying to appeal to every possible client, an interesting option is to choose a specific demographic you are trying to get in front of. This can help to create a tighter strategy that will enable you to address specific interests and concerns. 
  • Think before your post: There is a huge amount of relevant and interesting content available online to share and to create yourself. Ideally, your social media accounts will be a mix of shared and unique content, but it is a great idea to reflect on if the content will actually add value to your follower’s timelines. Do an audit of profiles you follow and engage with to identify what it is that you appreciate and apply that to your own posts. 
  • Scheduling tools are extremely helpful: Social media can be very time-consuming. Scheduling tools can be a great investment to get things scheduled in advance. Some tools to look into include Hootsuite, Hubspot, Buffer and TweetDeck, among others. 

For accountants, Facebook and LinkedIn tend to be the most effective tools for marketing purposes. Below are a couple of best practices specifically for both of those platforms:
Using Facebook for more exposure

  • Post at the best times for your audience: According to research conducted by CoSchedule, the best times to post to Facebook — for B2C and B2B companies — are 9-10 a.m., 12-1 p.m., and 3-5 p.m. Keep in mind which time zone you want to target as well as the days. Additional research has found that generally, Wednesdays are the best days to post, with Thursday through Sunday seeing higher engagement as well. While these are the findings from organizations that dug into broad trends, you can also dig into your personal audience by going into the “Insights” tab of your Facebook page. There you should be able to see how many of your followers are active at different times of the day for each day of the week.
  • Take advantage of Facebook’s features 
    • Targeted posts: You can target a post to a certain audience by selecting specific demographics you want to get in front of. 
    • Facebook Live: A great way to engage with your audience. Facebook Live videos can generate 10 times more comments than standard videos. 
    • Groups: Enable you to actively engage with people about specific topics that interest everyone in the group.

Amped-up customer service 

This can be a little touchy so it’s worth thinking about before moving forward. With Facebook, you can activate direct messages to enable customers to reach out to you directly through the platform. Just note that social media users are likely to expect a quick response, and how quickly you respond to messages is displayed in the "About" section of your page.

Additionally, you can allow customers to leave reviews on your page. If you feel really good about client feedback, getting positive reviews can really help in getting new clients. If you get a negative review, you can respond to help them resolve the issue.

Growing your practice with LinkedIn

If you are not currently using Linkedin Groups, you have a huge opportunity to start using the best that LinkedIn has to offer. This feature provides a shared place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share their information, ask questions, and build a network.

Finding and being active in the best groups for you is an extremely effective way to augment your circle of influence — the kind that leads traffic to your website and hopefully your client roster.

When doing a search for LinkedIn groups, make sure you read the descriptions since sometimes the group’s name can be misleading. To find relevant groups you may have missed, look through which groups your friends and colleagues — who have similar interests — are in and you might find great ones that way. Keep in mind that connections can see which groups you are in.

In conclusion, social media platforms are a great way to increase visibility for your firm. It just takes a little preparation to hone the strategy and get started.

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