Summary
Social media now plays a big part in most people’s daily lives, with more than two-thirds of people in the UK using it. That’s something you can’t afford to ignore when you’re planning your accountancy firm’s marketing activities.
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There’s one very good reason why accountancy firms ought to be paying attention to social media marketing: over a relatively short period of time, social media has become a significant part of most people’s daily lives.
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows:
68% of people in the UK used social networks in 2019, up from 57% in 2011.
And while the 16-24 age group still uses social media more than any others, people in the 35-44 and 45-54 age brackets saw the biggest increases in usage over the same time.
The uses of social media are just as varied as its user-base, with people logging in to their preferred networks to stay in touch with friends and family, catch up on the news, and find the things that entertain or inspire them.
It’s that blurred boundary between the commercial and personal that can make social media marketing look like a challenge if you’re new to it.
On any given day, a user could be scrolling through a mixture of promotions from household-name brands, news stories, their friends’ holiday photos, and updates from their mum.
So where do your accounting firm’s marketing activities fit in, and how can you use these platforms for the best results?
In my experience working on social media campaigns for a wide variety of clients before I joined PracticeWeb as an account manager, I’ve found that planning is often the answer. With a structured approach, social media can play a key role in achieving your business and marketing goals.
What is social media marketing for accountants?
Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves creating and sharing content on social media networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, to achieve your marketing and branding goals.
It includes activities like posting text and image updates, videos, and other content designed to drive audience engagement.
There are two main types of social media marketing: organic and paid.
Organic social media marketing generally describes any social media activity that you haven’t paid for – posting on Twitter, for example, or posting a video on Facebook, without paying to promote it.
Improving your organic marketing usually involves putting together strategies to get your content noticed by more of your existing audience, and increase their engagement with it. Because of this, it tends to work best for companies that are already well established, with large followings – with more people already paying attention to what you post, it’s easier to get more of them liking and commenting on it.
Paid marketing, commonly known as pay-per-click (PPC), is useful if you have a specific campaign and an audience you wish to target. If you are running a small firm and you’re looking to increase your following, paid advertising can also help improve your overall brand awareness.
How do I start?
Your first step should be to establish a social media marketing strategy for your accountancy practice, setting out what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Without a strategy, it’s very easy to get carried away and post everything you have to say in one go, or just update your channels sporadically, whenever you find the time.
This doesn’t work nearly as well as a more sustained approach. Posting once on three days a week, for example, will have more of an impact than posting three times on one day.
A good way to start creating your strategy is to think about what you want to say and to whom you want to say it. Some of the questions I always have in mind are:
What am I hoping to achieve through social media marketing?
All of your content should have a purpose, and that’s no different for your social media activity. Whether it’s generating more leads or increasing brand awareness, having a clear idea of what you’re aiming for will help you plan around it.
Who is my target audience?
Think about the sector you want to reach, the age bracket your audience falls into, and other demographic information. Referring to your buyer personas can be useful here, to make sure your approach is appropriate to the people you want to communicate with.
Which platforms would my target audience use, and how would they use social media?
It’s important to figure out where your audience ‘hang out’ – whether they spend their free time scrolling through Twitter, or building up their network on LinkedIn. For example, you might find restaurateurs on Facebook, architects on Instagram and lawyers on LinkedIn.
What message do I want to send to my audience?
Perhaps you have a particular service you want to promote, or maybe you want to express your brand identity to your audience. Either way, make sure you know what it is you’re trying to say, so your social media activity is focused on a consistent message.
Once your strategy has been finalised, your next step is to create a content calendar.
Here, you can organise your posts, figure out when you are posting what, and ensure any attachments and imagery are ready beforehand.
I tend to plan content calendars a month in advance, taking into consideration any national days or holidays – for instance, ‘Women in Engineering Day’ on 23 June, or ‘Employee Appreciation Day’ on 6 March.
Focus on days that are relevant to your firm and the sectors you work with, or that have widespread recognition.
This is a great opportunity to show what your firm is doing on those days, too, whether it’s working with clients in those sectors or raising funds for a cause.
Think about other key dates and deadlines as you’re planning. You could use social media to remind your clients to get their self-assessment returns ready before the end of January, for example, or let them know about upcoming tax changes at the start of April.
