How accountants can achieve growth across social media

As most of the world is self-isolating, social media has provided consumers with connection outside of their immediate surroundings, helping to maintain relationships online. While businesses are under pressure to deliver, establishing a social media presence can help create a tactical opportunity to strengthen your relationships with existing and prospective clients and boost conversion rates.

Accountants are among those who feel that their industry does not necessarily need to use social media. However, using social media is a natural place to market your products and continue communication with clients and prospective customers. With the opportunity for you to engage with various people, you will have the ability to get more personable with them.

Social media statistics from 2019 show that there are 3.5 billion social media users worldwide, and this number is only growing (Emarys, 2019). 73 percent of businesses who include social media as part of their marketing strategy, believe that their efforts through social media marketing has been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business (Buffer, 2019).

Although, getting social media right does take time and energy – so it is best to start with a well-defined social media plan.

Here are five ways your accountancy firm can become more influential on social media during the pandemic:

Be consistent

If you are going to have a social media presence, you must be prepared to maintain it. Successful social media strategies always have a steady flow of information and apply the same content across all platforms. For instance, setting up an automated posting schedule ensures you are consistent in when you post and what you share. When you have a consistent presence, you can count on your social media posts to always be relevant to your audience. It is estimated 84 percent of B2B marketers use paid distribution channels (like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and more) for content marketing purposes. (Content Marketing Institute, 2019) You also don’t want to have a social profile which is out of date or doesn’t have much content. So have a think about how much time you could devote to maintaining the profiles or perhaps consider delegating it to someone in the office who would enjoy it.

Decide on tone and content

There is no right or wrong way to establish a voice on social media. However, by understanding your demographics, you can tailor your message to have the most impact. Take this time to evaluate your approach to social media marketing and what key qualities you want to communicate through the tone and language. An appropriate tone adapts to the mood of your customers. Staying focussed on the message will help you to create higher quality content that is in line with your brand values and most importantly resonates with your customers.

Keep engagement high

Social media is a great way of engaging with clients and showing them the human side of your business. With that in mind, content should be interesting enough to keep your audience’s attention, and relevant enough to keep them coming back for more. When a user reaches out to you on social media with a comment on one of your posts or a question about your business, it is important you respond to those questions in a timely manner. Research shows that 71 percent of customers will recommend a brand who offered a quick response to their enquiries on social media. Not only does it demonstrate that you are listening to them but also that you value their interest by taking time to support them.

Establish thought leadership

96 percent of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders. (Demand Gen Report, 2016). On social media, sharing updates and insight from your industry allows you to let your prospects and customers see you at your best. Furthermore, you should create content that supports and uplifts your audience. Understand the people you’re speaking to and what their pain points as this will help you develop a marketing persona and ensure you’re speaking to them in way they identify with. The more specific you are in identifying your audience, the better the chance of reaching and engaging that audience with your thought leadership.

Look ahead

Technology is constantly transforming the way we communicate, and we are always looking for the next ‘big thing’. When it comes to marketing and promoting your accounting business, your strategies should cover as many social media channels as possible and grab all kinds of marketing opportunities. Many practices consider taking on an external agency to manage and implement their social media strategy. They can help monitor your output, take care of day to day maintenance and also measure your success.

Final thoughts

Creating a social media presence will help your services achieve further growth and can help your accountancy practice to thrive. Moreover, in order to become influential social media, it important to identify with your target audience and understand their pain points. By doing so, you will be able to create tactical opportunities and nurture prospects to be potential buyers of your services.

We hope you’ve found this guide helpful. To stay up to date with all of our latest information, support, guidance, resources and tools please visit Sage.