March 15, 2021 | By Connor Mullins
Social media plays a huge part in most people’s daily lives, with more than two-thirds of people in the UK using it.
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, interact, debate, post videos and find the things that entertain or inspire them.
The huge influence these platforms have on today’s population sets up the perfect condition for a business to prevail – and that includes accountancy firms. Here’s 8 ways they can use social media to become more connected.
Keep your brand consistent
Using social media for marketing allows accountants to project their brand image across a variety of different platforms. Whether you’re posting on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram, your accountancy firm’s core identity and tone should stay consistent.
Promote your website content
Social media marketing and content marketing should go hand-in-hand, so when you update your website with new content, make sure to share it with your social media following too.
Plus, great blog content will help you build more followers. It’s just one of the ways that content marketing and social media marketing benefit each other.
Share company milestones and internal personal and team training and development initiatives e.g. team strategy sessions, team bonding, business anniversaries, achievements etc.
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.
Keeping customers updated on different channels
You could use social media to remind your clients to get their self-assessment returns ready in time, key documents to keep, or even upcoming tax changes at the start of April.
You may also want to focus on tips for using accounting software or simply offer general business advice.
Most of the social media platforms offer simple polling functions; you tend to see polls of some kind pretty much every day on Twitter, for example, and they offer an easy way for your clients to interact while providing inspiration for blog posts.
First with the news
When something new comes out of the Treasury or HMRC, jump on to Twitter or LinkedIn and share a link to the official announcement. Stick to the formula of who, what and why.
It’s good to show customers who follow your social channels that you’re proactively on top of what’s going on and can be relied on to give them good advice.
Share as much detail in your social media profiles as possible
Social media networks allow users to provide information to their followers and accountancy firms can make sure each profile is 100% complete so that anyone visiting your profile can get a clear idea of your brand identity, the services you offer, and what customers can expect from you.
This will provide a foundation to build a strong connection with followers – both clients and prospects.
Some of the details you should share in social media are location of your main office, your business contact details, what your company does, the industry your business operates in, and a call-to-action (CTA) for your visitors.
Remember that when any changes are made to your brand or business, update your information immediately.
Focus more on customer service
Many customers turn to social media for help nowadays. They prefer social media messaging channels over calling a company or waiting a long time for a business to respond to an email.
Chatbots are much more than a digital assistant, they help small businesses save money, close sales, and connect with customers in an increasingly digital world. Their popularity has soared amid the pandemic with many small businesses forced to do more with less staff and resources.
It’s a good thing that chatbots now exist, as they’re able to answer common customer questions and redirect enquiries when you’re not around. When customers trust that your brand will help solve their issues quickly, they become more willing to sign up to your services.
When using chatbots for customer service, keep the chatbot reply message short, clear and concise to prevent the customer from exiting the conversation,
Use the right tools
One of our previous blogs – tech trends for accounting firms in 2021 focused on Artificial Intelligence and how it is already good at automating repetitive tasks, increasing accuracy and efficiency.
The secret to using social media effectively is using a similar process – to take advantage of tools that automate or simplify much of the work. This helps to boost your productivity, meaning you can start using social media for business without having a full-scale social media team.
Social media management tools like Hootsuite can help you centralise all mentions and messages directed at your company in one dashboard, as well as scheduling notifications in advance to go out when you want without having to log into each individual social media account.
Tools like BuzzSumo and Pocket, meanwhile, can help you find and organise content to share.
Add commentary and opinion to topics
Your clients recognise you as an expert and will value your opinion highly. As you’re expected to be ‘first with the news’ and publish key announcements in finance and tax, add a layer of opinion.
For example, following the Budget, post the official announcements but also add your own thoughts as to what this means, why you think it was announced and whether certain measures could be good (or not) and why.
All of these different ways to use social media will allow your practice to become more connected and be seen as proactive – a valuable trait to show both current and potential customers.
