Page Title

Though accountants may not be the first people to come to mind when you think of social media, there is a lot of good news about posting as an accounting professional that you should know about. This article shares five good reasons to post and three factors to overcome to build a successful social media presence.

Reason One: Accounting Is Relevant

Most everyone can benefit in some way from reading about your subject. Providing real value in your social media feed is the secret to success. Your challenge is finding the most compelling topics. What valuable information do you have to offer? What is your particular expertise? Social media is "the" place to become a thought leader regarding some aspects of accounting.

Reason Two: Accountants Have Lots To Talk About

Compared to some other professions where there can be a shortage of topics to post about, accounting has endless subjects to share. With a little thought and planning, you’ll never run out of topics.

Examples:

• Tax deadlines
• Effects of new legislation
• Small business ownership
• Personal money management
• Current Events

You can also show a personal side of your professional work. Your audience will appreciate what you do by seeing your employees, charities, office events, etc., occasionally featured in your feed.

Reason Three: Accountants Seek Client Development

Who doesn't want to grow their business? Social media is a perfect place to raise awareness, meet new people, and nurture relationships without leaving your desk or paying for advertisements.

Reason Four: Accountants Want To Build Trust

Social media is one of the best places to build trust with clients and a more extensive network. Seeing what is happening at your office when they are not around and learning more about you and your expertise will help solidify and protect the relationships you have started online or in person.

Reason Five: Accountants Are Accustomed To Continuous Learning

Others may balk at the initial learning curve for social media, including ongoing changes to master, but this routine should be very familiar to accountants. You are accustomed to meeting your CPE requirements to learn new skills and subject matter and stay updated on the profession.

On the other hand, there is also some bad news about posting as an accounting professional. Here are a few factors to overcome.

Factor One: Accountants have a heightened need to be accurate and follow best practices for social media

Concerning post accuracy, I don't have to tell you this. You are used to dealing with this in your daily work. Your social media content will need to be equally correct and easy for your audience to follow. In addition, readers will take your posts as a visible representation of the quality of your professional work. Therefore, your posts will need to follow best practices for social media. Download our Foolproof Posting Checklist to ensure each post you submit is up to par.

Factor Two: Accountants need to work harder than some to make posts interesting and appropriate for their audience

You will need to know your audience's level of knowledge and shape your posts accordingly. Not everyone has a foundation for understanding accounting. Are you reaching out to small business owners, CEOs, or individuals? It will be an essential consideration, particularly if posting for non-accountants. You will have to work a little harder to keep your audience engaged and let them know why they should care about your content.

Factor Three: Accountants will need to find time to post

Social media takes time. Moving from social media novice to business proficient in social media will help cut down on time it takes to post. There is a skill level to reach here in terms of becoming efficient. Many online resources help you cut down on time involved, like schedulers.

Conclusion: What Does all of This Mean for Today's Accountants?

Opportunity is knocking when it comes to social media! You can:

• Find and develop leads
• Drive people to your firm's website
• Keep up with referral sources
• Stay top of mind with all your connections
• Develop as an industry thought leader

Yes, it also means you will need to do an excellent job posting. You will need some training at the start to understand how to produce high-quality posts and then to keep up to date with social media changes that pop up from time to time.

Still on the fence? Here are a few more metrics. A survey by the Social Media Examiner shows that:

• 92% of marketers find social media is important to their business
• 91% of marketers that spend 6 hours a week on social media generate increased exposure for their business, and 66% are seeing lead generation benefits
• Over 50% of marketers save money on marketing overall when including social media.

With these statistics, you can see that social media rewards are there for those who pursue them. Set some initial goals and use social media for your accounting firm today.

Small Biz Brands offers a 4-week Social Media Challenge and a social media app that addresses the difficulties and amplifies accountants' opportunities using social media. Click here to learn more.

This is article is published in the June/July/August 2022 Forum.  Read the full magazine here!

---

Kathy Swartz is a Marketing Consultant and Founder at Small Biz Brands. Small Biz Brands help small business owners simplify and excel in the complicated world of digital marketing.  Learn more at www.smallbizbrands.com.