Social Media for Accountants: Essential Tips & Creative Content Ideas

These days, the question is no longer “Should I adopt social media for my accounting firm?” but rather, it’s “How can I use social media successfully to promote my accounting services?” The effectiveness of social media as a tool for accountants to expand their reach and grow their business is now a proven fact.

For instance, researchers Erietta Beka and Odysseas Pavlatos wanted to learn more about the relationship between special media and accounting/auditing firms. So, they conducted quantitative research on 183 companies.

Their results? Firms with active social media accounts make more profits than their counterparts with inactive accounts.

Essentially, using platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn is a great way to make more money for your accounting firm.

In this guide, we will show you everything you need to know about utilizing social media for accountants — from how to choose the right platform, monitor progress, and come up with content ideas. If you want an overview on marketing for accountants, we cover it in a separate blog here.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing for Accountants

Asides from enhancing profitability, social media marketing has other benefits like:

a. Brand building

Don’t you want to have an identity so strong that your target audience recognizes it from a mile away? Social media provides firms with an invaluable opportunity to achieve this. By consistently sharing valuable content and engaging with followers, you can build a solid brand identity with a positive reputation.

An example of a brand doing this is Roman Villard, CPA, the founder of Full Send Finance.

He constantly shares his thoughts on new updates in the accounting industry, firm updates, and relatable content, which positions him as a thought leader.

b. Lead generation

As of 2024, data shows 4.95 billion (or 60%) of the global population use social media. This provides a massive pool of potential leads that accountants can tap into through social media marketing. Eventually, these leads can become paying customers for your firm.

c. Client engagement

Unlike other traditional methods of marketing, you can engage on a one-on-one basis with customers via social media. It gives you the ability to answer questions, respond to complaints, and provide updates in real-time. This two-way direct communication helps build trust and stronger relationships.

d. Establish your firm as an authority

When your firm’s account shares useful, practical information, you position yourselves as an expert in your field and establish the firm as a trusted authority.

e. Attract and retain top talent

Social media also has the additional advantage of helping you attract top talents. By displaying your company culture,  you can attract talents who align with your firm’s values. And if you live by said values and cultivate a positive work environment, you can retain these talents.

Social Media for Accounting Firms: Choosing the Right Platform(s)

There are many social media platforms available, but you don’t need to be on all of them to see results. In fact, it’s a mistake to be on all platforms, especially when you’re just starting out. The major social media platforms relevant to accountants are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Let’s see what each of them is like and how they could help you achieve your goals.

• LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network platform. It has over a billion members in over 200 countries, and it’s highly recommended for businesses.  It allows you to demonstrate your expertise, connect with other business professionals, and build your brand. So, if you want to reach a professional audience and promote your services to them, utilize LinkedIn.

• Twitter (Now X)

Though Twitter (Now X) isn’t as “professional” as LinkedIn, it’s still a great place to be if you want to build brand awareness. With 541 million monthly active users, you can have real-time conversations, share updates, and develop a brand voice. Twitter is perfect for quick and short posts, though you can create “threads” if you want to make longer posts.

• Facebook & Instagram

The largest social network site, Facebook is a great medium for accounting firms to connect with a broader audience. According to Statista, it has 3.03 billion monthly active users, and it offers various features for businesses to promote their services. You can create a Facebook business page, post updates, and interact with your audience. You can also run targeted ads to a specific audience and increase brand visibility.

Instagram is similar, only more visually oriented. You can share photos & videos or use hashtags for even more visibility. It’s a great platform for showcasing visually appealing accounting or company-related content.

• TikTok

TikTok has become more popular in recent years, especially among the younger generation. It’s a platform that allows users to create and share short videos. While it may not seem like an obvious choice for accountants, TikTok can be a creative way to share educational content or funny/relatable videos. and engage with a younger audience. If the goal is to reach the younger demographic, consider TikTok.

• YouTube

As the second largest search engine after Google and the second platform with the most users (2.49 billion monthly) after Facebook, YouTube is a powerful platform for sharing video content. Unlike on TikTok, you can share long-form videos on YouTube, like tutorials, vlogs, or interviews. So, if you want to focus on creating long-form videos, go with YouTube.

17 Social Media Marketing Tips for Accountants

1. Share quality content all the time. No generic content.
2. Post consistently. Pick a schedule that works for you and stick to it.
3. Do not overstretch yourself. You don’t have to post every day or be everywhere at once. Pick the platforms and schedule you can manage with your resources.
4. Make use of storytelling when creating content. It prevents your content from being boring and readers resonate with them.
5. Post video content as well. People find them engaging, and it’s a great way to capture their attention and distill information.
6. Leverage hashtags to increase your reach.
7. Engage with influencers or other big brands’ content to expand your network and gain visibility.
8. Engage with your audience by responding to comments and acknowledging feedback. This helps in building a fan-like community.
9. Make use of memes to add humor and personality to your posts.
10. Do not spam your audience with excessive promotional content. Strike a balance by sharing a mix of promotional, informative, and light-hearted posts.
11. Optimize your profile for each platform you’re on. Use keywords so people can find you, and craft a bio that explains exactly what your firm does.
12. Humanize your brand by sharing behind-the-scenes content, spotlighting team members and, and using first person (I/we) to make your writing more conversational.
13. Ask questions and use polls to gather quick feedback from your audience. It’s also a good way to drum up engagement.
14. Collaborate with others like influencers or thought leaders in the industry to reach even more people.
15. Tailor your content according to the platform you’re using for best results. For instance, short, direct-to-the-point posts for Twitter, in-depth posts for LinkedIn, and more photos/videos than text for Instagram.
16. Create a content calendar to plan your content so you don’t run out of what to post.
17. Schedule posts to stay organized and consistent. You can use a social media management tool for this, as it’ll help you plan ahead and post automatically at set times.

How to Measure The Success of Social Media For Accountants

Once you’ve implemented your social media marketing strategy, you also have to measure the success or “look at the data”, as Amanda C. Watts, sales and marketing expert, says. This is so you can understand the performance of the strategy and optimize based on the results.

Some of the key metrics to track are:

• Website traffic: Monitor the amount of traffic your social media activities are driving to your website using a free tool like Google Analytics.
• Engagement rate: It’s important to track this as it lets you know whether or not your content is hitting the mark with your audience. Likes, comments, shares, etc, are all engagement metrics. Most social media platforms already offer built-in analytics to measure engagement, but you can use additional tools like Buffer or Zoho Social for this. Buffer also lets you see the engagement rate on each post.
• Hashtags performance: Evaluate the performance of the hashtags you’re using over time. Identify which hashtags are driving the most reach, impressions, and engagement and double down on them. You can do this with Buffer or Sprout Social.
• Follower growth: Keep an eye on how many new followers your firm’s account is gaining to understand your brand’s reach. You can check follower growth with the app’s built-in analytics or Buffer.
• Audience behavior and demographic: Understand who your target audience is so you can tailor your content to suit them. Sparktoro is great for social listening.
• Lead generation: Another important metric is the amount of leads your firm’s account has generated. You can check this by the number of people clicking on your Call to action (CTA) to visit your website, fill out a form, book a call, download an ebook, join a webinar, or whatever action you tell them to. Google Analytics provides this data.

By tracking these metrics, you can evaluate how effective your social media for accountants efforts are. It will also provide you with useful data to make data-driven decisions.

Social Media Content Creation Ideas for Accounting Firms

Source: forms.app

Don’t know what to write? “Listen to your clients.” Amanda advises. “That way, you’ll get a clear understanding of the problem your clients have and create content around that.” However, if you still worry about running out of content, here are 10 ideas you can use.

1. Post educational content: This is the basics, but make sure to craft purely educational posts. It could include explaining complex accounting concepts, offering tax-saving tips, or diving into financial planning.
2. Behind-the-scenes content: Share glimpses of how your firm operates behind closed doors, i.e., daily operations or your process behind delivering services.
3. Industry updates: Was there any recent development in your industry? Be one of the first to announce this. But add your thoughts on the updates when doing this.
4. Company news: Share updates about your company, such as new hires, upcoming events, new/updated services and pricing, awards, etc.
5. Pictures and videos from events attended: If you or any member of your team attends an industry event, post related content from the event. It shows your audience how active and engaged in the industry your firm is.
6. Acknowledge important days: Create content around relevant holidays, special events, or observances. For example, you could create a post celebrating International Accounting Day (Nov 24).
7. Celebrate important events in staff lives: You can also celebrate important days like staff work anniversaries and birthdays, publicly to show the human side of your brand.
8. Use live feature for Q&A: Hold live Q&A sessions to teach your audience novel things and answer their questions in real time.
9. Post customer testimonials/reviews: Publish the positive experiences clients have had with your firm to build trust and credibility and attract new clients.
10. Reshare content from your website: Repurpose content by taking snippets or insights from your blog and sharing them on social media. This also helps with content distribution. Customize the content for each platform when repurposing.

Manage All Client Work Effectively

By now you’ve seen why social media marketing for accounting firms is a good idea. It allows you to engage with your audience, drive awareness, and generate soon-to-be customers for your firm.

Once you have a sizeable number of clients, you have to effectively manage them to retain them. That’s where Financial Cents comes in. The software lets accounting, bookkeeping, or CPA firms manage their practice and stay on top of all client work. No leaks, thus increasing client satisfaction rates and building the firm’s reputation.