Social Media is the Golden Ticket to a Strong Tax Season
On the scale of fun activities, paying taxes is right up there with wisdom tooth removal and a jury duty summons. For Accountants, however, tax season is pretty much the Superbowl of their work year. It’s also a time when their marketing strategies should be shifted into full gear to bring a solid amount of business to their doors.
Businesses nowadays have a penchant for using social media to “up” their exposure to potential clients, and for accountants this tool can be especially effective to increase revenue and client referrals. Hey, even the IRS uses this strategy to deliver information. If they’re doing it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.
Here are some social media tricks Accountants should keep in mind to jumpstart a fruitful tax season.
It’s worlds away from “old school” marketing tactics
Many accountants still rely on what is considered the “traditional” (or just plain old school) way of marketing their services. This includes tactics such as direct mailers and billboards. From a financial standpoint, old school marketing can cost you a pretty penny. Why spend all that money on direct mailers when you can publish an ad on social media websites for much broader outreach (and a fraction of the cost)? Plus, no successful accountant has time to keep up with traditional marketing–plus, in a world ruled by all things digital, consumers are more inclined to search for services via Google rather than picking up a flyer.
Don’t believe us? Here’s an infographic from Search Engine Journal to help prove our point:
A social media post spreads much faster than a flyer
A simple tweet or Facebook post has the power to reach millions in one single click. A direct mailer, however, can take days, even weeks, to arrive to potential clients. During tax season, that’s just time no CPA can afford to waste. A social media post, however, takes seconds to upload. These websites even allow users to share posts with their friends, which can exposure your firm to the masses even more.
Embrace the power of hashtags
Hashtags are an easy way for people to read up on popular topics related to the targeted word/phrase. It’s as simple as adding a pound sign (#) before a certain word/phrases and adding them onto your posts. Hashtags help increase exposure and put your posts in the faces of those searching for the hashtags you use. For Accountants, incorporating industry-relevant hashtags on Twitter can actually increase their number of retweets. By how much, you ask? See below.
It’s a way to engage with several people at once.
Client engagement – whether it’s a follow-up phone call or publishing blogs on your CPA website–should be a priority when looking to gain clients (and keep them). Social media has basically become the middle man between business and consumer, all thanks to its tremendous outreach capacity. Forbes even named social media as one of their top strategies for increasing consumer engagement.
So, take part in group discussion within social media websites and answer some accounting questions to put yourself out there. Taxes are a pretty serious topic, and people want someone who knows their stuff. The more you establish yourself as a trust-worthy, knowledgeable source via social media engagement, the more these people will want to choose your services during tax season.
Social media works if you structure your time wisely.
If you’re an accountant, chances are you’re buried pretty deep in crunching figures and advising clients. Some CPA’s shy away from social media simply because they can’t find the time to keep up with it. Yes, social media engagement can be a time consuming thing, but come on – it’s 2017. There are numerous organizational tools out there that can cut your efforts in half.
One tool in particular (and one of our personal favorites) is Hootsuite. This tool links your social media accounts in one page and provides the option to schedule certain posts on future dates, so you don’t have to worry about logging in at 9am on a busy Tuesday to upload that Facebook post on urgent tax deadlines; it can all be done in one shot. Here’s a little snippet of how Hootsuite works:
Step Your Social Media Game Up This Tax Season
There’s so much more to social media marketing that meets the eye. The above points only scratch the surface when it comes to the benefits this platform can provide accountants – and not just during tax season. Internet marketing (social media included) has the power to turn your business around for the better; it’s just a matter of knowing how to use it in your favor. Want to learn more about how your accounting firm can increase online exposure and authority via internet marketing? Contact us today for more SEO insight.