LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA

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1 LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA LIVE CHAT: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS INTRODUCTION In this competitive market it is crucial for your practice to stand out from the crowd. Leveraging from the CPA Australia Find a CPA campaign, we have tools available to help you harness the power of social media and promote your practice. A recent live online chat provided members with an opportunity to ask questions about how best to utilise social media for your business and how to leverage the Find a CPA campaign, as well as learn more about the complimentary marketing resources available to you. CPA Australia s panel of experts were: Lawrence Boal, Client Advisory Manager, Reprise Media Steve Radywonik, Category Manager Brand & Integrated Marketing, CPA Australia RESOURCES Pros and cons of social media marketing for accountants Six steps to an effective social media presence Does your business have a USP? Should you start a business blog? Find a CPA campaign and social media assets CPA Australia marketing guide When to say no, should you friend your boss on social media Five things to know before checking out job candidates on social media Social media defamation: How bad netiquette can cost you in court How to implement a social media policy at work Your sustainable firm

2 THE MAIN BENEFITS OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO MARKET YOUR ACCOUNTING PRACTICE Social media can help make more people aware of your practice, increase traffic to your website, promote new products and services, increase referrals and get customers to visit you for services more often. Social media is a great way of staying in touch with your existing clients, and building loyalty, while increasing your profile with new customers. HOW TO GET STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA The most important thing to consider is how social media fits into your overall marketing and business plan. If your goal is to grow your business through your existing client base, then you may choose to use social media as a way to educate your existing clients on key product areas - such as business advisory services. Once you understand how social media will support your business and marketing goals, you'll be able to create a specific social media plan to achieve this. In the case of aiming to make your existing clients aware of your business advisory services, this might involve developing case studies and interviews with existing clients to highlight your work in these areas. By developing your social media plan to address your overall marketing objectives, you ll ensure that your investment in social media (time, energy, resources) is measurable and focused on meeting your broader business objectives HOW TO ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA The key to encouraging engagement is understanding what content will resonate with your target audience. You want to be able to create a conversation with the target audience you are trying to reach by learning from other brands that are effectively communicating with their current and prospective customer bases. What creative concepts are they using and what action prompts are they using to develop a conversation around their content? Most importantly, from a marketing perspective, is how can you leverage the engagement and conversations started from your content to drive your business goals. Positive engagement through your social media platforms is a great goal to have but ultimately if the engagement is not leading to business goal conversions, then a different approach is recommended. THE SECRET TO CREATING GOOD QUALITY CONTENT The most important thing to remember is to create content that's interesting for your audience and relevant to your offer. To do this, you should think about your customers, their challenges and what they re interested in. If you are targeting small to medium businesses and aiming to make clients aware of your business advisory services, then think about developing a set of case studies - as an example exploring the challenges that owners face as they grow their businesses. By doing so, you ll be creating relevant content for your target audience and positioning yourself as an expert in the area. 2

3 POLLING QUESTIONS CHANNEL USAGE 3

4 The social media platforms you use will depend on your target audience and objectives. Trial platforms and track your performance. Whatever social media platforms you select, your website should always be the central part of your online strategy. Social media is a great way to reach and connect with your audience, however nothing can replace a good website. SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT Develop a plan for your content in achieving your goals, it s not so much the individual posts that are important but how well they are planned. Plan your posts so that they build on each other and give people the chance to take action. For example, your first post may be a link to an external site outlining a key trend in small business. You may then follow up with a relevant client case study, demonstrating your expertise and knowledge in that 4

5 area of small business. Finally, you could post a link to a free event where people can learn more about that very topic. With regard to third party content, you may reproduce CPA Australia content published on INTHEBLACK or in the INPRACTICE newsletter in your own online mediums by publishing the first paragraph and then linking through to the rest of the article on the CPA Australia website. You may reuse content in CPA Update and Tax News on your website or in client newsletters. You can link to, but not reproduce, our YouTube and Facebook content as long as you acknowledge CPA Australia as the author. You can place CPA Australia checklists on your website as long as you acknowledge that the checklists were created by CPA Australia. The text as provided in the checklists cannot be altered when published on your website. If you are not receiving CPA Update, CPA Tax News, InPractice or InTheBlack s, please contact publicpractice@cpaaustralia.com.au to opt-in. DIGITAL ADVERTISING PLATFORMS Digital advertising can be an effective and cost efficient way of reaching your target audience but it is important to understand how each platform differs in terms of advertising and what results they can deliver. Google and Bing search engine marketing are known as pull platforms, as you are actively pulling in your target audience who have searched for specific keywords that relate to your business goals. Whereas social media advertising are part of push platforms, as you are actively pushing your content to a targeted audience. We would recommend a split between social and search advertising, optimising across all channels to push marketing budget to the best performing platforms in line with your business KPIs. 5

6 Facebook is making it increasingly difficult for Facebook businesses to reach their target audience through organic (unpaid) posts. Facebook over the past year has been developing a more aggressive pay to play philosophy to how businesses are able to gain cut through and audience engagement with their social media content. For a business to effectively reach new potential customers through Facebook they have to consider boosting their contents reach through paid advertising. However, before starting paid advertising on Facebook you must first consider where social media fits into your overall marketing and business plan, as well as considering other marketing channels available. For example, Google AdWords search engine marketing may be a better fit than advertising on social media if your main marketing goal is to increase new business leads rather than awareness of your accounting practice. Using small test budgets will give you a good idea of what platforms and strategies will work best for you. If you do wish to market your practice on Facebook, the Facebook Ads guide provides all the creative specs and technical requirements needed for you to create ads on the Facebook family of apps and services (including Instagram). You can decide on what ad formats you d like to use based on what assets you have available. By closely following Facebook s advertising guidelines and adhering to ad format specs, as well as developing a targeted relevant audience, your Facebook ads will have the best chance of achieving a high relevance score. This is a score Facebook uses to benchmark your ad formats quality and how relevant it is to your target audience. The higher your relevance score (based on a 1-10 scoring method), the more cost effective your advertising campaign will be as the Facebook algorithm will prioritise your ads over competitors who are trying to reach the same target audience whose ads have a lower relevance score. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Wanting to know what the best business apps are to use to create social media posts i.e. Canva, Photoshop etc. Personally, I would recommend Photoshop as the best app to use, but there are alternative free apps out there which work well in creating great content for Facebook. Top free alternatives I have found are Krita, Pixlr & Sumomonkey. A good way to ensure you are using the best specs to achieve reach on Facebook is to create your organic content based on Facebook business ads specs. You can find more information here. Do you recommend Facebook or Instagram for marketing purposes? I have used Facebook a bit, just wondering if I should be venturing into Instagram also? Instagram has exploded in popularity recently and presents an opportunity to connect with a unique audience. You should only ever move on to a new platform if you are confident that you can post regularly on it. A good Instagram strategy requires lots of visual content. You can develop good quality video and image based content now, more affordably than you used to be able to. Think about the type of content that you can post which is visual (images and videos) and if you think you can support 1-2 posts a week, I would recommend trialing Instagram! Where do we start for those that even do not have any client, and brand new to the practice? I would recommend starting by setting up a Facebook page and a LinkedIn page for your practice. From there you want to build up the number of followers you have across both platforms. You can start by adding relevant people within your network but if you want to further grow your presence on social media I would recommend assigning a small test budget to Facebook advertising, showcasing your practice. The best thing about Facebook advertising is it can be highly targeted (you can target down to a postcode for example). 6

7 Once you have grown your pages you will be able to reach your audience members by posting content to your page, which will reach your audience members without the need to use paid advertising on Facebook. A good social media strategy will result in business leads that we hope will become clients for your practice. When looking at setting up your business you might also find this complimentary CPA Australia resource very useful. Your Sustainable Firm content covers everything from marketing to technology. [Remember to log in first in order to access the complimentary offer] What are your thoughts on using "business influences"? We also have an account on Instagram where we find it works really well. Influencers, especially those that are highly relevant to your business are in my opinion the best option available outside a highly targeted paid advertising campaign on social. You can reach out to influencers who are always happy to let you know the costs for their services and it can often be more cost effective than paid advertising. Instagram is a great platform to be across, if you advertise on Facebook make sure to include your ads on Instagram too. We see lower costs involved running ads across both platforms. Any idea how we balance our social media presence without alienating our 'old school' clients? An excellent question and a problem that arises with a business that has a broad target audience. Unfortunately, there is no way around publishing organic content from your page that will not be seen by your "old school" clients. However, if you use paid advertising across Facebook you are able to use the option "dark posts". This means the post is not seen on your Facebook page but only to the target audience you have selected as part of the advertising. Dark posts are a great way to get around the issue of not wanting to spam or alienate your current social media followers. How much time do you need to devote to keeping a website relevant and up-to-date? I see so many websites where they are out-of-date and updates have not been done for months, if not years. People expect your website to be up-to-date, so the general content on your web page needs to be updated as often as your products/services and business information change. That said, your website is an important way to engage with existing and potential customers - so you should think about including a 'News' section that gives people a reason to visit your website regularly. You are correct, as a very minimum a website needs to feel as if it's been updated recently - otherwise it feels neglected which does not give a very good impression. Beyond that, think about the types of content that you can update monthly that will be interesting to your clients and will give them a reason to visit your web page and take an ongoing interest in your business. I am trying to start my business and don't have any new clients. I need some ideas as to how to market it so that I gain clients in this fierce competitive marketplace. A paid marketing plan that incorporates social media is a great way to achieve cost effective reach and ultimately develop leads to gain clients. I would recommend looking into small test budgets to run across Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Adwords (not social media but a great platform to reach your target audience who are searching for your business). 7

8 In terms of Facebook advertising make sure you make your targeting granular to ensure you don't waste marketing budget (you can target as granular as postcodes for example) and test different content and messaging. A way to achieve cut through in a fierce, competitive market place is by creating engaging content and learning what works for your business through small test budgets, whilst keeping the targeting granular. It's important to do your research first, a lot of articles and advice can be found online to give you the best techniques to grow your business by gaining leads through Facebook, LinkedIn and Google AdWords. Is Wordpress good for creating websites? Wordpress is a terrific open source tool which has evolved from a blogging platform originally, however, is very suitable for building websites. People say that LinkedIn does not work but I don't agree with them. What are your views? I have seen mixed success with LinkedIn across other verticals but I would agree with you that is a relevant platform to be used for your business needs. The problem with LinkedIn is that is an expensive platform, mainly because you have the ability to reach a c-suite audience through the targeting on paid advertising. I would recommend running small budget test campaigns on the platform, testing different target audiences and what content works for you. But most importantly, make sure your advertising campaign is set to CPC (cost per click) that way you will only be charged when a user clicks on your ad, rather than each time a user views your ad (CPM - cost per thousand impressions). How do you go about creating a business "blog"? If you have a website I would recommend adding a business blog directly to it. If not, great platforms to get a business blog and website up and running are Wordpress and Wix. Then it is up to you to create the content for your blog, have a look at what others are doing well within your business vertical and go from there. A great alternative/addition is to run video blogs (known as vlogs). You can post these directly to YouTube and/or your website and we have seen people achieve success through reach and engagement through vlogs. LinkedIn appears to be transformed into a more user friendly platform and looks very similar to Facebook. How much is too much to be across i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. I agree. LinkedIn has transformed into a much more efficient platform since their takeover by Microsoft. They have made it user friendly for both running organic content and advertising content. A simple answer - it is never too much to be across all social platforms. You will have to tailor your content to each platform and we wouldn't recommend "spamming' (many posts a day) but having a presence and consistent message across all platforms is a great way to maximise reach and engagement. LinkedIn and Facebook would be a priority to focus on for paid advertising to start with. Many CPAs have expertise across a range of areas which may include non-traditional offerings. How do you communicate this without confusing the audience? This is a really good question. Great businesses have a very clear value proposition - which is based around a really singular offer. You don't want to confuse the market by trying to be all things to all people, however, I would recommend that you think about your strengths broadly (your technical skills, prior experience, interpersonal skills) and create a value proposition that stands out. At the heart of this will be your technical skills 8

9 as an accountant, however don't be afraid to differentiate yourself by highlighting your unique experience and skills. What does one do if you are shy? Some accountants describe themselves as introverted. Everyone has different strengths, and marketing is not a natural fit for everyone. In that case one could consider using the services of a marketing consultant or boutique firm to market the business for you, freeing up time to concentrate on the needs of your clients. May I know if there are any statistics available to show how much new clients can be obtained for actively advertising in social media than traditional newspaper or letterbox advertising for a set-up practice? The great thing about social media is you can actually track how many people are viewing your advertising and also you can track how many leads you generate. All these figures are available in the Facebook advertising platform, you may have to add a conversion pixel on your website if you are taking leads from there though. In terms of how social media compared to traditional offline media, there are arguments for both. Ideally, you'd like to have both online and offline marketing activity. A pro for social media is it is usually the most cost effective way to achieve reach compared to traditional channels. How often do you recommend posting on social media? I am wary of finding a balance between annoying people with too many posts and not posting enough. I think sometimes it's less about the number of individual posts that you make and more about the type of content that you are posting. People will always be receptive if you are posting content that they are interested in. Try and offer your followers something valuable with your content and they are likely to look forward to your posts. I would recommend trying to post a few times per week on key platforms (Facebook and LinkedIn) as a way of maintaining consistency. We find that even though we set a target market based on a geographical area on Facebook boosts, we still get many "likes" from overseas random people. Is this a known problem and do you know how to avoid this? That is quite unusual. Your paid posts should only be visible to your target audience within your geographical area and this should not be generating overseas likes. If it is not a major issue, additional likes does give your Facebook page more authority. I would recommend reaching out to Facebook support to see if they can help you with this issue if it keeps occurring moving forward. How often should we post on social media accounting for the fact that posting on several platforms I would recommend trying to post a few times per week on key platforms as a way of maintaining consistency. Does blogging on a website really work? Or does it have to be linked to social media? Blogging on a website definitely can work but the problem is usually not enough people are viewing the blog and the great content you are creating. Social media, especially Facebook, is a great way to achieve cost efficient reach and drive more traffic to your website. From there I would recommend having an sign up and you can reach out to your blog visitors to let them know when you have published a new blog and/or added content to your website at no cost, as these users have now become your earned users. 9

10 What is the popular blog that can attract new clients? Do you do education style, information style or promotional style of blog? The best thing to do is think about the profile of the client that you are trying to attract. Who are they, what is their mindset, what are their challenges, what can you offer them? Once you understand their needs and goals, you can develop blog content to appeal to them. If they are small to medium businesses and you would like to position yourself as an expert in this area, then post content about key trends affecting small business owners. You can use individual social media platforms to promote and amplify your blog posts so that you are reaching potential clients. My perception is that social media clients are unlikely to be loyal, long term clients, but rather shop around for the next cheap deal. Is there any research available to support/deny this, compared with the traditional word of mouth referral method? Unfortunately, I do not have any research to support or deny this. Word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing available but how social media works is quite similar to word of mouth, in that you want to engage your audience and create a conversation with them. It can also be a great channel for securing good reviews which can be seen as an online version of a word of mouth recommendation. I would approach social media marketing the same as any other channel. The goal should be to acquire clients and obviously retain. I would recommend moving forward making a list of how each new client was attained (through social media, word of mouth, newspaper ad etc.) and then analyse the quality of these clients moving forward and see if you see a drop off in quality from those attained through social media. I would be surprised if you see lower quality clients come from social media but it is good practice to monitor moving forward. What if we are not a good blogger. Is there an alternative way to attract readers to your website? Would you suggest we put simple blogs and then link to a third-party page? Is this a good strategy? Content curation at its simplest can involve re-posting links to third party articles (assuming that you have all permissions). This is certainly better than not curating content at all, because you are providing your clients with the value of hand-picked resources for them. That said, it's ok if you don't think you have the right skills to do the blog yourself. There are lots of companies that offer this type of service and can work with you to develop the right schedule of content. What is the importance of names in social media marketing? For example, Jacques may have a different connotation than Jack. The tone and your writing style needs to be catered to the audience you are trying to reach. Traditionally social media is quite an informal channel to reach your audience, a more casual tone is fine. But with your business and any others within the finance sector we do recommend a more formal tone but that doesn't have to go as granular as using more formal names in my opinion. It is worth testing both though, you may see differing results but I'd expect this factor not to have an impact on social media marketing results. FURTHER INFORMATION Bookmark our Complimentary events page to access our complete list of complimentary live chats and webinars. For more information please livechats@cpaaustralia.com.au 10

11 Copyright CPA Australia Ltd ( CPA Australia ) (ABN ) DISCLAIMER: CPA Australia Ltd has used reasonable care and skill in compiling the content of this material. However, CPA Australia Ltd makes no warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of any information in these materials. The above material is only general in nature and not intended to be specific to the reader s circumstances. Further, as laws change frequently, all practitioners, readers, viewers and users are advised to undertake their own research or to seek professional advice before making any decisions or relying on the information provided. September