Social media.
You might be thinking, "I'm a bookkeeper. I don't need it (social media) to attract clients. Word of mouth works just fine."
If you have this limiting belief, you're definitely closing the door on potential prospects.
You see, social media has become the word of mouth for the 21st century and it's quite powerful.
In fact, many Fortune 500 companies, including McDonald's, utilize it to spread their branding messages because they realize that's where their customers are.
On Facebook alone, you'd be surprised how many people ask others to refer mechanics, accountants, doctors and so on.
Therefore, why avoid social media when it's also FREE to join?
In November 2015, my Pure Bookkeeping Canada Business Manager, Dave attended Intuit's Thrive Conference in downtown Toronto.
During the event, he heard a talk from Linkedin's Head of Customer Success, Perry Monaco that could be a potential game changer for your online marketing efforts.
Monaco revealed the 5 Steps To Creating Your Social Media Strategy.
Here they are:
- Understand Your Business Social Media Goals
Ask yourself, do you want to develop new customers? Promote your employment brand? Increase your reach? Figure out what your goals are and why they're important to your business.
It's vital you have an end game, so you don't waste your time and effort.
You may even come to the conclusion that you'll have different goals for different social media platforms.
Who knows?
Take the time to think it through and how those goals will best improve your bookkeeping business results.
- Analyze What Has Already Been Done
What is your competition doing?
Follow them on social media and see what's been successful and not so great with their social media strategies.
Why reinvent the wheel?
Pick and choose what you like and implement in your own way.
- Develop A Content Strategy
Yes, this is the toughest of all the steps, but it can be done.
- a) Decide how often you'll post content.
The key to a successful social media is consistency.
Think of your TV news. You know it airs everyday at 6pm, so social media is no different.
Decide on a set date and time that you'll publish your messages every week.
- b) What content will you use?
On your social media, will you provide links to your website blogs, podcasts, infographics, etc?
What content best fits your brand and what you're currently doing?
Make sure your content isn't pure advertising. People respond better to content that is useful to them on a daily basis.
If you publish blogs such as "10 Tips On How To Better Organize Your Receipts", you'll find that content will be shared a lot quicker than just another mention of how great your bookkeeping services are.
Be useful to people and you will be rewarded with increased traffic and attention which will eventually lead to new clients for you.
- c) Who is creating the content?
e blogs
Make sure it's someone who can actually write and you trust completely who can commit to posting consistently.
That person will be representing your brand online, so confirm it's the right individual for the role.
- d) Where does your content go?
When posting your blogs, podcasts and other content on your social media, double check that each piece of content is appropriate for the platform you select.
For example, you wouldn't post your drunken holiday party pics on the more business centric social media website, Linkedin.
It would look unprofessional.
Just practice common sense and think twice about where you publish your company content.
You want to make sure it reaches the right audience.
- Track Your Progress With Analytics
There are many websites that can monitor your social media activities and results.
Here are a couple:
Hootsuite
https://hootsuite.com/
Sprout Social
http://sproutsocial.com/
They'll keep track of your tweets, Facebook mentions and other social media activity.
You can also schedule when you want your content published, so you don't have to worry about it later.
As you know, what's not measured, can't be analyzed, so get in the habit of keeping track.
- Adjust, Rinse & Repeat As Required
Apply the above steps and see what works and what doesn't.
Rinse and repeat the things that are producing.
If you want to find out how influential you are in your particular geographical area and industry, you can use the following websites:
Klout
https://klout.com/home
Google Analytics
https://www.google.ca/analytics/
They'll give you statistics that will reveal what you'll need to work on to enhance your social media presence.
I realize for those of you who are not social media savvy, this may seem daunting, but like with any new challenge, it's best tackled one piece at a time.
Once you start working on your social media strategy consistently you'll see the benefits soon enough.
To your success,
Michael
