CPA Practice Advisor - 27

MARKETING YOUR FIRM

Boo! 12 Social Media Tricks to Avoid

By Becky Livingston

CHOOSING A SOCIAL media platform might feel a little like
bobbing for apples. When you start the process, you're unsure
if you're going to succeed. Being active on at least one platform
where your target audience resides is key. But, what should you
sidestep when it comes to your firm's social media strategy?
Here are a dozen bad apples you'll
want to avoid.
■ Jumping on a trending topic/meme/
hashtag without doing research
beforehand. Find out what the image,
hashtag, or topic is about; how it aligns
with your brand, and; how it could be
construed by your audience.
■ Posting with typos and grammatical
mistakes or abbreviations could be
misinterpreted.
■ Confusing company accounts with
personal accounts and posting on
the wrong one. Using a scheduling
tool can help you avoid making this
mistake.
■ Sounding too salesy. Pushing promotions and sales content often will sour
your audience and potential clients.
■ Ignoring comments is bad business.
Social media is about engagement and
creating relationships. Responding to
people's comments builds relationships social media users seek.
■ Being active on too many social media
platforms. Identify where your target
market is active and focus your efforts
there.
■ Buying followers could be ghastly.
Sure, it might increase followers, but
ROI will be the casualty.
■ Neglecting a variety of media in your
posts. Mixing media helps to create
interest in your posts and keeps
followers engaged.
■ Presenting an impersonal profile.
Social media users want to engage
with a human, not robots. Make your
posts relatable, fun, and friendly.
■ Doing everything yourself. Finding the

right help can make all the difference
in your social media efforts. Social
media may be free, but it's time
consuming, takes energy, and requires
creativity. If you're lacking in any of
those areas, consider outsourcing
this task.
■ Posting only your own content. It may
sound counter intuitive, but sharing
other people's content demonstrates
the "social" aspect of social media. It
also broadens your brand reach.
■ Forgetting to listen. The more active
your brand becomes the more people
will talk about it. Create a Google Alert
to receive notifications whenever
your brand is mentioned online. If
you're using a scheduling tool, you
can establish triggers for your brand,
products, or services. You can even
"listen" for the competition.
What can you do to avoid these
blunders?
■ Prepare a social med ia content
schedule. Define the day(s) of the
week and time(s) of day you will post.
Remember, you can post content
more than once in a month, e.g., in
the morning one week and again in
the evening 15 - 20 days later. Use a
different image and headline for each
post to draw in more readers.
■ Create a short list of hashtags, such
as #Account ing, #Bookkeeping,
#SmallBusiness, #Finance, #Audit,
#ERISA, #ConstructionFinance, and
more. A tool like RiteTag is great for
developing the list. Then use up to
three hashtags in a post. Instagram
is the exception. You can add up to 11

hashtags effectively.
■ Develop a monthly content theme
to focus your efforts, e.g., January is
financial planning. February is tax
tips. March is employee classification,
etc.
■ Look at trending topics and search
your website content to see if you
have something to share. Be sure to
use the trending topic hashtag. Word
to the wise: monitor trend throughout
the day to ensure it doesn't impact
your brand.
■ Use a graphics tool and/or royalty-free
image site to help you build stand-out
images and video that can go with
your posts. Canva.com and Pixabay.
com are terrific resources.
Social media doesn't have to be
scary. By mixing a potion of entertainment with education, you are
providing valuable information in a
way that makes people want to come
back for more. ■
Becky Livingston is the President and CEO of
Penheel Marketing, a NJ-based firm specializing in social media and digital marketing
for CPAs. With over 25 years of marketing
and tech experience, she is the author of "SEO
for CPAs - The Accountant's SEO Handbook"
and the "The Accountant's Social Media
Handbook." In addition to being a practitioner,
she is a dog lover, an active on the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) social
media committee, an adjunct professor, and a
speaker/trainer. Learn more about Becky and
her firm at https://Penheel.com.

OCTOBER 2020 ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

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