Let your audience tell you what they want.
By Becky Livingston
The Accountant’s Social Media Handbook
Providing valuable content and engaging in the conversation are the most basic social media tasks. If you are unwilling to do that, or cannot provide it, then either
- work with a consultant to do it or
- wait until you can provide these elements yourself to clients.
MORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA: What Is Social Media? | How Social Media Works with Accountants’ Top 5 Marketing Goals
Be sure to look past just the big platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Do your homework to know the platforms of choice. Also consider the search engine optimization, or SEO, impact for your content and social posts. Keywords – terms that drive search results – are important to factor in and associate with content and social posts.
Example
Blog Title:
Planning for a Wedding? 7 Budgeting Tips You Need to Know
Sample Tweet with keyword focus:
Don’t live without these 7 #BudgetingTips when planning a wedding. #PersonalFinance #WeddingBudgets
See how the keyword “budgeting” made its way from the blog title into the social media post? That’s what you should consider as well.
Articles, videos, images, long- and short-form content, and many more media formats are possible. Consider grouping content by topics of interest to provide some continuity and organization. Typical categories may include breaking headlines, industry news, ongoing series, feature stories, in-depth product or service reports, polls, special promotions, events, tips, lists and social content. When posting the same content on each platform, vary the post style, such as:
- open-ended question – works well with Facebook
- statements – work well on LinkedIn
- comments/thoughts about the content – works well with Pinterest and Google Plus
All formats work well on Twitter.
In “71 Ways to Write a Social Media Update: Specific Tips to Engage Your Followers,” from Buffer, you can gain insight into how to write a social media update by platform. Find the article at http://blog.bufferapp.com/ways-to-write-social-media-updates.
You can also use social media management tools, such as Hootsuite, to search topics of interest. Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook have trending topics so you know what’s hot at the moment. Twitter keeps this list most current. Here are some tips on how to use the tools to find trending topics and to connect with your target audience.
- Use the “search” function in HootSuite. Add streams for phrases or hashtags that are relevant to your business so you can jump into a conversation with other people talking about the same topic.
- Be careful if you auto-link other social channels like Facebook or Pinterest to Twitter; you could be sending dozens of tweets in a row if you’re on a pinning or tweeting craze one day. This is a surefire way to lose followers.
- Use a period at the beginning of a Tweet if you start with an @ mention and want everyone in the Twitterverse to see your Tweet, for example: .@IRSNews releases news on new spam scare tactics for #taxpayers [link]
- Use list and group features (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, G+) to create groupings, e.g., create (private) lists on Twitter in these categories: Clients, Prospects Who Have Considered Us, Positive Feedback from Clients, and Desired Clients or Influencers.
- Add people accordingly, and create social campaigns to keep each segment engaged.
