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Thinking about a social media strategy for yourself or your firm? Are you wondering how (or if) Facebook should be part of your marketing strategy?

In this post, I want to cover the basic principles of Facebook marketing, and pose questions on whether it’s a good fit for your firm or not.

How to determine if Facebook is a good fit:

Assuming you have your CPA Firm website or accounting website setup with best practices in place, Facebook can be an effective place to reach your target market (view FB demographics here). While we personally recommend a *paid* marketing approach (both in the paid promotion of “posts” as well as standard ad buys), the first question you have to ask is “Is my market here”. Now with billions of users, it’s safe to assume some portion of your market is on Facebook.

But, unlike a google search, people don’t go to Facebook looking for a solution to a problem or info on how to solve a problem. They want to be entertained, educated, and connect with each other. Therefore your content isn’t only about your service, but also around valuable content you created. This does not mean a mass quantity of content to get started. You can have a website plus a few great articles, because if you’re going to try Facebook, the goal is to run a well-measured test.

Facebook Part 1: Your Company Page

The first I recommend setting up is a Facebook company page for your firm. Even if you’re a CPA or accountant that isn’t sure you want to pursue Facebook marketing, I still recommend setting up a page for a few reasons.

  • It gives you a backlink to your website (good for SEO and organic search)
  • You can claim your Facebook URL
  • If you decide to revisit Facebook marketing in the future, your foundation is already

Here’s a simple video we found on setting up your Facebook company page:

Alright, so let’s assume you have a page setup, now what?

Posting Content on Facebook

As an accountant or CPA firm, creating content can be challenging unless you have a robust system in place.
Even if you don’t, the question remains… what should we post to Facebook, and when, and how often?
Here are some best practices around posting:

  • Always include a picture in your post
  • Post at least once a day or at least 3 times a week (assuming you’ve found this to be an effective marketing channel)
  • Mix content between video (either youtube or “native” Facebook video, image only, and a content piece)

The goal is to be helpful, post content that might interest your audience. Early on, it will be extremely difficult to get an ROI out of Facebook without spending money to either boost a post, or run an ad.

Paid Options on Facebook

Paid options on Facebook is the quickest way to determine if Facebook is a good fit as well as realize an ROI with your marketing dollars.
Here are two options I recommend testing: 
Promoted Posts to Targeted Profiles:
fb-promoted-post
If you find that a piece of content is doing well (getting shares, feedback, and comments), it might be time to run a “promoted” posts. Here you can pay to have Facebook put a “sponsored posts” in front of your target market. For example, if you want to reach owners of constructions companies? You can! Promoted posts is a great engine for traffic and growth, but we recommend only using this once you know that the content is highly relevant, valuable, and engaging for your audience.

Paid Ads on Facebook

Facebook ads can be a hidden gem for many accountants, CPA firms, bookkeepers, and firm owners. You can run many different options (from Facebook “offers”, or page promotions, to classic ads that drive people to your website. The beauty behind Facebook marketing is that you can have a lot of targeting options available. For example, you can target specifics behaviors, specific pages your market “likes”, you can even upload a list of your prospects email’s into Facebook and only target them! OR you can upload a list of your current clients and create a “look alike” list of profiles similar to your client base! 
facebook3

Conclusion

As with any marketing channel, it’s important that you have a well-defined lead capture process so you can realize or determine ROI. You should have a clear value proposition and a best practice website, and then test different marketing channels. Each one will cost time and money, so be sure to set up tests and keep adjusting your efforts until an ROI is realized, or determine the channel is not a good fit. Be sure to adjust your message, content, or lead capture before abandoning a channel altogether!
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