In the past month I have noticed a significant increase in inquiries for accounting and tax services via social media, email and telephone. I think there are a few factors that are playing into this recent surge in activity. The first is having a decent online presence and second is word-of-mouth advertising.

My practice’s online presence is composed of social media, website and google reviews. I focus mainly on Facebook and Instagram when it comes to social media. You are probably thinking why would an accounting practice focus on Instagram? I like Instagram as a way to engage with other businesses as my practice. Oldridge Accounting Professional Corporation currently has over 600 followers on Instagram!

Facebook has also been very important as I have been able to interact as a business owner in networking groups. I have learned a lot about how to present yourself on social media over the past couple years. One thing is spamming is frowned upon. I will admit, I used to share my businesses’ posts with my personal Facebook account which means my friends were getting my posts twice.

What if you have friends that are business owners that are in multiple groups with you and you share your post to these groups as well? Now you are really getting slammed and annoyed with duplicates of the same post. In my opinion, it is great to share valuable content to groups but be careful how you present the information and not be aggressively sales pitchy. Instead of spamming I just connect with people that I truly want to engage and then invite them to like my page. Then they will see my posts once only per post. I also do not want to come across as pushy when introducing myself in groups. I simply state what my practice is about and include my links.

Word-of-mouth advertising is huge for me. Referrals from customers as well as friends get you noticed. I have also asked clients to provide reviews on Google or Facebook for me. Having an awesome social media manager helps a lot too!