Social Media Bootcamp

For Accountants

What do you want to get out of this session?

Sole practitioner? In a firm? Size?

What’s your role?

What’s your experience been?

If don’t use it, what are your reservations

What would you like to come away from the session with?

Confidential 9/11/11

Today you’ll learn:

What social media is and why you should care about it

What social networks have been beneficial for accounting firms

How to begin and where to start

How to create a social media policy for your company

How to measure the impact of your social media efforts

How to use QR codes

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Social technology allows people to talk about brands with unprecedented speed and volume…

… it also empowers brands to tap into the passions and needs of an audience

Winning!

“Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Twitter Followers”

25 hours and 17 minutes

Who cares? Why should I be paying attention?

• The new B to B buyer starts the search process by turning to social media and peer connections to learn how other companies have handled similar business challenges.

• Once those experiences are mapped, the buyer researches the websites of targeted solution providers and controls the conversation by arranging to be contacted at their preferred time and format.

• Less than 10% of recent buyers were contacted by cold call. More than 80% said they either called the vendor directly or were contacted after they requested information on the vendor's website.

New Generation B to B Buyer

B to B Buyer Transformation Survey conducted by DemandGen Report among 100 B to B buyers spread across a number of vertical industries including: business services, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, software/tech and media/internet.

Copyright R2Integrated 2011

The Internet is a decision engine

On the social web, decision making is more social than ever before

Social is not a channel or a media

It’s a behavior

Allows you to engage your prospects and clients with a speed and volume never possible before

Tremendous volume of conversations

• Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US

• If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest

• Twitter’s search engine gets 600 million queries every day

• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world

• There are over 200,000 blogs

• 25% of search results for the world’s largest brands are links to user-generated content

Statistics from social media revolution 2 & website-monitoring.com

This is where your clients and prospects are

Allows you to go to where they are

Social networks can be measured

Improves your SEO

Use analytics to • Track and analyze data• Understand the efforts that are most effective and maximize them• Act on insights

WHERE HAVE ACCOUNTANTS FOUND SUCCESS?

• Build Awareness

• Attract the best and brightest

• Establish position as thought leader in an area of expertise

• Attract new business

Proven benefits for accounting firms

Owned Properties

Optimize social properties using content to provide

value, engage with audience and build

relationships.

Advocacy, Loyalty, Acquisition

• Ernst & Young’s Facebook page

• Henry & Horne’s blogs

• Freed Maxick CPAs Twitter feed

Case studies

ERNST & YOUNG

E&Y's Facebook page for recruiting

• Go to where your audience is• Way to show their personality

and what the culture is like while remaining professional

• Anybody can post on the wall; don’t take down negative posts

• Someone from the firm replies to queries and comments personally

• Opportunity for recruitment season-focused campaigns

• Promote recruitment events• Send messages

HENRY & HORNE

Henry & Horne blogs

Net revenue: $17 million; 15 partners, 110 staff; three offices

• Go to where your audience is• Position yourself as subject matter expert and thought leader• Share your insights and analysis• Promote the insights of others• Encourage and engage commentary

• Huge SEO benefits—before blogging only found if someone typed in the firm name. Now ranked on first page for specific topic- or industry-specific keywords

• Business development tool—search engine research led to one of their blogs and then called them

Six blogs on these topics: • Non-profit• Valuation and

forensic services• Employee benefits

audit services• Tax insights• Healthcare• Automotive

FREED MAXICK

Freed Maxick Twitter account

Net revenue: $36 million; 36 partners, 250 total staff; three offices

• Go to where your audience is• Keep current on the pulse of

what is going on locally, in accounting circles and in target industries

• Promote own thought leadership and the work of others that people might find valuable

• Connect with reporters to offer resources for stories

• Blend business-focus with personal anecdotes

One hit wonder campaigns lead to short-lived pinnacles of engagement as campaign resources are exhausted and advocates go un-nurtured.

Ongoing social media engagement

(Rhythm of Business)

Social marketing is not about silver bullets

15 MINUTE BREAK

Overview

• Who already has a profile?

• How much time a week do you spend on LinkedIn?

• What are you doing?

Overview

• Client acquisition, research, recruiting and relationship management tool

• World’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members—45 million in the US

• There were nearly two billion people searches on LinkedIn in 2010.

We’ll look at how to:• Get the most out of your profile

• Use LinkedIn for biz dev• Research• Groups• Answers

• Find the best and brightest

Overview

Opportunity for thought leadership

Be specific about your achievements

Identify what you do and the results

Be specific about your achievements

Identify what you do and the results

Add sections including:

Add applications including:

Move elements to create a custom profile

Recommended sections and order for accountants

1. Basic info

2. Summary3. Experience4. Certifications5. Skills6. Recommendations7. Volunteer Experience8. Organizations9. Honors and Awards10. Education11. Additional info12. Personal info13. Contact your name for

Thought LeadershipSlideshareBoxBlogTweets

If frequent:EventsTrip it

Make your profile keyword rich

Make it easy for search engines to fine you

Make a list of your services and target markets

Ex. Naden Lean

DentistsDental practiceDental accountingDental CPADental tax planning and accounting

Ron Ehman is a dental CPA with 10+ years experience providing dental tax planning and accounting for dentists and dental practices lawn maintenance, gardening services, and lawn mower small businesses in Maryland.

• Get the most out of your profile

• Use LinkedIn for biz dev• Research• Groups• Answers

• Find the best and brightest

Prospect, referral source and recruiting research

In profile: Books readGroups, etc.

See when someone • Takes a

new position

• Receives an award

• Is speaking

Comment and congratulate!

Relationship management and research

Prospect and referral research

15 MINUTE BREAK

WHERE DO I START?

1. What do you want to achieve?New business? Referrals? Thought leadership?

2. Who are you going after?Identify target audiences and markets

What conversations are happening in areas you’re interested in? Where can you add value?

• Google search

• LinkedIn groups

• LinkedIn answers

• Google blog search: http://www.google.com/blogsearch

• Twitter search

• Google alerts: http://www.google.com/alerts

WHERE DO I START?

3. Listen

Document your strategy

Could be a single page or a matrix

• Goals

• Audiences

• Identify what networks for what audiences and goals

WHERE DO I START?

Now what?

Example: LinkedIn

Fifteen minutes three times a week Minutes 1–5: Update your status

Minutes 6–10: Comment on network updates

Minutes 11–15: One of these activities: connect, ask/answer questions, targeted research

WHERE DO I START?

How would you use social media?

What business goals could it help you with?

What target audiences could it help you reach?

What social tactics could you use?

WHERE DO I START?

HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

Should you have a social media policy?

69% of companies in the Americas don’t have a social media policy.

Source: Manpower, “Social Networks vs Management? Harness the Power of Social Media,” January 26, 2010

What are you worried about?

PRODUCTIVITY78% of US at-work Internet users spent less than a half hour a day on social networking sites while at work

Source: WorkPlace Media, May 2009

REPUTATION MANAGEMENTJust 8% of companies in the Americas said their reputation had been hurt by employee use of social networks

Source: Manpower, “Social Networks vs Management? Harness the Power of Social Media,” January 26, 2010

What is a social media policy?

• Think communications guidelines, not just social media

• Permission-based not restrictive-based

• Empower your employees to be brand ambassadors

• Supports a sound strategy

Tenets of a sound social media policy

• Offer value

• Respect confidentiality

• Honor privacy

• Provide disclaimers

• Use common sense

Don’t share confidential information

• Ask permission before you write about any work-related information—you never know what might be confidential or proprietary

• Don’t comment on your company’s business performance

• Mind copyright and fair use laws

Respect others’ privacy

• Don’t mention specific colleagues, clients, vendors or partners without their approval

• General descriptions of an engagement or project are ok but don’t include specific identifying details

• Mind your own privacy

Speak only for yourself

• Identify yourself and your role at the company if you are discussing anything company-related

• Write in the first person, use your own voice if you’re discussing your personal opinions

• If you write about the company make it clear the views are your own

• Be mindful of how you’re presenting yourself online

Share your expertise

• Show your passion

• Help others succeed

• Help colleagues, clients, prospects, partners increase performance and solve business challenges

• Expand understanding of important topics

• Promote important industry events

Be nice and play fair

• Respect the views and values of others: Nothing inflammatory, no obscene language, no ethnic or sexual slurs.

• Don’t pick fights

• Own up to your mistakes

• Use good judgment and accept responsibility

• Work always comes first

• Training is crucial to making people feel invested in your social media campaign and ultimately its success

• Explain the thinking behind your strategy and how your policy supports it

• Do you need staff to sign your policy?

Gain Buy-In

Policy examples

IBM Social Computing Guidelineshttp://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html

Coca Cola Online Social Media Principleshttp://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/socialmedia/

MACPA Social Media Policyhttp://www.macpa.org/Content/25247.aspx

HOW TO MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA

Know where you are now

• Awareness

• Thought leadership position

• Number of job inquiries each month

• New business closed each month

How many know this information?

Measuring social media is tricky

How do you connect a sale to social media?

• Multiple metrics• Can use Google Analytics to track to a social site but not to a specific one of your posts:

http://www.google.com/analytics/• Tracking codes• Manual information gathering

Let’s keep it as simple as possible

New business

Ask clients how they heard about you

Make that question part of initial client intake

• Add it to your online contact form

• Phone

• Email

Awareness

• Google Adwords Keyword tool: monthly search volume

• Google analytics: unique visitors

• Number of fans, followers

• Number of subscribers

• Traffic from social sites

Thought leadership position

• Comments on your blog

• Website downloads

• LinkedIn questions answered

• Twitter retweets

• Number of fans, followers

• Number of subscribers

Recruiting

• # of fans

• Facebook comments

• # of inquiries from Facebook

• Traffic to your careers page from Facebook

QR CODES

QR codes

Bridge offline and online with quick mobile consumption

• Provide more information

• Drive to online content: website, social network, video, etc.

• Enable direct calls, emails

• Download an MP3

• Access to coupons or free giveaways

QR CODES

Is it audience appropriate?

QR CODES

Is it audience appropriate?

QR CODES

QR codes

MicrosoftTag

QR CODES

The importance of marketing

Crucial to educate your audience

• Describe the technology and how it works

• Explain what apps they need and how to download

• Promote the timing and details of a campaign

• Prize should be significant enough to drive participation

QR CODES

To sum up

• Social media is about building relationships: sharing something of value and engaging others

• These networks are important because of their influence on buying decisions

• Select networks to participate in based on your goals and the audiences you’re trying to reach

• If you use nothing else, use LinkedIn

• For thought leadership, use blogs and twitter

• Facebook is best for recruiting

• Measure your efforts if you can

• Be smart online

Questions?

Contact Me:

Leigh George, PhD, Senior Digital Marketing Strategist

lgeorge@r2integrated.com

410.327.0007 x 1211

http://www.linkedin.com/in/leighgeorge

@leighgeorge

Image Credits:Megaphone: seedmagazine.comSocial media woman: butterflypublisher.com/Guinness Book of World Records logo : britwriters.co.ukCharlie Sheen: mashable.comFoodtruck: stuffnearames.pbworks.com

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