This document provides an overview of why social media is important for accountancy firms and individuals within those firms. It discusses how social media allows for ongoing engagement and reputation building compared to traditional media. The document also outlines the top 10 benefits of social media, such as raising awareness, thought leadership, and lead generation. It stresses that social media requires a clear strategy with objectives, roles, content planning, and metrics to measure success.

1. 1
Why social
media is
important
Social Media Guide 1
for accountancy firms

2. 2
Your clients and prospects
have come to expect a
digital presence beyond a
website. Social media is an
increasingly common way
for information to be sought,
discovered and shared.
Not convinced?
• 9 out of 10 buyers say when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you
• 59% of B2B buyers engage with their peers before making a decision
• 48% follow industry conversations
• 41% read content from thought leaders
Source: DemandGen Report
Social vs. traditional media
Traditional media coverage requires a “story”. Something newsworthy has
to happen: A firm has to have an announcement or be recognised as an
authority on a topic, industry or market sector.
Exposure through social media is different because the conversation
is ongoing and evolving. There will be spikes surrounding events like
conferences and wins but there will also be opportunities to raise
awareness and maintain a high profile.
Social Media Guide 1
Why social media is important for your firm

3. 3
Public relations and traditional media tend to be campaign-led, with bursts
of activity. Social media is about building a reputation and a voice, then
sustaining momentum, every single day.
Owned vs. earned media
Social media gives you an opportunity to ‘earn’ media. Owned media
is the media you control: your website, your blog, your social channels.
Media is earned when others share your content through their channels
and networks. This means the bigger your network, the bigger and more
effective your reach.
Media and SEO
Both social and traditional media are important for SEO, because search
engines are looking to serve the most relevant content from sources of
authority. Both traditional and social media are continually influencing
SEO and can positively and negatively impact on these search results.
Social Media Guide 1
Why social media is important for your firm

4. 4
Every individual within a firm should be striving to achieve the objectives
of the business. Everyone within the firm is a representative and influencer
for the firm, its reputation, and capabilities. The professional interests of
the people within your firm should be intrinsically linked with the interests
of your clients, prospects and your future hires.
An individual’s authenticity and tone of voice can’t be replicated by a
firm’s corporate voice. In social media, clients and prospects may prefer
to engage with an individual, such as a partner or department head.
The social relationships developed by individuals are important (or
more important) in developing business, as those managed through
organisational channels.
Allowing individuals to represent the firm has associated risk, but this can
be minimised by having a strategy and plan, underpinned by policies and
training. When this is in place, the benefits can be maximised and there
is the opportunity for your people and firm to build their reputations as
experts and influencers.
There is no more B2B or
B2C: It’s Human to Human.”
Bryan Kramer
Social Media Guide 1
Why social media is important for
the individuals in your firm

5. 5
How these apply to your firm will depend on your objectives but the most
common are:
1. Raising awareness of your firm and its people
2. Positioning of your firm, its reputation and capabilities
3. Growing your firm’s network of prospects and influencers
4. Demonstrating your thought leadership and opinion
5. Consideration from your prospects, validation for your clients
6. Enabling engagement with your clients and prospects
7. Encouraging earned media, to grow your firm’s network
8. The halo effect as a result of individuals working together with the firm
9. Gaining insight into your market, competitors and informs content plan
10. Promoting new business and lead generation campaigns
Social Media Guide 1
Top 10 social media benefits

6. 6
Social Media Guide 1
Our recommendations
Engage
Getting your audience to listen
and interact with you
Awareness
Getting your audience to notice
and understand who you are
Consideration
Your audience seeking in depth
information about you
Insight
Learning about your audience,
competitors, sector, industry
influence
Established as a ‘go to’
voice of your industry
Reach
Extending beyond your
core audience
Evidence
Demonstrating your knowledge
and capabilities
Lead
generation
Your opportunity to convert
Drive traffic
Directing your audience
beyond your social channels
Objectives
Educate
Understanding your audience and
providing what they need
To be successful in social
media, you need a social
media strategy with clear
objectives, direction, roles
and responsibilities
(See diagram).
This needs to be supported
with an action plan that
contributors can easily
understand and access.
In our experience, simply
adding social media as a
‘to do’ to an individual’s
task list is unlikely to have
measurable results; social
media must be integrated
into an overall marketing
and new business strategy.

7. 7
1. Objectives – critical to defining and measuring
success. Based on the firm’s strategy, what are your
social media priorities?
2. Resourcing – if it’s everyone’s job it will soon be no
one’s job. Roles and responsibilities for marketing,
partners, practice areas and other functions, need to
be defined and any skills gaps need to be identified.
It can be wise to consider some outsourcing, at
least in the short term
3. Buy in – your social media will only be effective if
the key stakeholders are on board
4. Risk – a social media policy should form part of
your strategy. It doesn’t have to be lengthy but
expect the best, plan for the worst
5. Content – You’ll need ongoing and varied content.
This will usually include a mix of evergreen
content, content that stays relevant and often is a
big driver of website traffic and topical / trending
content that is shorter lived but contributes to
positioning and reputation
6. Audience – should be clearly defined in your
strategy and must always come first. Think about
what they need and want to know, not what you
want to tell them
7. Budget – this will help you be realistic about what
can be achieved in what time period, it can also
help direct how ambitious your content plan and
formats are
8. Measuring success – how well is it working is the
question you’ll often be asked. It’s challenging but
not impossible to measure. When setting objectives,
it’s worth setting KPI’s and defining ways to monitor
and measure activity
Social Media Guide 1
Social Media Strategy –
8 key considerations:

8. 8
• Without a content strategy and plan, content creation is going to
be your biggest challenge and obstacle to success
• You can’t measure success without objectives
• The ROI of social media is hard to measure but the opportunity cost
of not doing social media is incalculable
• Your tone of voice can be adapted for social media but should still be
recognisable and consistent
• If you’re struggling to convince key stakeholders to adopt social media,
try a “test and learn” approach with a single practice or function. The
results can be used to persuade others of its value
Social Media Guide 1
Food for thought

9. 9
In Guide 1 we have explored:
• Why social media is important for your firm
• Why social media is important for the individuals within your firm
• Highlighted the top 10 benefits of social media
We have emphasised that to be successful in social media, your activity
should be underpinned by a social media strategy and have highlighted
8 key considerations for this, along with some ‘food for thought’.
If writing your social media strategy feels daunting, then look out for
Guide 2, which will be released in the next couple of weeks.
Guide 2 breaks down the steps required for getting your strategy in place,
beginning with a social media audit.
Social Media Guide 1
Summary

10. 10
Brand Remedy is an award-winning strategy and design consultancy,
built on a heritage of creating and evolving brands for leading
organisations. Today, we not only create brands, we help them grow.
We have developed a reputation for excellence through combining
smart thinking with creativity, energy and infectious enthusiasm.
We harness the power of insight, digital and content to achieve
commercial success for clients.
We have a track record creating and delivering brands, websites and
digital projects for professional services organisations and have been
recognised in the Design Week “Top 100” agencies for 2014 and 2015.
Social Media Guide 1
Who is Brand Remedy?

11. Brand Remedy
7 Blake Mews, Kew Gardens, Surrey, TW9 3GA
www.brandremedy.com
Social Media Indicator
We can provide a complimentary social media indicator
to evaluate your social media effectiveness.
Based on our sector experience, we evaluate you against
set criteria, meet with you to present our findings and
recommend quick wins and longer term opportunities
to leverage social media.
Social Media Guide 1
How we can help
If you want to know more about how social media can help
your organisation or get advice on how to get started, train
your team or improve your results, please contact:
Louise Barfield: louise@brandremedy.com
Michelle Roberts-Clarke: michelle@brandremedy.com
T: 020 8940 6050
Social Media Training
We can provide tailored social media training for your
business. From workshops, to 1-2-1 training programmes,
we’ll work with you to develop expertise at all levels.
We’ll give your people the confidence to use social media
to meet their business objectives.