An introduction to how C

1. CPAs and Social Media
Dawn Westerberg
Dawn Westerberg Consulting LLC

3. Social Media
• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Tools
• Resources
Profiles on each give rich link back
to your website, increase online
Footprint.

4. Today’s Agenda
• Epic changes of past few years
• What’s the benefit/application of social
media for CPAs
• Some tips for each medium
• Q&A

5. Marketing Reality
• Technology wreaking a path of extinction
– Yellow Pages
– Bookstores
– Newspaper circulation
– Blockbuster
• Outbound, interruption-based marketing thwarted
– CAN-SPAM
– Netflix
– TiVo/DVR
– Satellite Radio
– eMail Filters
• Buyer behavior has changed radically
– Where are they hanging out?

6. Shocking Truth
• 126 million voted
• 200+ million on the
‘Do Not Call’ registry
• 2000 marketing
messages/day
• 90% of email never
opened

7. Compare
• 129,391,711 voted in last
election
• 200,000,000+ Americans
on FTC “Do Not Call”
registry
• Outright rejection of our
outbound marketing
• So what influences their
buying?

8. They prefer to search

9. They prefer to get advice,
references from communities

10. 10% of website traffic

11. How do they compare?
• 500,000,000
Facebook
• 106,000,000 Twitter
• 101,000,000 LinkedIn
• 90,000,000 Google+
and growing
– “More than Twitter,
less than a blog”
– Huge Local Play
– Immediate indexing
– More targeted

12. How can Social Media help me
in my CPA firm?
• Follow Key Contacts
– Clients, Prospective clients
– Network contacts
– IRS, AICPA, Association
– Publications
• Visit their websites to see which Social
Media platforms they participate in
• Let them know you’re there too

13. How can Social Media help me
in my CPA firm?
• Communicate with key audiences
• Do
– Share facts
– Deadline alerts
– Use Common Sense
• Don’t
– Share private information
– Vent

14. How can Social Media help me?
• Help your clients organize and prepare
better
• Stay top of mind
• Better search engine rankings
• Maybe even bring in a new client

15. Build a Following
• Most websites include buttons for
following on Social Networks
• Each Social Network has a search
capability
• Include Social Media buttons on your
website, brochures

16. Plan weekly updates
• Share facts, deadlines, Federal Holidays
– IRS never contacts you via email (scam)
• Share online articles that you find
informative
• Share tips to be better organized
• Share links to forms
– W-9

17. Behavior on Social Media same
as at a Networking event
• Interact –but understand the etiquette of
the platform.
– OK to be quiet at first
– See how people use the platform
• e.g. Facebook for family, friends, fun
• e.g. LinkedIn means business
• Realize the restrictions of the media
• Realize the power of the media

18. Fears about Social Media
• Controversy
• Incompetence
• Criticism
• Confidentiality

19. What Social Media Is
• Where people are choosing to get their
information
• A new way for you to reach new
prospective customers
• Like a phone, like email, like a networking
event
– Benign unless you light the match

20. Strategy before Tactics
• What to say
• How it fits in overall
firm strategy
• Monitor
• Social Media to
amplify and
accelerate other
communications

21. Online House – The Hub

22. Connections &
Connections of Your Connections

23. Social Media as a means to
Amplify and Accelerate

24. Case Study
•Huckstep & Associates
•Springfield, MO
•Uses Twitter to amplify
traditional marketing
•Hub blog/website
•Typical deployment of
firm with no marketing
team on staff

28. Tools - Hootsuite
Use columns to:
-Follow lists
-Add your LinkedIn and Facebook
feeds
-Monitor mentions

29. Tools - HootSuite
*Use AutoSchedule
to send out your
Tweets and updates
so that you can
spend time online
responding and
interacting.

30. So how would you get started?
• Focus on audiences
important to you
– Clients
– Prospects
– Editors
• OK to “be quiet” on
social media while
learning the lay of the
land

31. What should you say?
• What types of
information are you
comfortable sharing?
• What type of
information would be
of value to your
prospective client?

32. LinkedIn Create a Company Page
• Opportunity to gain
online presence
• Showcase services
• Think about your key
words, differentiation,
specialties

33. Use the Update Section
• Links to useful IRS
forms
• Announce new hires,
promotions
• Highlight community
involvement
• Deadline reminders

34. Research Prospective Clients

35. Google+
• Updates
• Photo share
• Video share
• Differentiator
– Real time interaction
• Hang outs
• Chat
– Future Integration with
Google Apps

36. Google+
• Can’t ignore the
power of Google
Search
• Powerful profile
• Circles

37. Google+ Profile provides nifty
list of all social media accounts

38. Google+ Circles

39. Facebook – 3 Quick Tips
• Profile so important
– Personal page
– Company page
• Update
• Interact

40. Twitter – 3 Quick Tips
• Profile
• Updates – More
frequent updates
acceptable on Twitter
• Hashtags
– #Audit
– #Taxes
– #SmallBiz

41. Google+ - 3 Quick Tips
• More than Twitter,
less than a blog
• Profile
• Instant indexing on
search engine

42. Resources
• FREE eBook “7 Essential Stages of a
Total Online Presence” by John
Jantsch:
http://dawnwesterberg.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/topebook-westerberg.pdf
• Social Media Strategies for
Professionals and Their Firms, Michelle
Golden, Wiley Publications
• What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of
Us, Guy Kawasaki
• Google+ for Business, Chris Brogan

43. Q&A
• Your questions
• Please ask
• Dawn Westerberg
• dawn@dawnwesterberg.com
• www.dawnwesterberg.com