What Social Media Marketing Is

The term social media marketing (SMM) refers to the use of social media and social networks to market a company’s products and services. Social media marketing is a social process, and as such requires some social participation. This article will cover social media marketing basics, and then we’ll give you some tools and tips that you can use to get started with social media marketing for your firm.

How to Do Social Media Marketing

You need to first define your social media marketing objectives and goals- what do you hope to achieve? For example: “drive more new leads to our website”, “increase awareness of our brand online” or “build brand loyalty with existing clients”.

It is important not only to set the right targets from the beginning but also to make sure that you have all the bases covered. This includes setting realistic expectations. You cannot expect social media fans/fans who are not even aware of your business content/service(s) to become social media leads/prospects overnight. For example, you would not post once about having a firm and expect to get a lot of leads from this single post. Generating leads from social media takes time, and it comes after you have put in the work.

Social Media Marketing Research

Once your social media marketing objectives & goals have been set, you need to research online groups where your target clients hang out online (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram), so that you can find their problems or needs and provide solutions through high-value content. You can also reach out to social influencers who already hold some sway among your target group via their account(s).

Start by creating a list of social networking accounts that you’re going to participate in. It’s important to be aware that each social platform is different from the others- Twitter for example operates differently from Facebook which operates differently from LinkedIn, etc. You’ll want to spend some time researching how to best use each platform and the types of strategy based on the platform(s) of your choosing. To learn more about LinkedIn, check out our article here. To learn more about Instagram we also have a great article here.

Once you have chosen your social media platform(s), you’ll need to create your profile(s), and then come up with a content strategy. To come up with a content strategy,  start by doing as much research as possible to find out what social media users want and expect from social platforms. This will help you optimize your social media content, and ultimately increase the number of social media followers that you have.

Paid versus Organic Social Media Marketing 

The difference between paid versus organic social media marketing is the level of social media marketing investment. 

Paid social media marketing is spending money to create social media posts and ads to promote a piece of content, whereas organic social is purely creating social posts and content within social networks for free. Organic social media marketing can also include sending direct messages and engaging in your community. 

Both paid and organic social media marketing can fit within a marketing strategy. Figuring out which one (or ones) is right for you depends upon your individual goals. That being said, organic will likely take longer but can lead to greater success in the long run. 

Social Media Marketing Tools

Remember that social media is a social process and once it starts becoming part of your daily (or at least weekly) activities, then it will become easier for you to post/reply/comment on social networking sites to build brand awareness, loyalty, and eventually generate more leads for your business. You can also use services like Sprout Social or Hootsuite (there are many others) which enable you to schedule posts across multiple social accounts- these tools can make your life much easier. If you need help creating a schedule for content, check out our article here. 

Consistency is extremely important when it comes to seeing success on social media. If social media is new to you, consider hiring a social media specialist to help with the grunt work of social networking. This will free up more of your time for other tasks such as serving clients/customers and getting new business. 

We hope this article has given you a good idea of what social media marketing is and how it can help your accounting firm! If you’re looking for help with your social media management, schedule a time to chat.