Do accountants need social media? Not for leads, but as proof you are open

The short answer

No, most accountants do not need social media to win clients. Yes, most need a small, current presence as proof that the firm exists and is open for business. Those are two different jobs, and the sceptics are right about the first one.

Very few people hire an accountant because of a post. They hire one because a friend, a banker, a solicitor or another client recommended them. But before they pick up the phone, most of them look the firm up. What they find decides whether the recommendation holds. A tidy LinkedIn page with a post from last week says "real firm, still busy". A page that went quiet in 2023 raises a question you never get to answer.

So the honest frame is this. Treat social media as cheap proof, not as a sales channel. That needs far less time than the marketing advice aimed at accountants usually suggests.

What social media really does for an accountant

For a typical practice, social media does one reliable job and two occasional ones. Know which you are paying for in time before you decide how much to do.

• The reliable job: the credibility check.A prospect who has been referred to you searches the firm's name, then clicks the LinkedIn page or a partner's profile. They want to know that you exist, who you are, what kind of clients you work with, and that you are still active. A few recent posts answer all four.
• Occasional job one: staying remembered. Regular posts keep your name in front of referrers and past contacts, so you are the firm they think of when someone asks. This works, but only at a steady pace over months.
• Occasional job two: direct enquiries. Now and then a post leads straight to a message. It happens, but it is the exception, and it is not a good reason on its own to start posting.

If the second and third jobs are what you want, our guide to how to get clients as an accountant shows where social media fits alongside referrals, Google and partnerships. The rest of this article is about the first job, because it is the one almost every firm needs.

The minimum presence worth keeping

The minimum presence is three things: a LinkedIn company page, a claimed Google Business Profile, and enough recent posts that nothing looks abandoned. Set-up takes an afternoon. Keeping it going takes less than an hour a month.

1. A LinkedIn company page that matches your website

Use the firm's exact name and logo, a one-paragraph description of who you work with, your town or region, and a link to your website. Make sure each partner's own LinkedIn profile names the firm and their current role, because prospects often look up the person before the firm. Our guide to LinkedIn for accountants covers firm pages and partner profiles in more depth if you later want to do more.

2. A claimed Google Business Profile

This is not social media in the usual sense, but it is the first thing many people see when they search your firm's name, and it shows your reviews. Google's help page on adding or claiming a Business Profile says you can add or claim your business at no charge, and that once you have, you control how your business information shows up on Google. You will need to verify the business first. Check that the name, address, phone number, opening hours and website are all correct.

3. Enough recent posts that nothing looks dead

There is no official number. As a rule of thumb, one or two posts a month on the LinkedIn page means anyone who checks finds something recent. The posts do not need to be clever. A useful reminder, a short note on a change that affects your clients, or a welcome to a new member of staff all show a working firm. Here is the kind of post that does the job.

It says who the firm is for, where it works and how to get in touch, in four lines. It makes no claim the firm could not back up, and it will still be true in six months. Swap in your own clients and area, and make sure any number you use is accurate.

Who can genuinely skip it

Some accountants can skip social media altogether and lose very little. You are probably one of them if most of these are true.

• Your books are full and you are not trying to grow. If you are turning work away, extra visibility mostly brings enquiries you will decline.
• New clients come through one trusted route. For example, a single solicitor or a business group that has sent you work for years, and whose introductions already carry the trust a LinkedIn page would add.
• You are not hiring.Job candidates check a firm's pages as closely as clients do. If you are not recruiting, that pressure goes away.
• Your website and Google profile already do the job. A prospect who searches your name finds a clear site, correct details and recent reviews.

If that is you, the sensible choice is a deliberate "no", not a half-hearted "maybe later". A page you never post on is the worst of both: it costs you nothing to keep, but it can quietly make you look closed.

Who should not skip it

Social media earns its small cost for firms that need people who do not know them yet to trust them quickly.

• New practices.With few clients and no reviews yet, the LinkedIn page and the partner's profile are much of the evidence a prospect has.
• Firms moving into a niche. If you want to be known for landlords, dentists or e-commerce sellers, a steady run of posts on that niche is how people start to connect you with it.
• Firms that are hiring. Candidates look at how a firm presents itself before they apply.
• Firms whose clients are business owners. Directors use LinkedIn for work, so that is where they will check you.

If you skip it, do this instead

If you decide against social media, put the saved time into the other places a referred prospect checks. These matter more than posts anyway.

• Tidy up or retire old pages. If there is a firm page you will never post on, either delete it or make sure its details are correct and point it to your website. Do not leave a page that looks like the firm stopped trading.
• Build up your Google reviews. Reviews are the proof most prospects actually read. Our guide to getting more Google reviews as an accountant explains when and how to ask, and what Google does not allow.
• Get the website basics right. Say who you work with, what you do, roughly what it costs or how you price, and how to get in touch, all on the first screen people see. Our guide to websites for accountants walks through what a practice site needs.
• Keep partner profiles current.Even with no posts, a partner's LinkedIn profile that names the firm and their role answers the question "who will I be dealing with?".

Whatever you put online, the same rules apply. ICAEW's marketing helpsheet, updated for the code of ethics in force from 1 July 2025, sets the basic rule that advertising material should be legal, decent, honest, truthful and clear. ACCA, AAT and ICB members should check their own body's guidance too.

Keeping the minimum alive in a busy firm

The minimum fails for one reason: nobody has time to write the posts, so they stop in January and never restart. Fix that by making the job as small and as regular as possible.

• Pick one day a month.Put a 30-minute slot in the diary, outside the Self Assessment and year-end peaks if you can, and schedule the month's posts in one go.
• Give one person the job. A partner, the practice manager or a trusted member of staff. Shared jobs are the ones that stop.
• Write posts that do not date."Who we help" posts, staff introductions and plain-English explainers stay true for months, so you can schedule them well ahead.

If even that will not happen, hand over the drafting. This is the job Pillr is built for: it reads your firm's website, drafts posts in your firm's voice, and schedules each one once you have approved it, so a partner spends minutes a month checking drafts rather than writing from scratch. There is a free plan with 3 posts a month, and Basic at £20 a month for 8 posts published to LinkedIn, which is more than the minimum needs. All the plans are on the pricing page. To see what it would draft for your firm first, paste your website address on the home page.

This guide is general information, not advice on your own circumstances. Check your own professional body's guidance before you publish anything about your services.

Questions accountants ask about whether they need social media