How should accountants do social media marketing? Platforms, a plan and the rules

The short answer

Social media marketing for accountants comes down to four decisions. Pick one or two platforms your clients already use. Post two or three useful things a week on fixed days. Keep every claim true and provable, because the advertising code and your professional body's code both apply to posts. Judge the result by enquiries over a quarter, and ignore the like counts.

The usual ways to fail are starting on too many platforms, posting mostly about the firm, and stopping in busy season. The sections below take each decision in turn: where to post, how to set up, what a workable week looks like, what the rules say, and what to count.

Social media is one way of winning work among several. For the others, see our guide to how accountants get clients.

What social media does for a firm

Social media does three jobs for an accounting firm, and none of them is a quick sale. People choose an accountant rarely and carefully, so a post almost never wins a client on the day it goes out. What it does is make the later decision easier.

• It keeps the firm remembered. Clients, referrers and local business owners see your name each week. When they need an accountant, or a friend asks them for one, yours is the firm that comes to mind.
• It backs up a recommendation. Someone who has been given your name will look you up before they call. A page with recent, sensible posts tells them the firm is active and knows its subject. A page that went quiet two years ago tells them the opposite.
• It shows who the people are.A prospect is choosing a person to trust with their finances. Posts in a partner's own words do more to show what the firm is like than any "about us" page.

This is why a small following is not a problem. A firm with three hundred followers who are local business owners, clients and referrers has the right audience already.

Which platforms to use

Use the platform your clients already use, and start with one. Running one page well beats running four badly, and an abandoned page is worse than no page. The right choice depends on who the firm serves.

• LinkedIn: firms with business clients.Company directors, finance managers and other professionals use LinkedIn for work, and they can see each partner's name, role and history. If most of your fees come from limited companies, start here. Our LinkedIn playbook for accountants covers profiles, the firm page and the kind of post that works.
• Facebook: local and personal clients. Sole traders, landlords, tradespeople and personal tax clients are more likely to follow a local business on Facebook, and local community groups are where people ask each other for recommendations. A firm that serves a town or a district should have an active Facebook page.
• Instagram: only if you can supply pictures. Every Instagram post needs an image, so it suits firms that are willing to show their people and their office, and firms whose clients work in visual trades such as hospitality, beauty or the creative industries. It is a good second platform and a hard first one.
• Video platforms: optional. Short videos on YouTube or TikTok can reach people that written posts do not, but they take longer to make and need someone who is comfortable on camera. Leave them until the written posts are a habit.

Your Google Business Profile is not a social network, but it is often the first thing a local prospect sees. Our guide to SEO for accountants explains how to complete it.

Set up the pages before you post

Finish the page before you publish the first post, because a visitor decides in a few seconds whether the firm looks real. Setting up takes about an hour for each platform.

• Use the firm's exact name and logo. They should match your website and your letterhead, so that someone searching for the firm finds the right page.
• Say who you help in the first line."Accountants for contractors and small limited companies in Leeds" tells a visitor more than "a forward-thinking practice".
• Describe the firm accurately.Use only the titles and descriptions you are entitled to. AAT's guidance, for example, warns against calling a business "accountancy" when the member is only qualified and regulated to provide bookkeeping, and against "chartered" or "audit" where the firm is neither.
• Give a way to get in touch. Add the website, phone number and an email address that someone reads every day.
• Ask the team to connect. On LinkedIn, each partner and member of staff should list the firm as their employer. That links their profiles to the firm page.

A posting plan a small firm can keep

Post two or three times a week, on fixed days, and plan a month at a time. The pace matters less than keeping to it. A plan built for a quiet week in July will fail in January, so set it at a level the firm can hold in its busiest month.

• Give each day a job.For example: Tuesday explains something clients ask about, Thursday covers a date coming up, and one post a fortnight is about the firm and its people. Fixed jobs mean nobody has to decide what today's post is for.
• Plan around the tax year. The dates are known a year ahead: Self Assessment, payments on account, VAT quarters, the end of the tax year, the Budget. Put them in a calendar first and fill the gaps afterwards.
• Write in one sitting. Set aside two hours once a month, write all the posts, and schedule them. Writing a post on the morning it is due is how plans fail.
• Adapt each post to each platform. The same topic can go on LinkedIn and Facebook, but change the wording. A LinkedIn post can speak to directors. The Facebook version should speak to the sole trader or the household.
• Leave room for news. When a Budget or an HMRC announcement affects your clients, post about it that week and move a planned post back.

Two of our other guides go further on the content itself. For the week-by-week pattern, read what a small accountancy firm should post on LinkedIn each week. If you run short of topics, there is a bank of prompts in our social media post ideas for accountants.

An example post

A good post from an accountant covers one point, says who it is for, and tells the reader what to do next. This one could go out in early December.

It names one date, speaks to a named kind of reader, gives one task and makes one modest offer. It makes no claim about the firm that would need proving, and it mentions no client.

Decide who writes and who approves

Name one person who writes the posts and one partner who approves them, and do not let anything go out without that approval. The firm is responsible for everything published in its name, whoever wrote it.

• The writer can be a partner, a practice manager, a junior member of staff, an agency or a tool. What matters is that they know what clients ask about.
• The approver should be someone who would spot a wrong date, a tax point that is out of date, or a claim the firm could not prove. In most small firms that is a partner.
• Approve in a batch. Reading a month of posts in one go takes less time than approving them one at a time, and it shows up repetition.

Outsourcing does not move the responsibility. ICAEW's marketing helpsheet says firms are entitled to outsource their marketing work to agencies and specialists, but remain responsible for any marketing or publicity carried out on their behalf.

The rules: ASA, ICAEW, ACCA and AAT

A firm's social media posts are covered by two sets of rules: the UK advertising code that applies to every business, and the code of ethics of your professional body. Both allow you to promote the firm. Both say the same thing about how: be truthful, be able to prove what you claim, and say nothing against other firms.

• The advertising code applies to posts. The Advertising Standards Authority says its remit coversa company's own social media content where it is directly connected to its products or services. The CAP Code section on misleading advertisingsays marketing must not materially mislead (rule 3.1), and that you must hold documentary evidence for claims people are likely to regard as objective (rule 3.7). So "the largest independent firm in Kent" needs evidence on file before it is posted.
• ICAEW. The marketing helpsheet says advertising material should be legal, decent, honest, truthful and clear, and that under paragraph R115.2 of the Code of Ethics firms must not bring the profession into disrepute. Firms must not make exaggerated claims for the services they offer, the qualifications they hold or the experience they have gained, and must not say anything that disparages or discredits the practice or services of others. The helpsheet has no separate section on social media. It applies to promotional material in general, and a post that promotes the firm is promotional material.
• ACCA. Section B13 of the supplementary requirements to the ACCA Code of Ethics and Conduct says a member in public practice may inform the public of their services by advertising or other forms of promotion. Promotional material must not be misleading, either directly or by implication, and must not discredit the services offered by others, whether by claiming superiority or otherwise. It may contain any factual statement the member is able to justify.
• AAT. AAT's guidance on marketing and promoting your business says members shall be honest and truthful in marketing and promoting themselves and their work. It says they may bring the profession into disrepute if they make exaggerated claims about their services, professional status, qualifications or experience.

Three kinds of post cause most of the trouble on social media, because they are quick to write and feel harmless.

• Comparisons with other firms.ICAEW's own example is that "we provide a better service than X firm in Manchester" is not acceptable even if it is true, while "we pride ourselves on the service we provide" is fine. A post or a comment that mocks another firm's mistake breaks the same rule.
• Client stories and testimonials. ICAEW says a testimonial may be used if the client has consented, and that without consent it would be inappropriate because the relationship is confidential. The CAP Code says you must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial is genuine (rule 3.47). Get consent in writing before you post a quote, a photograph or a story a client could be recognised from.
• Promises about results."We will cut your tax bill" is a claim about an outcome you cannot guarantee. "We check every allowance you are entitled to" describes what the firm does, and you can show that it is true.

This is a summary of published guidance, not a ruling on your own posts. If you belong to ICB or another body, check its code as well, and if a claim is in doubt, ask your professional body before it goes out.

Reply to comments and messages

Reply to every genuine comment and message within one working day. A reply is seen by everyone who reads the post, so it shows how the firm treats people. A question left unanswered for a week shows that as well.

• Answer general questions in public. If someone asks when a deadline falls or who a rule applies to, answer in the comments. Other readers have the same question.
• Move personal questions to a private conversation.Do not give advice on someone's own tax position in a comment thread. Thank them, and ask them to call or message the firm.
• Never discuss a client's affairs in public. That holds even when the client raises the matter themselves in a comment. Reply that you will contact them directly.
• Stay calm with complaints. Acknowledge the comment, give a name and a direct contact, and deal with it offline. Do not argue the case in front of an audience.

What to measure

Measure enquiries, and treat everything else as a rough signal. Likes and follower counts are easy to see and say little about new work. Look at these four things once a month, and judge the whole effort once a quarter.

• How new clients found you.Ask every enquirer and write the answer down. "I have been seeing your posts" and "I looked you up after a friend mentioned you" both count.
• Messages and calls that follow a post. Note which post prompted them. After three months you will see which topics bring conversations.
• Visits to your website from each platform.Your website's analytics will show how many visitors arrived from LinkedIn or Facebook, and which pages they read.
• Who is following, not how many. Ten new followers who are local business owners are worth more than a hundred who are other accountants.

Give it a fair run before you judge. One quiet month means nothing. If two full quarters of steady posting have produced no enquiries and no mentions from new clients, change the platform or the topics rather than posting more of the same.

Six social media tips for accountants

• Write for clients, not for other accountants. Technical posts win praise from the profession and are ignored by the people who pay fees. Use the words your clients use.
• Make one point per post. A post that covers three tax changes is read by nobody. Three short posts are read by more people.
• Put the useful part first. Most readers see only the opening lines before deciding whether to read on. Start with the date or the answer.
• Let partners post as themselves.People follow people. A partner sharing the firm's post with a sentence of their own reaches readers the firm page does not.
• Keep firm news to a small share. An award or a new hire is worth a post. A page that is mostly about the firm gives clients no reason to follow it.
• Do not stop in January. Busy season is when clients are thinking about tax. Write those posts in the autumn and schedule them.

Paid adverts on the same platforms are a separate decision with their own costs. Our guide to how to advertise accounting services covers them.

How much time it takes, and when to get help

Plan for two to three hours a month to write and approve the posts, plus a few minutes each day to reply to comments. That is for one platform at two or three posts a week. A second platform adds less than you would expect if you adapt the same topics.

The writing is the part firms drop first, and there are three ways to hand it over. A member of staff can do it if they have the time and know the clients. An agency or a freelancer will do it for a monthly fee. A tool will draft the posts for a partner to check. Our guide to how much a firm should spend on social media management compares the options. Whichever you choose, the partner's approval stays.

Pillr is the tool built for accountancy firms. It reads your website, drafts a month of posts in your firm's voice, and schedules them to LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram once a partner has approved each one. The plan, the fixed days and the approval step described above are how it works by default.

Paste your firm's URL on the home page to see the posts Pillr drafts from your own website, or look at plans and pricing first.

Questions accountants ask