How Tax and Accounting Firms Can Use Twitter for Marketing

Twitter is a unique social media and networking site. It’s great for businesses because as you gain followers, you can grow your brand and reach more people. The more people you reach, the broader your network is and the more leads you generate.

Many people enjoy Twitter because it’s easy to follow — allowing you to scroll through a feed on your phone or computer. The content is easily digestible (meaning all messages are short and succinct) and you can follow accounts and subjects that are relevant to you and your business.

Don’t have an account just yet? Get started on Twitter and join the conversations!

Twitter 101: what it’s all about

When you get started on Twitter, you create a minimalistic profile about yourself (or your business). Once your profile is created, you connect with other Twitter users. You even get suggestions for followers once you join. Plus, you can tweet as much or as little as you want!

But what is a tweet? A tweet specifically describes a message on Twitter. Tweets go into a feed for your followers (and others) to see. Your message can only be 140 characters. Some accounts allow up to 280, but it depends on the account.

Twitter is a great site to be viewed as an authoritative figure — especially if you follow other tax and accounting accounts and also interact with them. On average, Twitter has 330 million active users. More than 500 million tweets are posted per day. Overall, more than 1.25 billion Twitter accounts have been created since its inception in 2006.

More than 500 million tweets are posted per day. Overall, more than 1.25 billion Twitter accounts have been created since its inception in 2006.

Building your brand on Twitter

Twitter is probably the best social networking site to build your brand and establish brand consistency. Remember: your brand is your voice. The more you tweet, the more followers you can gain and the more authority you can establish with the right audience. Establishing authority with the right audience is what will help you bring in more leads. And with Twitter, gaining authority on trending topics is absolutely free.

In order to effectively build your brand, you’ll want to:

* Create engaging content: Tweet about timely subjects, ask questions and reply to comments.

* Interact with other authoritative users on Twitter: It’s all about the conversation on Twitter. The more active you are, the more visibility you get.

* Stay ahead of the competition: Know who your competitors are following and try to stay one step ahead with how and when you interact with others.

* Add an RSS feed to your website: Let people get to your website and see your tweets right on the homepage.

Remember that not all tweets will get high engagement. The beauty with Twitter is that as you start talking about trending topics, you can engage with a broader audience and continue tweeting about new subjects. The key is to keep the conversations moving.

Using hashtags on Twitter

Ideas, thoughts, and messages trend on Twitter because of groupings called hashtags. A hashtag is the pound sign (#) and it’s used to group ideas about a specific subject together so people can get info relating to the idea.

For example, someone talking about 2018 tax returns might use a hashtag like #2018taxreturns or #indiviualtaxreturns2018. That way, anyone looking for info or talking about the same thing can do research and get answers.

Benefits of hashtags in tweets include:

* Brand awareness for your tax and accounting business

* Free marketing (it doesn’t cost anything to use a trending hashtag!)

* Gaining followers through trending topics

* Seeing hashtag or @ mentions of your business

Pro tip: do not use too many hashtags in a tweet. It’s a common misconception that you need to use 10+ hashtags to get seen. Use two or three hashtags that are relevant. That’s all you need!

Use cloud-based marketing tools like Mostad Marketing Cloud to help your business on Twitter.

Did you know that Mostad Marketing Cloud is exclusively designed for tax and accounting firms nationwide? And that it can help you automate messages so that your twitter feed keeps moving? The first step is to schedule a personalized demonstration. Happy tweeting!

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Megan Lamke is a writer for Tenenz Mostad.