Why Facebook is so Powerful for Winning Clients

In my next blog post, I’m going to share with you 5 ways to use Facebook to win more clients. But first, let’s talk about why Facebook is such a powerful platform in the first place. After all, we’re accountants and bookkeepers, why should we be using social media to promote ourselves?

One thing I’ve learnt over the years is that social media is incredibly powerful from a marketing point of view, so it’s important we get to grips with it to truly take advantage of this opportunity to win new clients.

“Networking on Steroids…”

When I ran my accounting firm back in the 1990s, there was no social media. I wish I’d had that opportunity available to me when I was growing my accounting firm because one of the ways I grew my firm was through networking.

I hated networking! I’m an introvert and I found it really uncomfortable meeting strangers and talking to people. But that was what you had to do back then to grow an accounting firm; you had to get out there and meet people.

When I sold my firm in 2006, I started seeing the birth of social media channels. Like most accountants, the first one I jumped on was LinkedIn because it was seen to be the channel that was more for professionals. I started really giving LinkedIn a go, and over the years I’ve grown to around 7,500 connections who are all accountants – my target audience and people I like to connect with.

For me, social media is networking on steroids. In-person I could meet with a dozen people a week at a physical event. With social media, we can network with tens, hundreds, even thousands of people at a time.

“Where do my ideal clients hang out online?”

Over time though, I’ve started to realise that Facebook is actually far more powerful than LinkedIn. In fact, I would suggest Facebook is one of, if not the most powerful social media platform for us accounting and bookkeeping professionals.

LinkedIn is more where professionals themselves hang out. But with Facebook, I get more engagement with business owners and potential clients.

You have to ask yourself, “Where do my ideal clients hang out online?” Business owners are people, and there are so many more people on Facebook than on LinkedIn. Facebook is the biggest social media channel – it’s where people are. You need to be on Facebook.

What about the risks?

But what about things like data leaks and personal privacy? I know that sometimes people can be very reserved and have all sorts of reasons for not wanting to use social media, and we hear stories about the ways things can go wrong.

The way I see it is that wherever you go there’s going to be security leaks and privacy issues. But I try to always look at the upside. Social media channels, and Facebook in particular, are amazing opportunities to connect one-to-many with potential clients, get your name and brand out there, and create a vibrant community of like-minded individuals. Plus, it’s not going anywhere any time soon. To me, that’s all worth the risk, especially seeing as we face risks in business in so many different ways every single day.

Why is social media so powerful?

Social media is such a powerful tool for so many reasons:

With social media channels, we can network one-to-many without ever having to leave the house. We can find spaces where our ideal clients are hanging out online, where they’re discussing topics that we can help them with and display our expertise. We can get our personality, our name, and our brand out there. We can start to build trusting relationships with potential clients who can get to know us and how we can help them.

Yes, there are risks involved. But chances are you're already using social media channels anyway and taking on those risks in your personal life. And there are risks involved in every aspect of life. It’s something we have to weigh up the pros and cons of, and to me, the pros far outweigh the cons.

Now we know why Facebook is such a powerful tool for networking, in my next blog post I’ll be covering 5 ways to use Facebook to win new clients.

Click here to watch the full video on this topic.

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Wishing you every success on your pricing journey

Mark Wickersham

Chartered Accountant, Public Speaker and Author of Amazon No.1 Best Seller “Effective Pricing for Accountants”