There's a lot of debate right now about the marketing value of
Twitter. On one side there are a host of number crunchers and most of
them seem to feel that the ROI of Twitter isn't high enough to justify
it's use.
On the other side are trendier marketers who scoff at trying to measure the ROI of tools like Twitter. You'll have to decide for yourself where you stand, but I stand firmly with the marketers who see value in social marketing.
So what is Twitter? And how does it effect your CPA or Accounting Practice?
Twitter is a social networking site that allows it's members to send short messages to their friends, or "followers". This is not like Email. When you send out a "Tweet" you don't designate a recipient. It automatically goes out to everyone and gets posted on your friends' Twitter home pages so they can see it next time they log in. Likewise each time you log in you'll be brought to your own home page where you can read all the tweets your friends have sent.
So what's the marketing value of Twitter? There are actually several, too many to cover them all here. But let's cover the basics.
Let's talk first about client retention.
The first good reason to use Twitter is simply that your many of your clients use it. They will appreciate you taking the time to join in their community and will like that you're expressing an interest in their lives by following them.
Twitter also gives you a great opportunity to keep your brand out in front of your clients. Your Tweets are a great tool for showing your clients that you're working hard for them, and while tweet deliveries are really not very personal, they do feel personal.
Likewise, by monitoring your clients tweets you can keep in touch with their lives, and when appropriate, contact them personally about important events in their lives that you otherwise might not be privy to. I'm not just talking about catching a client tweeting about accounting problems that you can help them or their friends with. That happens, but not very often. I'm talking about their lives. As an accountant you are often not privy to things like births, marriages, deaths, and graduations in time to send out appropriate congratulations or condolences. Twitter can change that. Nobody will argue that regular personal contact isn't great for client retention.
Lastly, all tweets are public. While they are sent to your followers they also appear on the Twitter homepage (at least for a few seconds) there are tools you can use that will allow you to monitor this flow of information and alert you if anyone sends out a tweet about, for example, you or your company. It's a great way to not only identify the clients that are providing positive referrals, but to catch gripes in time to address them.
By now you can see why I doubt the number-crunching Twitter naysayers. It's really not possible to measure the dollar value of client retention strategies like this. In their defense, there's also no way to prove definitively that they work either. And things become even more nebulous when you talk about client acquisition, but this is where I see Twitter has the chance to really shine.
How do you get new clients with Twitter? Again... there's a number of ways.
Twitter allows you to put links in your tweets. This can be used to drive traffic to your website, and if the information is valuable there's a good chance some of your friends will "ReTweet" it, meaning they will forward it to their friends. This works great if you have a blog, but even if you don't you could simply direct them to a free report on "How to Get Top Dollar for Your House" or something like that. If any of your friends knows someone that's selling a house there's a good chance they'll "ReTweet" it. When a message gets a ReTweet it doesn't just get forwarded to one person, in this example the fella that's selling his house, but to ALL the retweeter's Twitter friends. Tweets can, and often do, "go viral" and this will introduce your brand to a LOT of people.
The links in tweets also have some "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization) value. Without getting too bogged down in the technical details: they don't pass any "Page Rank" they do pass some small amount of "Domain Authority" and help the search engines find and index new pages.
Now I have made my living doing professional CPA Website Design for more than ten years, so what I'm about to say next may seem self defeating at first blush. It's not though, because I design my website with this marketing philosophy in mind: A good CPA website is designed to be a networking tool.
Why?
The smartest, savviest, most successful business owners don't, as a rule, pick their CPA's willy-nilly from Google searches or the Yellow Pages. The best prospects find their accountants by networking. They call you because someone they know and trust recommended you. In the same sense sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are a natural online evolution of traditional network marketing, and as such deserve serious respect as marketing tools.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Twitter---What-is-it-and-Can-it-Help-Me-Market-My-Accounting-Or-CPA-Practice?&id=4545517On the other side are trendier marketers who scoff at trying to measure the ROI of tools like Twitter. You'll have to decide for yourself where you stand, but I stand firmly with the marketers who see value in social marketing.
So what is Twitter? And how does it effect your CPA or Accounting Practice?
Twitter is a social networking site that allows it's members to send short messages to their friends, or "followers". This is not like Email. When you send out a "Tweet" you don't designate a recipient. It automatically goes out to everyone and gets posted on your friends' Twitter home pages so they can see it next time they log in. Likewise each time you log in you'll be brought to your own home page where you can read all the tweets your friends have sent.
So what's the marketing value of Twitter? There are actually several, too many to cover them all here. But let's cover the basics.
Let's talk first about client retention.
The first good reason to use Twitter is simply that your many of your clients use it. They will appreciate you taking the time to join in their community and will like that you're expressing an interest in their lives by following them.
Twitter also gives you a great opportunity to keep your brand out in front of your clients. Your Tweets are a great tool for showing your clients that you're working hard for them, and while tweet deliveries are really not very personal, they do feel personal.
Likewise, by monitoring your clients tweets you can keep in touch with their lives, and when appropriate, contact them personally about important events in their lives that you otherwise might not be privy to. I'm not just talking about catching a client tweeting about accounting problems that you can help them or their friends with. That happens, but not very often. I'm talking about their lives. As an accountant you are often not privy to things like births, marriages, deaths, and graduations in time to send out appropriate congratulations or condolences. Twitter can change that. Nobody will argue that regular personal contact isn't great for client retention.
Lastly, all tweets are public. While they are sent to your followers they also appear on the Twitter homepage (at least for a few seconds) there are tools you can use that will allow you to monitor this flow of information and alert you if anyone sends out a tweet about, for example, you or your company. It's a great way to not only identify the clients that are providing positive referrals, but to catch gripes in time to address them.
By now you can see why I doubt the number-crunching Twitter naysayers. It's really not possible to measure the dollar value of client retention strategies like this. In their defense, there's also no way to prove definitively that they work either. And things become even more nebulous when you talk about client acquisition, but this is where I see Twitter has the chance to really shine.
How do you get new clients with Twitter? Again... there's a number of ways.
Twitter allows you to put links in your tweets. This can be used to drive traffic to your website, and if the information is valuable there's a good chance some of your friends will "ReTweet" it, meaning they will forward it to their friends. This works great if you have a blog, but even if you don't you could simply direct them to a free report on "How to Get Top Dollar for Your House" or something like that. If any of your friends knows someone that's selling a house there's a good chance they'll "ReTweet" it. When a message gets a ReTweet it doesn't just get forwarded to one person, in this example the fella that's selling his house, but to ALL the retweeter's Twitter friends. Tweets can, and often do, "go viral" and this will introduce your brand to a LOT of people.
The links in tweets also have some "SEO" (Search Engine Optimization) value. Without getting too bogged down in the technical details: they don't pass any "Page Rank" they do pass some small amount of "Domain Authority" and help the search engines find and index new pages.
Now I have made my living doing professional CPA Website Design for more than ten years, so what I'm about to say next may seem self defeating at first blush. It's not though, because I design my website with this marketing philosophy in mind: A good CPA website is designed to be a networking tool.
Why?
The smartest, savviest, most successful business owners don't, as a rule, pick their CPA's willy-nilly from Google searches or the Yellow Pages. The best prospects find their accountants by networking. They call you because someone they know and trust recommended you. In the same sense sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are a natural online evolution of traditional network marketing, and as such deserve serious respect as marketing tools.
No comments:
Post a Comment