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It has been noted in this column in that Facebook lacks anything resembling a reserve of interesting content focussed on UK tax. That’s not to say the site that was at the heart of the Oscar-winning feature The Social Network is of no use to tax professionals, who could benefit from following the example of big brands.
Of course, tax advisers and accountants are service providers, not big brands. Even the big four would struggle to claim the instant international recognition of Coca Cola or Microsoft.
Nevertheless, one of the ways in which such mega-names exploit their presence on Facebook is not by directly advertising their goods, but by building relationships with customers to ensure their loyalty – which is exactly the sort of behaviour that can help a tax firm graduate from good enough to great.
The more the web evolves, the fewer excuses there are for advisers and accountants to be in contact with their clients only when it’s time to file another return.
At its least, a Facebook page can be a communication tool for a busy business that has little time to spare on anything but the brass tacks of tax. It lacks the direct targeting and personal touch of, say, a phone call or bespoke email, but it allows a firm to reach and engage with many people at once.
A Facebook page should be seen as a strategy in a long game: each click of your ‘like’ button is like someone putting 2p in a charity box, as a social media expert in the marketing sector told me recently. A worthwhile amount – loyal clients in this instance or at least potential clients – takes time to build.
And build it you should because, as the same expert remarked to me, Facebook is like web version of the whole of society. In real life, people talk about their taxes and accountants when they’re at home and when they’re hanging around the water cooler, so there’s no reason they won’t do it while they’re online, too.
That conversation is going to happen with you or without you. The latter situation gives you considerably less opportunity to influence the direction of the chat.
(It’s what Coca Cola realised some years back when it discovered that a bunch of ultra-fans had a page dedicated to Coke. The brand got in on the act by offering to support the page as its official Facebook presence, run and populated by people in love with the beverage and its history.)
Interact with your page’s fans. It takes little effort to update a wall with news of tax changes and reminders of deadlines, with links to detailed (but plainly written) advice on your business’s website or blog, or by inviting people to post questions and remarks. (It’s free market research! Customer feedback is vital for any firm that wants to develop, after all; there’s no reason you can’t include commenting guidelines so that the messages and language remain appropriate.)
It has to be said that no matter what you do for your presence on the site, you’ll not amass a massive following – but that should not be a deterrent; it’s been estimated that 77% of Facebook pages have fewer than 1,000 fans.
Not that size matters; a small community of engaged followers is better than a huge number of fans who are routinely ignored or – worse! – preached to. Good content is the key to (slowly) gathering momentum.
(Small Biz Pod, a website for entrepreneurs, cites the example of Zipcar, a little business that built an impressive Facebook following through eye-catching and interesting content.)
You’ll need to start small: get colleagues and friends to ‘like’ your firm’s page – which you should push whenever possible, with a simple ‘Follow us on Facebook’ link on emails, your website, and whatnot.
Once taxpayers like you, they’re probably going to stick with you and hopefully become a paying client, because a good tax adviser is a valuable thing that is hard to find and isn’t carelessly dropped.
