Real world ready | Next Gen accounting
Your five-minute guide to social media marketing
Discover the best way to cash in on the popularity of social media as an accountant
Words Jessica Bown Images iStock
A typical adult now spends an incredible 141 minutes a day on platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn, figures from Statista show.
Social media marketing – which simply means creating and publishing content on social media platforms, generally with the aim of promoting your products or services – is one of the most effective ways of building client relationships in 2026.
However, there are lots of businesses trying to capture people’s attention on social media.
To connect with future clients, and maintain a strong relationship with those who already support your business, it’s important to think carefully about what you post and where.
Which social media platforms are the best fit for my business?
There are now so many different social media platforms that posting on them all is a full-time job. And there’s little point sharing business-to-business (B2B) content with teenagers who have not yet even entered the workforce.
The social media platforms you can use to promote your business include:
- Facebook – mainly used by the over-30s, Facebook can work for both B2B and B2C (business-to-consumer) advertising. It’s also a great place for community building and for driving traffic to your website via Facebook Ads.
- X (formerly Twitter) – again favoured by the over-30s, X’s great strength is as a platform for direct customer communication. That is why so many multinationals use it to manage customer service requests.
- TikTok – TikTok’s short-form video content captures a younger demographic and is perfect for influencers. The relative youth of the platform’s users make it a good place to build long-term trust in your brand.
- Instagram – like Facebook, Instagram can work for business selling to both individuals and other companies. It also has the advantage of remaining popular with younger and older consumers. As with TikTok, short-form videos and influencer marketing tend to drive higher engagement.
- LinkedIn – if you sell your services to other business, LinkedIn is the place to be. It also has a wider age range than most other platforms, with a mix of Gen Z, Millennial and Gen X users.
- YouTube – one of the most visited websites in the world, YouTube is perfect for sharing longer videos, perhaps explaining complex accounting principles or answering common tax questions.
TOP TIP
Wherever you decide to concentrate your social media marketing campaign, make sure your profile gives users the right impression. Your profile picture, for example, should be easily recognisable – even in thumbnail size. It’s also a good idea to include a sentence on why customers should choose your brand, as well as links to find out more.
How does MTD for Income Tax affect how clients declare their taxes?
Under MTD rules, you (or your client) will need to use compatible software to create and store digital records of self-employment and property income/expenses, send quarterly updates to HMRC and submit a tax return/pay tax due by 31 January the following year.
The details required by HMRC include:
- For a self-employment business – income and expenses, tax allowances for vehicles and equipment (e.g. capital allowances), and balancing charges
- For a property business – UK and overseas income and expenses, allowances and adjustments, and balancing charges
The who, why, what and when of social media marketing
Deciding where to share information about your business is crucial, but you also need to consider what to post and when. Once again, that depends on the people you are trying to reach.
1
WHO – identify your target audience
Consider the people or organisations whose business you are trying to win, then list the characteristics of this person or business.
If it’s an individual, things to consider include:
● Age
● Gender
● Location
● Income
● Financial pain points
This step is essential because it underscores every other decision you make.
2
WHY – decide what you want to achieve
What are the goals of your social media campaign? These could include increasing brand awareness, growing your client list or boosting loyalty among existing customers.
And how do you want your audience to perceive your business? Approachable and light-hearted, or serious and trustworthy?
If you’re unsure about which approach to take, it can be helpful to look at what is working well for competitors in the same or similar fields.
3
WHAT – stand out from the crowd
The social media accounts of your clients, and future clients, are littered with ads and posts from rival businesses, so your content needs to catch their attention.
To do this, try to put yourself in their shoes. If they want tax advice, for example, could two-minute guides to different areas of concern make them stop and engage?
Whatever your findings, it’s important to vary the content you post.
Different types of content you could consider posting include:
● Polls and competitions
● Livestreams
● Special offers
● Customer reviews
● Meet-the-team videos
● Relevant news stories
● Influencer endorsements
4
WHEN – post at the right time
Posting when your audience is online is crucial. If you’re aiming your posts at busy professionals, for example, you’ll need to upload your posts outside of working hours.
Use a content calendar to ensure your posts are seen by the right people and don’t forget that less is often more when it comes to social media. If you clutter up people’s feeds with low-quality posts, they will soon unfollow you.
That’s why it’s best to stick to no more than three to five posts that offer value to your audience each week.
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