181 Roasting Your Accounting Firm Social Media Accounts

Today we are playing Roast My post. We've been talking a lot about social media and how it's the best way to attract a better paying type of client. Right now. If you can get really specific, and I get 99% of us have not done much of this. What's helpful for me is just seeing examples of good versions, bad versions. Just like there's this element of just like once you know good what a good one looks like, you know it when you see it. And it just becomes a lot easier to optimize the stuff that you're doing. So a few folks volunteered to have their posts roasted. They gave me permission. I'm still gonna do it anonymously. We'll run through some examples of social media posts, some ideas on how to improve upon them that could get your wheels turning for how to lean into more of this yourself. Let's do. Okay, first up, you know what? I'm gonna just. What I love about this is a lot of these things. I'm gonna sound like a broken record. There's a lot of stuff that I've said before, just put through a more specific, uncomfortable lens because it's a specific person or firm. But like I said, I'm not gonna call out anyone. I'll keep this anonymous. Not that you probably couldn't figure it out if you really wanted to go out and start Googling, but okay, first up, we got a firm go gave me permission to roast Roast all their posts. This is a Twitter account that is branded as an accounting firm. So if you go to their profile page, it is just. It's a logo. The banner image is a logo with like a generic stock photo behind it with like a calculator and a document. It's one of those. We all know them, right? One of the most like the biggest questions people have when they are doing this. Do I create a social media account for. For my brand or for me personally? I can tell you the answer. If you're a small firm, if you got less than a hundred folks in your firm, I think the answer is almost always going to be doing it through your own identity, not through that of the firm. If you go down the list of things that you follow on social media, there's going to be very few brands there like the. And. And if it is, if you are following your brand, it's like, keep up on product updates or something like that. Ultimately, social media is about building connection with humans. And if people don't see your face, if they don't see the identity behind it, I think it's a little harder to make that connection. And are there trade offs there? Like, are there upsides to brand accounts? Like, yes. But when you think of all of the folks with followings on social media, they're people. Like, it's not brands, right? Like, it's like, it's a more personal connection. Okay, so this is a firm. So my first bit of advice is even if you already have a personal Twitter account, which I know this person does have a business Twitter account, that is you. So those can still be two different accounts, but like the inside baseball of talking about how to run accounting firms, or maybe whatever your interests are, that happens on your personal account. But then you got a business account that is still you because nobody's browsing social media. And then we'll get to like a profile page for an accounting firm and be like, ooh, yeah, gotta follow this. Like, unless you're a client. Like, nobody's gonna follow that. Right. Okay. Bio Firm name strives to provide the best solutions for all clients through tax audit and consulting services. I'm glad we're starting easy here. Good example of a, of a bio that's not gonna hook anybody in particular. Right? This person knows this. I think that's why they chucked this in as like, go wild. Best solution for all clients through tax audit and consulting services. Manages to cover anyone who files a tax return. Anyone who needs consult. It's is for everyone, so it's for no one. Right. Okay, getting into a couple specific posts. His most recent post from two or three weeks ago. I do think when somebody's considering following you, they will generally hop over to your profile page first and be like, do, do they actually post here regularly or do they just retweet something every couple few weeks? So the visibility of like, are they a regular poster? I do think that probably makes a, a difference for whether folks are gonna follow. Okay, last post from a few weeks ago. Here it is. Last week our firm virtually attended the Oregon CPA Society's Oregon Tax Update class. Here are three takeaways we had from it. And then a link to a YouTube video. And then four hashtags. I think hashtags have left the Twitter meta still a thing on Instagram, maybe sometimes a thing on LinkedIn, but not really a thing on Twitter so much. But they're linking out to an external YouTube video here, so. So one thing to be aware of with all social media platforms is if you are linking to something externally, it will hurt the likelihood that your post is presented to People. And the reason is ultimately all these social media platforms want people to just consume stuff on platform. They don't want to serve up a link to you that will take you to somewhere else and have you start scrolling something else. And so this is an example where there's a YouTube video here. Does Twitter want you to stop scrolling Twitter and go to YouTube where you're then distracted by all the other suggested YouTube videos? It absolutely doesn't. So if you have a YouTube video into like linked in, a post on Twitter, or really anything else, it is much less likely that that post is going to show up in anybody's feeds. And I guess even, even zooming out a little further there, it's worth being aware the way social media used to work is somebody would follow you or subscribe to you, and then your feed was just here. All here are all the posts from the folks that I'm following. And increasingly, social media is not that. In fact, many people go as far as to say subscribers and followers these days is really a vanity metric. This difference of this is different a bit platform to platform, but YouTube, for example, right now, someone being subscribed to you almost does not matter at all anymore. Maybe it does if they have notifications enabled, because they're going to find out as soon as you post a video. But YouTube, when you go to YouTube.com what it puts in front of you is whatever it thinks you're going to want to watch, regardless of who you're subscribed to. So you actually have to go into like the subscriptions spot in YouTube to see recent videos from folks you subscribe to. The recommendations that it makes are actually completely disconnected from who you're subscribed to. So YouTube is at one end of that spectrum right now where, like, it doesn't matter who is subbed to you Twitter, it kind of sort of does depending on which tab you're using. But even this inside of Twitter really frequently changes LinkedIn more so than other platforms. It does matter, like who's following you. But ultimately now, when somebody fires up an algorithm, be it TikTok, Instagram, whatever it is, you can't assume that the people who follow you will ever even see your posts in their feed. So somebody who follows you, if you make a post, they could scroll for 5 minutes, 10, 10 minutes after you made that post, and it doesn't, and it won't show your post. So that is absolutely not at all a given. It's going to show your post to other people who like and engage with things similar to the types of things that you engage with. And if it puts this in front of a hundred people and nobody engages with it, they're probably not gonna put it in front of very many more people. This episode is sponsored in part by by Cloud Cloud Accountant staffing. You'll know I'm a big advocate of hiring offshore. One of the biggest changes I made in my firm, we transitioned a Legacy firm from 100% onshore local hiring to 100% distributed US and then 100% distributed globally. Hiring and honestly is the best thing we did. It virtually alleviated all of our hiring pains, completely changed how we thought about staffing projects and the type of work that we wanted to bring on. Because you know what, the folks we hired offshore, really freaking good. A lot of misconceptions around the type of people that you hire offshore because your enterprises will oftentimes use offshore folks for like menial work. Absolutely not the case. There are tens of thousands of people working for big four accounting firms. You know, offshore outside the U.S. you, you can get folks that can do anything from tax to junior level stuff to super senior level stuff. But try to do that yourself. Figure it all out yourself. That's going to be hard. It's going to be scary. Really good place to start Cloud accountant staffing. They will hold your hand through that process. Their story is super simple at accounting firm in the US Hired a bunch of people in the Philippines, fell in love with them, but didn't fall in love with the fees they were having to pay to the staffing companies that were managing these employees. So they built their own solution and now they're starting to pull other accountants in. I'd encourage you. A big tipping point for me was when I was like, I'm going to stop being opinionated on this and just try to learn. And so I talked to the other practitioners, I talked to some of the vendors that would like help you get into offshoring. That really opened things up for me. So if you've been on the fence, I'd encourage you to at least learn about it and you start heading down that path. Consider cloud accountant staffing. This episode is sponsored in part by Live Flow. Been talking a lot lately about the new consolidation stuff that they rolled out. Honestly, a killer solution for rolling up a large number of companies. But a couple good use cases for LifeFlow may not be thinking about. LifeFlow syncs accounting data from your QBO file out to Google Sheets, which can be super helpful in situations where you don't want to give Somebody access to the QuickBooks file itself, but they need access to specific data from the accounting file. That could be your client who you don't want in there messing stuff up. Could be some other stakeholder who may need access to metrics, but you don't want them in the file. Like actually in the file. Could be you're up like bumping up against user limits within QuickBooks where maybe you have to upgrade to another level to let more users into the file. Some interesting use cases there for liveflow around just giving granular access to folks who can't be into the file themselves. Kind of wild if you think about the whole ecosystem of all the things that can be automated around spreadsheets as well, stuff you can build with, you know, zapier and make and the scripting built into Google Sheets and all that. Use Live Flow to get the accounting data there and you can do whatever you want with it. So if you're looking for a way to liberate that accounting data from the accounting file, check out the link to Live Flow in the show notes. So in this case we've got a Tweet with a YouTube video linked out to it, which is a bummer because right now Twitter is really pushing video. They're actually like boosting that in the algorithm where if you have a video, uh, it's more likely that it's gonna show up for folks. And in this case they've done all of the work of making a video but they posted it somewhere else and they're paying a big penalty for that cuz it's linked to an external website rather than just taking the video that they made and posting it natively on Twitter. So my tippy top tip here, instead of linking out to your YouTube, just share it natively here. This is one of those things where, where you're like, yeah, but I want people to go subscribe to my YouTube and go watch it over there cause the viewing experience is better and all that. And I think you just, you have to think really, really, really simply when it comes to social media. For every person who is scrolling by, how can I give them just an ounce of value? Because 99 out of a hundred people won't stop and won't engage with that thing. So in a perfect world would they all go and watch your stuff in the same place and subscribe there and all that? Like yes, but that's not realistic. We're trying to optimize the likelihood that this just gives a bit of value to, to more folks as they're scrolling past now. There's some good stuff in this video. There's like four or five different takeaway points. But the text of the tweet itself, we're talking Twitter here. This is gonna apply to pretty much any platform. The text of the tweet itself does not at all talk about the value that is inside of that video. So the text is saying, go watch this video to learn something. When the better thing to do here is you can have a video, but you can also in the text, spell out, here is the value. Like, here are the valuable things. If I get stuck on. I just spent time on this video. So I want people to see the video to get the value, not read something and then not watch the video. You're missing the point. The point is to give them value of any kind. And so I get it that you spent all this time on the video and you came up with these insights. Put that stuff in both places. If somebody just reads the text, that's great. That's probably somebody that would have otherwise just screwed. Scrolled straight past. I came up with a fun little moniker for this. I almost forgot. Hang on, let me remember what it is for reviewing posts. Okay, how does it look? Will it hook? And what's the nook? Okay, the nook. Like a nook and cranny. Like what? Like what corner of the Internet is it from? How fun is that? Okay, how does it look? Will it hook? What's the nook? Let's. So for this post, how does it look? We're looking at white space. Is it concise? This stuff, like, more than I would like, actually makes a big difference in terms of whether people will engage with it. If it's a giant block of text, depending on the platform. But on Twitter, like, generally, people are not going to pause to read that. So for this one, how does it look? I would say get the hashtags right up out of there. Hashtags actually are almost making it look more cumbersome to read through this tweet because there's more text there and those hashtags are like garbage. Like, not adding value to me. Text, will it hook? So what's a hook that could have done better on this tweet? Right now, the tweet is. Last week, our firm virtually attended the Oregon CPA Society Oregon Tax Update class. Here are the three takeaways we had from it. I am hyper hypercritical of my posts and digging into why is anybody going to care? Does anybody care that you went to an update class? Do they care that there's three takeaways from it? Maybe, but that's still too big. So a better hook here would have been, would be something from the subject matter itself. So one of the things you're talking about is like the Oregon Kicker credit, which could be like more money back for folks. A much better hook for this is something along the lines of, here's what we just learned about the Oregon Kicker credit that could impact your refund. Maybe refunds. Not the right framing because not everybody's going to have a refund, but you've got a very like, monetary, like incentivized kind of clickbait, but also not clickbait headline there because you're actually going to like walk them through how that could actually impact them. So in this case, will it hook? This one won't hook because people don't care that you went to this update class. Besides, maybe your clients who are going to be like, oh, good job. Thanks for taking your time out to look out for us. And then last, what's the nook? Who's it for? Nobody in particular. This is the theme you're going to see as we review these posts. Now, this was just a single post with a link out to a three minute YouTube video. There's like four to six valuable tidbits in here that could have been broken out into standalone tweets, all built around like, hey, just got some updates on, you know, the Oregon Kicker credit. Here's four things to look out for that could impact your tax liability or something like that. Thinking through what the subject matter is in that video and then breaking it up into, you know, a tweet every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or something like that's better than like a once every two weeks kind of tweet. And you've already done all the work, like building the video, recording the video, scripting the video. You're 95% of the way there. And this is the case for so many of us. We have all the content and all the subject matter that we can talk about on social media. We just haven't learned how to format it in a way that will engage people. Now, ultimately, the better version of this is the Oregon Kicker credit for a specific type of person. Because who else is talking about the Oregon Kicker credit for, you know, beekeepers? Like, that's what you're trying to get to is the very specific version of that. This episode is brought to you in part by TeamUp, helping you recruit top Filipino accountants without any ongoing monthly fees. The difference between Teamup and all the other offshoring options is that Team up helps you hire staff directly. No middleman. You work directly with your new hire in the Philippines. Hire the person, not the company. Guys, gals, gang. Here's just a few reasons to hire directly. You have access to higher level talent. Makes sense. You have complete control over team culture and training. They keep 100% of what you pay them and it's a lot more affordable for you. So you can retain your team for the long term. Team up can source accountants with experience working at US or Australian firms familiar with tools like Zero, QBO and DeX. Also recruit specialist roles, team leaders, tax specialists, administrative assistants. Thought experiment. What if you had an executive assistant for the first time this tax season? Just. Just throwing it out there. What would they do? Start at that email video I did on the main channel recently. Get help with that stanky ol inbox. I digress. Team up recruits these talented folks for a flat one time fee of 4,000 US American dollars. That's it. 4K one time. Somebody at Robert Half just did a spit take. Robert Half reference. We ever going to get Robert Half to sponsor this pod? Not anymore. And they can connect you with an affordable employer of record if you need help with payroll and compliance once you hire that person. Big fan of hiring in the Philippines. You know I did a bunch of that. Check out the link in the description to learn more about timo. Okay, I'm going to pick on somebody else that gave me permission. I'm going to look at their post first and then go look at their bio. Cause if somebody's gonna follow you, that's what they're gonna do. They're gonna read a post, they're gonna go to the bio, learn more about that person, get an idea if they're going to give them helpful value down the road and if so, follow them. So here's a post new tax credit for renters in British Columbia. If your family adjusted income is below $80,000, you may be eligible for a $400 tax credit. That's it. That's the tweet. What a tease. I might be eligible. So how's it look? Will it hook? And what's the nook? How's it look? Pretty good. They got white space in there. So they've got two sections of text. They have triple asterisks around the first statement. Now on Twitter you can bold and italicize text. I probably just would have bolded the first line so I think it looks fine. Will it hook? What's a Better way to hook people for a new tax credit for renters in British Columbia. Like it or not, money is always like, financial things are always the easiest way to hook people. And a common mistake in social media posts is putting that at the end. And we have that here. So up at the top, new new tax credit for rentries in British Columbia. You always got to be thinking, when people read things, they start at the top and they go left to right. So as you are scanning through tweets or LinkedIn posts or whatever it is in an algorithm, when you're deciding whether you're going to read the entirety of that post or not, every single time, you're going to start in the top left corner of it and start reading. And then if you decide you're not gonna read it, you're gonna jump straight down. So if there was something meaty at the bottom or down to the right of that post, that's not something anybody's gonna see. So the hook has to be at the top, preferably on the left, so that they're seeing it as they're scrolling through. So in the case of this post, they didn't get till the money, the financial side of it, until the end, actually the bottom right of like the frame. So I look for a way to pull the financial implication. Earlier, something like a new $400 tax credit was just announced. Here's what you need to know to see if you're eligible, something like that. So try to keep that hook as concise as possible and to really hit on the thing that's going to make them stop. 400 bucks in my pocket. Great. Like, that's worth pausing for. I would have also gone into a little more detail in the post as to like, who is and who is not eligible. As it is, it's kind of a tease. It's saying you might be eligible, but that's it. I don't know if that's ultimately valuable. Like, I want to know, will I be valuable? Will I be eligible or not? And. And there could be a whole ton of nuance that happens there, like to determine that, but we're the pros here. So, like, this is an opportunity to present the nuance in a way that people can understand. And so that could be like a visual image. So we did a ChatGPT video on the main channel recently where there's a GPT that will create visual diagrams for you. You just explain, create a flowchart where if you're single or if you're married or, you know, whatever Those different paths are like, you can just describe each node of the diagram and it'll create a little graphic for you. On Twitter, there's a basically a scoring system for each post that impacts the likelihood that your post will show up in people's feeds. And having an image in a tweet makes it more likely to show up. So just having an image makes it more likely. But when it comes to tax things and you're thinking through, like, the scenarios where someone would or would not be eligible, a little flowchart is a really easy way of like, making that as digestible as possible. So I probably would have elaborated a little further on this and included a visual. Now, looking at this person's profile, it is a person, which is great. Ultimately, nobody gives a hoot what your firm is called. And like, nobody cares about any of that. They care about what you can do for them. So I like that big smiling face for the profile pic. Bio says helping business owners make smart decisions with their numbers. And at least we're identifying business owners. It's a little bit better, but we really got to get over that fear of being specific. The specificity can even be a moving target over time. But you're in Canada, you're in bc, you're talking about BC stuff, even saying, helping BC business owners generating, you know, under a million in revenue a year or between 1 and 3 million a year. Like, find that specificity and even, even including that specificity, or will not keep peripheral folks from following. But the good news is when you, like, get that person who is a great fit and could be a client now, you look so specific for them that they're pumped. They're really excited about that. So as you're posting, few things to keep in mind. How does it look? Does it look like a giant block of text? Is it as concise as it can be? Is there some white space there? Two, will it hook? If that person's looking at the top left of the post, does that give them a reason to stay? If the reason to stay, it doesn't happen until a few sentences in, you've already lost them. And three, what's the nook? Who's it for? Who's the very specific person that it's talking to? It may be a great post, but is it a great post for a specific person? I don't want to drive you to, like, overanalyze everything. The great thing about social media is it's fast, it's ephemeral. You got nothing to lose by continuing to iterate and test and try to learn how to. Hopefully you picked up just even one little thing that'll stick with you and make a change to that next post that you make. If you wanna get roasted, drop a comment, shoot me a dm. We'll do it anonymously and keep kind of refining like a framework for if we're gonna make the time to do this, how do we do it as efficiently and as effectively as possible? Right. So you're not wasting years doing it the wrong way and you're actually getting real traction from your posts. Thank you to the folks who volunteered. Let me know if you want to get in on it as well. And one more thing before we bounce. Last Friday on the Q and A, I shared the story that someone had posted about struggling to be seen, struggling to be recognized, seeing the value of visibility and being active on social media, but struggling with how self promotional that felt and like how do you do it in a way that isn't slimy? And it was a very vulnerable post and a whole, a bunch of people hopped in and like replied on that post and we talked about it quite a bit on Friday. I got a bunch of, I got a number of kind messages about that post and kind of walking through it and how I know a lot of people struggle with what that person was talking about. And if you want to talk about the serendipity of sharing your journey online, take this post as an example. This person had not posted for a month. They had a moment of vulnerability and shared some things. A bunch of helpful people hopped in, offered their thoughts in the comments. We talked about it on the podcast, which absolutely wasn't this person's intent. And the thousand plus people who listened to that podcast got value from that person sharing their journey and seeing other people's inputs into that discussion. If you want an example of like the serendipity that posting online enables, there it is. That stuff doesn't happen if you're not visible, if you're keeping all that stuff to yourself. Super brave of that person to, to put that out there and hopefully that whole process, I don't know, kind of open people's eyes to the value of like how we can support each other with that transparency. But that's all I got for today. I'll see you in the next one.