4 Tips to Building a Better Facebook Business Page for Your Tax Practice

When we think of social media for business, we often only think about LinkedIn. Actually, there’s another vehicle – the Facebook business page – that might just be the secret weapon to marketing your tax practice.

As a tax pro, you’re constantly striving to save your clients money and provide powerful solutions, while doing the same for you and your practice. What if I told you that for as little as $7.50, one business professional received more than 4,000 inquiries in only a week’s time?

Still not sold? Here are four tips to help you build your Facebook business page.

Tip #1: Unless You’re a Social Media Expert, Get Some Help

Let’s face it, tax pros and social media savants are rarely synonymous. Yet, even if you think you know a lot about social media, it’s a good idea to get some help building your Facebook business page from a social media expert who knows about search engine optimization, analytics and the like. You may think you’re on top of your personal Facebook page when you post photos of your family, and certainly have a good feel for what you want to do, but a Facebook business page is another thing entirely.

We did this very thing when Jonathan Bill – a QuickBooks ProAdvisor® and owner of Sound Business Services in Atlanta, and a bookkeeper who regularly works with tax accountants on the books that load into Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Online – asked us to review and rewrite his Facebook business page. We thought we knew what needed to be included, but it turned out that we knew very little! In short, a social media expert should take you on a journey, seek out the competition, craft and mold your messaging, and develop content that drives growth and showcases what you do. Bottom line: spend the extra money to get great advice.

Tip #2: Build a Captivating Banner and Focus on Your Posts

First, let’s dig into the banner. Located at the top of your Facebook page, the banner is what your audience’s eyes will naturally gravitate to, so it must be captivating enough to keep their attention. This is where the power of brand recognition comes into play.

As you can see in the banner above, the brand is self-evident: the logo and name, a message or slogan at the top, and a picture capturing what they do all appear in one simple yet powerful photo.

As you work on captivating your audience and keeping their attention span, you must have a strong strategic effort when it comes to posting to your page. Content is king, yet it must be clear and concise because no one is going to read long posts. This content should always involve a video or picture to attract viewers and ignite engagement.

If you don’t think you have enough content to post updates on a regular basis, think again! You can talk about tax and accounting issues, showcase the services you offer, and even feature clients, similar to the update below.

While “likes” are something you’re content with on your personal page, a Facebook business page should inspire conversation, comments and questions. While “likes” are still good, discussions in your business community are a big win. Of course, you must monitor the discussions to make sure they don’t get out of hand and provide timely responses when it’s your turn to jump in. A simple “thanks” or “like” isn’t enough; give an in-depth response in a few sentences to show the audience how much you value their time and input.

Tip #3: Get High-Res Images in Your Image Library

Reputation management is always key, so the types of images you’re using on your page are very important. Besides the fact that no one wants to look at a blurry, out-of-focus image, if you have low-res images that were cut and pasted from the internet, then you’re telling customers, clients and prospects that you didn’t invest very much time into the page and may not invest time in servicing their needs.

To find quality images, spend some money and buy them from a reputable image site such as iStock, or find them on royalty-free sites such as Pexels. By all means, do not use another business’s image without asking for permission.

On Facebook, note that there are two types of images: “cover” and “status update.” Cover images are sized differently than status update images, so watch the finished sizes carefully. What you want to avoid is cutting off someone’s head or other body parts because the image is more horizontal than square.

Tip #4: Paid Facebook Ads – Do Them!

Of course, you only have so much money devoted to your marketing, but here’s one strategy that’s worth it. If I told you that you could spend very little to reach a very large crowd, wouldn’t that be intriguing? Like I mentioned above, a colleague spent just $7.50 to reach more than 4,000 people. How? Paid Facebook business ads.

Sure, ads can be annoying, but they are very effective as a way to create awareness. Your social media expert should know all about Facebook ads. The expert will break down the costs, benefits and the particular ads that will work best for you. For example, create an ad to focus on one of your niches, and then select a geographic area you serve or want to serve.

Bonus Tip: Publish Your Page!

This should go without saying, but when it comes to social media, small details can often get lost in the shuffle and have a big impact. When you are ready to launch your page and kick-start your social media journey, make sure you click “publish.” We saw a client make this mistake, and as you might imagine, it caused a lot of frustration and wasted time.

One other question we regularly get is how much time you should spend on updating your Facebook business page – or really any social media effort. We recommend setting yourself an appointment to spend 10 minutes most mornings on social media. That’s just enough time to get one or two things done, while not taking up too much of your time you need to spend on billable matters.

Good luck!