2014 SocialCPAs Survey. How Accounting Firms Use Social Media Today. Barry MacQuarrie Sarah Johnson Dobek

Transcription

1 2014 SocialCPAs Survey How Accounting Firms Use Social Media Today Barry MacQuarrie Sarah Johnson Dobek

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SocialCPAs collaborated with Inovautus Consulting and the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) to conduct a study of how accounting firms and those that serve the public accounting profession are using social media. While it s difficult to compare social media apples-to-apples, we do believe that certain behaviors and activities can still be measured. About the Study A total of 395 participants responded to the study. Results were segmented by number of partners, growth rate and type of organization responding. In cases where results varied significantly, these were reported. Participants were required to have access to their social media and website analytics. Participants must have worked for an accounting firm, state CPA society or vendor/consultant to the profession to participate in the study. Overall Results LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the most widely used social networks, with LinkedIn being the #1 network adopted. Video and Google+ are the channels being focused on most in the coming year. Activity on the social networks is still relatively low, with few organizations posting only a few times per week. Posting frequency was found to have a direct correlation to results. Social media management is still being done manually rather than through the use of tools and technology that help organizations leverage their impact more efficiently. There are still large percentages of organizations that do not have social media policies or that have not provided training on social media. Very few organizations are advertising on social media. How to participate in the next study If you would like to participate in the next study, please register here. 2 P a g e

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary... 2 Methodology... 4 Social Media Benchmarks... 7 Content Being Shared How Social Media is Being Managed Advertising Results Key Takeaways P a g e

4 METHODOLOGY This study includes results from 395 participants representing accounting firms, state CPA societies or vendors/consultants to the accounting profession. SocialCPAs, Inovautus Consulting and AAM invited individuals to complete an online survey about social media use at their firm or organization. Only one response from each firm was used. Those responding were required to have access to basic social media and web analytics. What is your role at your firm/organization? 17.6% 3.5% 0.4% 0.9% 35.1% Partner Marketing Human resources Administrator COO Other 42.5% The survey covered such topics as what social media channels were being used by the organization, how often they were posting, what they were posting, how they were managing social media - and their results. The study results were put into context by looking at the type of organization responding, firm size and growth rate. The majority of respondents were either marketers or partners in CPA firms with five or fewer partners - and less than $5 million in revenue. The following represents the sample compositions. 4 P a g e

5 What type of organization do you work for? 8.6% 6.3% CPA, CA or accounting firm CPA, CA or accounting firm State CPA Society or Accounting Association State CPA Society or Accounting Association Vendor/Consultant to accounting firms Vendor/Consultant to accounting firms 85.1% How many partners are in your firm? Sole Proprietor 2-5 Partners 7.1% 14.6% 17.7% 6-9 Partners Partners Partners 14.2% 31.4% 21+ Partners 15.0% 5 P a g e

6 What is your firm/organization s gross revenue? 7.0% 7.4% 27.0% 0-999, % million million million million 50 million and above 18.1% 24.3% What was your firm/organization s growth rate last year? 3.7% 0% to 3% 3.01% to 5% 5%- 7.5% 16.2% 26.6% 7.6%-10% 10.4% 10.01% + We had a negative growth % 16.5% 26.6% 6 P a g e

7 SOCIAL MEDIA BENCHMARKS Social media is a broad category that can encompass many different channels. We asked firms some basic questions around what channels they use, how organizations structure their social media accounts and how often they post. Social Channels Being Used For Business Purposes We asked respondents to indicate what social networking sites they were actively using for business purposes. Participants were not asked to distinguish between individual profiles and company profiles. The number one social network being used by all respondents was LinkedIn, with Facebook and Twitter coming in second and third respectively. Responses included in the other category included Instagram, Pinterest and Flickr. LinkedIn is the most widely used social media network % 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 76.0% 34.0% 92.8% 65.6% 9.2% 30.8% 4.8% 10.0% 7 P a g e

8 What Social Channels Will You Add Next Year? We asked respondents to indicate which social media sites they would anticipate adding to their mix over the next year. Video and Google+ lead the pack as the most popular channels being explored. What was interesting, though, is that LinkedIn had a 19.4% response rate. 35.0% 30.0% 29.7% 32.6% 38.3% of firms plan to use YouTube and Vimeo channels to market next year. 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 16.6% 19.4% 16.0% 17.7% 13.7% 14.9% 13.1% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% 4.0% 5.7% 2.9% 4.0% 8 P a g e

9 How Often Firms Post on Social Media Channels We asked firms to indicate how often they posted to the social media sites they used. Social media frequency overall was particularly low across the board, with most firms posting only 1-4 times per week. Frequency of Posts Average Posts Per Week (based on answer options) Frequency of Posts Average Posts Per Week (based on answer options) x/day x/week x/day x/week x/day 49 Daily 7 Frequency of Posting Google 1.74 Twitter 5.69 LinkedIn 3.06 Facebook P a g e

10 We also looked to see if firm size had any impact on posting frequency and found that sole proprietors were posting as frequently as the larger firms, proving that the number of partners a firm has doesn t make a firm post more or less. Facebook LinkedIn 21+ Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners 2-5 Partners Sole Proprietor Partners 2-5 Partners Sole Proprietor Twitter Google+ 21+ Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners Partners 1.83 Sole Proprietor 3.41 Sole Proprietor Small and mid-sized organizations are lagging behind large firms and sole proprietors in social media. 10 P a g e

11 How Firms Structure Their Social Media Accounts We asked respondents to indicate how they structured their social media accounts at their firm. Respondents were asked to select all that apply. Below are the total results for all categories selected. In many cases, respondents chase multiple options. 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 84.1% Company account 10.9% Industry 7.1% 6.3% Service line 1.7% 40.2% Office Region Individuals 11 P a g e

12 CONTENT BEING SHARED Having a social profile isn t enough to generate great results. What you share and how you share it matters. We asked respondents some basic questions about the content they are sharing, the format and how that content is being generated. What type of posts do you share through these sites? We asked respondents to indicate the type of content they share through each of the four major social media sites (Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter). Respondents could select as many responses as were appropriate for each social channel. Facebook Culture driven (pictures at firm outings, office fun, etc.) Recruiting/hiring opportunities Promotions and awards or recognition for your people Events (seminars, webinars) Conference attendance or participation Speaking announcements Tax and Accounting alerts Self-published content (original content you create) News from third parties 89.45% 63.48% 78.00% 73.23% 68.35% 69.36% 58.67% 71.72% 57.38% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Google+ Culture driven (pictures at firm outings, office fun, etc.) Recruiting/hiring opportunities Promotions and awards or recognition for your people Events (seminars, webinars) Conference attendance or participation Speaking announcements Tax and Accounting alerts Self-published content (original content you create) News from third parties 20.60% 17.98% 25.00% 29.80% 21.52% 29.48% 24.44% 33.20% 20.25% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 12 P a g e

13 LinkedIn Company Page Culture driven (pictures at firm outings, office fun, etc.) Recruiting/hiring opportunities Promotions and awards or recognition for your people Events (seminars, webinars) Conference attendance or participation Speaking announcements Tax and Accounting alerts Self-published content (original content you create) News from third parties 39.20% 75.84% 70.00% 70.71% 57.59% 71.10% 75.11% 72.54% 51.05% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% LinkedIn Individual Page Culture driven (pictures at firm outings, office fun, etc.) Recruiting/hiring opportunities Promotions and awards or recognition for your people Events (seminars, webinars) Conference attendance or participation Speaking announcements Tax and Accounting alerts Self-published content (original content you create) News from third parties 21.61% 40.45% 36.00% 48.99% 37.97% 46.24% 42.22% 48.36% 47.26% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Twitter Culture driven (pictures at firm outings, office fun, etc.) Recruiting/hiring opportunities Promotions and awards or recognition for your people Events (seminars, webinars) Conference attendance or participation Speaking announcements Tax and Accounting alerts Self-published content (original content you create) News from third parties 48.24% 52.81% 60.50% 71.21% 70.89% 67.05% 67.11% 65.98% 62.87% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 13 P a g e

14 What formats are your posts? We asked firms to identify what formats they posted to social media. Text is clearly the format of choice % 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 92.3% 45.5% 8.5% Pictures Text Video 43.5% 56.5% What percentage of your content do you create versus outsource? We asked firms to identify how they were creating their content. Create Outsource Where does the outsourced content come from? We then asked respondents to clarify from where their outsourced content originates. 27.9% Writer Vendor that licenses content 72.1% 14 P a g e

15 HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS BEING MANAGED Social media management can have a significant influence on your success. We asked respondents to weigh in on how social media is managed at their firms, what tools they use and who is involved. What tools do you use to manage social media? We asked firms to identify what tool, if any, they use to manage their social media activity. While there are many free/cost-effective tools available, the majority of respondents are still posting directly to social media sites. 59.8% Hootsuite 29.1% 11.1% TweetDeck Nothing, I post directly on the platform How often do you look at your web and social media analytics? We asked firms to identify how often they look at their web and social media analytics. Only about 50% of firms look at their analytics monthly or more frequently. 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 30.4% 24.6% 20.0% 17.7% 15.0% 13.5% 10.0% 5.0% 6.5% 7.3% 0.0% Weekly Bi-weekly Monthly Quarterly Yearly Never 15 P a g e

16 Does your firm/organization have a written social media policy? We asked firms if they had a written social media policy. Over half of the firms/organizations do not have a written social media policy. The number of firms with a written policy has increased since last year but there continues to be room for improvement. The graph indicates that the likelihood of having a policy increases as the size of the firm increases. Sole Proprietor 2-5 Partners 6-9 Partners Partners Partners 21+ Partners 28.4% 13.7% 2.0% 18.6% 20.6% 16.7% On an annual basis, how much training has your firm/organization provided with regard to social media. We asked firms/organizations to identify how much social media training is provided to their employees. Over half of the firms/organizations still don t provide any social media training. Here is a great opportunity for firms to help improve their overall social media efforts by adequately training their employees and owners. 60.0% 50.0% 49.6% 40.0% 30.0% 29.9% 20.0% 10.0% 8.3% 12.2% 0.0% None 1-2 hours 3-5 hours More than 5 hours 16 P a g e

17 ADVERTISING The study evaluated who was advertising and what forms of advertising they were using. An overwhelming majority of respondents, 80.6%, indicated that they do not advertise on social media. Are you advertising on social media? 2.6% 16.8% 80.6% Yes No I don't know Of those that do advertise, Facebook and LinkedIn are the top places they are advertising % 90.0% 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 96.2% 62.7% 19.2% 18.4% Facebook Google+ LinkedIn Twitter 17 P a g e

18 RESULTS Social media results can be measured in a number of different ways. The most obvious being quantitative measures or the return on dollars and time spent on social media. The second way is through qualitative measures (ex.: goodwill, general branding and awareness) that can t always be tracked to actual dollars. 7.1% Do you track leads through your website and social media efforts? 50.0% 42.9% Our study aimed to measure the results respondents received from their social media efforts. The response rate for results was minimal. Only 50% of firms are tracking leads through their website and social media efforts. Yes No I don't know Of those that are tracking leads, only 24% of our respondents could indicate the sources for their leads. While a dismal response overall, those that are tracking their leads through social media are seeing results. And those that are posting at least daily are seeing on average a 3.1% increase in their results. What percentage of your leads are from the following sources? Channel All Respondents Respondents Posting Daily or More LinkedIn 8.3% 10.6% Twitter 2.2% 3.1% Google+ 5.3% 3.5% Facebook 2.4% 5.5% Other 41.7% LinkedIn is producing the highest number of leads for accounting firms. 18 P a g e

19 KEY TAKEAWAYS While public accounting firms, consultants and vendors to the profession and state CPA societies are embracing social media, there is still much room for improvement. By and large, the survey points to the fact that most responding firms are still struggling with the basics. They have profiles, but are barely posting to them. Content isn t being varied much across the various channels and the formats of posts are primarily text-based. Among the three most popular social channels (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) there is an adoption rate of 75% or more. Case in point: more than 92% of respondents use LinkedIn now, yet almost 20% are looking to add LinkedIn next year. This begs the question: Is LinkedIn (or any social media) being used in the right way? The answer in most cases is probably not. Moving beyond the basics should be the focus for many firms in channels they already use - and considering new channels based on what is right for their firm. There is also a significant amount of infrastructure lacking as a whole around social media in most responding organizations. Most organizations still manually post even though there are inexpensive social media management tools that can help them more effectively leverage their efforts. There is a clear opportunity for organizations to use tools like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, or others to help improve the efficiency of social media activity. With these free and inexpensive tools, firms can both effectively and easily expand their reach. Organizations should begin to embrace the tools available and establish processes for ensuring a more proactive and consistent presence. While most employees these days have at least one social media account (whether firm-related or not), organizations still aren t training on these tools - and are still far behind in establishing social media policies for their organization. This puts them at a huge risk and will make the challenge of embracing social media throughout the organization that much more difficult. When it comes to success, size doesn t matter in social media. The sole proprietors were on par with the largest firms in the marketplace, leaving the small and mid-sized organizations lagging behind. For organizations that want to begin taking their efforts to the next level, start by looking at the basics. How proactive are you on each channel you use? How often do you post relevant content that your decision-makers will care about? What type of content are you posting? Are you embracing tools to help you manage your accounts? 19 P a g e

20 For those that have mastered the basics, analyze your results and do some trial and error with the type of content you are posting, the time and the frequency. Look to expand your networks and increase engagement. For more information, check out SocialCPAs or Inovautus Consulting About the Authors Sarah Johnson Dobek, the Founder & President of Inovautus Consulting, is a successful growth advisor to public accounting firms. Sarah primarily works with firms that are looking to embrace or integrate digital media into their marketing mix, or elevate their current marketing efforts. Her unique background in marketing and knowledge of digital media allows her to deliver insightful, practical advice that guides organizations down the right path for achieving the growth they desire. Sarah s ability to understand where an organization is starting, matched with her disciplined approach to best practices, drive results for firms. Sarah was named among the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting in 2013 and She is also a member of the Association for Accounting Marketing and the CPA Consultants Alliance. Barry MacQuarrie, CPA is the founder of SocialCPAs. He is an experienced accounting professional who provides consulting services to small businesses and accounting firms. His areas of expertise include cloud accounting, process improvement, social media and technology management. He frequently presents on the topics of cloud accounting, social media and presentation skills for the AICPA, the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, CCH, CPA Crossings and various CPA firm associations. 20 P a g e

21 This publication is being distributed with the understanding that the contributing authors and editors, and the publisher, are not rendering legal, human resources, management or other professional services in this white paper. If the reader seeks such advice or other expert assistance is required, they should seek the services of a competent professional. The information contained in this publication is for informational purposes only. The views expressed here are those of the people surveyed and resources listed and not the publisher. The information provided in this publication will not be kept current after the publish date SocialCPAs and Inovautus Consulting make no representation or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability or suitability of the information contained herein. Any reliance you place on this information is strictly at your own risk. 21 P a g e