Accounting and social media don’t always seem to mix, but since the importance of online profiles and social networking in recruitment is on the rise, professionals of every field should get interested in developing a social media strategy as means of both furthering their careers and growing their firms. The key here is personal branding—social networks help to bring your brand to a wider audience, granting you all the space to become your sector’s thought leader. And that’s something impressive to every recruiter.
Here are top five tips on how to create an efficient social media strategy and develop a recognizable personal brand.
1. Choose your areas of expertise. Before you settle on one to three areas of expertise, you first need to decide what you’d like to be recognized for. Don’t go for general categories like Finance or Management—develop your personal brand in a niche field. What are you passions and interests? What do other people say you’re talented at?
While choosing a niche may mean appealing to a smaller audience, it’s also much more focused, a perfect context to make your message relevant and valuable. The next step is generating meaningful content that adds a value to the community. Whether it’s posting or sharing, ask yourself twice whether a given piece of information is worth it.
2. Research your niche. Have a look at what people in your niche are talking about and what topics interest them most. Twitter offers a great search engine, where you can type a keyword or hashtag and then add some advanced search options like location, language, or sentiment.
To know which hashtags and keywords you should use to make your content visible in other users’ news feeds, have a look at RiteTag’s hashtag search. Type your keyword and you’ll see how related hashtags rank on various social media platforms.
Finally, you can test the keyword on BuzzSumo to see what content featuring this keyword is most popular in your niche. Click on the “Influencers” tab to see a list of influential people—follow them on Twitter and learn how it’s done.
3. Be consistent. Make sure all your social media profiles match up. Whether it’s Facebook or LinkedIn, you’ll only gain on professionalism if you use the same profile photo and use a consistent name. Top tip: Have a look at Knowem to see the availability of your desired username on more than 25 most popular social networks. If it’s available, reserve it on social media you plan to use right now and in the future.
4. Post regularly. Be active and post every day on social networks you value most. This study found out that people who tweet more have the most followers, so make sure to share, comment and post as often as you feel like—but only if what you’ve got to say is of value. Research studies on optimal posting frequencies can help you in choosing your sharing volume. (Just remember that a lot of this research has been conducted for company brands—personal brands should be handled a little differently, as noted throughout this article.)
5. Monitor mentions of your name and respond. Use Mention to track your name every time it appears online. The tool will look through blogs, posts, or social media updates. React quickly: comment and offer thanks for the feedback. If you want an easy tracking solution, set up appropriate e-mail notifications; all social networks have them.
If you’re interested in new career opportunities, rewarding partnerships, prestige, credibility and industry recognition, a great social media strategy is the best solution to reach those and other goals.
About the author:
Monique Craig is a passionate blogger and marketing specialist who works for Oneflare, an online marketplace which connects customers with local service providers.
Ref: Accounting Web
