Establishing your firm's reputation as a trusted and valued resource through thought leadership and subject matter expertise via social media builds brand strength and awareness.
Credibility, visibility, and reach can be achieved both through the social media actions of your individual employees and through the activities of your organization itself. A sustained and consistent content marketing program will open and expand valuable customer and market relationships and can serve to differentiate you from the competition.
Statistics (Source: PR Newswire)
While LinkedIn is viewed as the most important social network for business people (ahead of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) and professional service firms have a greater following on this platform than all others, less than a quarter of the average professional services firms' social media posts populate LinkedIn.
While social media experts stress that at least 75 percent of posts should contain something that a company's audience finds valuable, most professional service posts – 79 to 88 percent depending on platform – focus solely on the firm itself.
The top 25 professional service firms most posted topics categories were: company authored content; then services; then trends, issues and industry news.
While most professional service firms cite engagement as an immediate goal for their social media presence, only a little over six percent of the reviewed professional service firms' social media posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are interactive-type posts that encourage engagement.
Take Aways
Invest in the social business skill sets of your employees. Providing your employees with an understanding of how to develop their individual brands on social media will lead to advocacy and increased influence over time for your corporate identity. Assist employees to set goals for social channels, activate and optimize their profiles, become original content creators, and have good judgment in managing their online identity and that of your organization.
Experiment often. There are many compelling new ways to engage your audience. Use rich media and content such as SlideShare decks, video, infographics, and imagery to attract, engage and retain your customer audience.
Be authentic and transparent. Remain genuine and be true to your brand voice in your social business communications. Engage with insights, address real client questions and provide guidance to solve challenges.
Set clear social business goals and track metrics. It is important to break down silos across the organization and establish a consistent way or measuring both activity and core KPIs. At the end of the day, the value of social business is measured in terms of your organization's brand health, operational efficiency, and revenue growth.