As one of the fastest growing (and fun!) social media channels, Instagram is a platform that can’t be ignored in your accountancy firm.
Because Instagram works so differently to the other popular social media channels, one of the biggest questions I get from accountants is ‘what kind of stuff do we actually post on Instagram?’
Here are 10 ideas to help you get started…
1. Share content from your blog
Whenever you’ve published a new blog post on your website, it’s a good idea to share it on all your social media channels. This is fairly easy to do on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. But what about Instagram?
It’s worth noting you can’t share hyperlinks in posts on Instagram.
So here’s what you can do instead.
- Use the image of the blog post as the image you upload on Instagram
- Take a snippet from the intro of your blog and use that as the text description for the image you upload on Instagram
- At the end of the text description on Instagram, tell people something along the lines of: “… to read the full article to tap the link in my Instagram bio.’
- In your Instagram bio make sure the link goes to your blog post (not your website’s homepage!). You can update the link in your Instagram bio by clicking on ‘settings’ on the Instagram app.
Whenever you publish a new blog, video or piece of content on your website – be sure to get into the habit of sharing it on Instagram too!
2. Company updates
Are you hosting an event or webinar? Are you going to be at the next Xerocon? Have you hired a new team member? Are you running some kind of promotion?
Think about things that are happening in your accountancy firm that you can share and talk about each day or each week.
Here is an example of us promoting the ‘bonus stuff’ for the upcoming Content Marketer Accelerator:
3. Team pictures
A great way to show your human side on Instagram is to include pictures of your team! That way people can get to know your accountancy firm on a much more deeper level.
Some ideas for when posting pictures of team members include:
- Quotes from a team member
- A picture of a team member with their bio (Who are they? What do they do for fun? What’s their role in your accountancy firm? Etc)
- Group photos at internal meetings, client meetings or at events
4. Travel
Are you going for a walk? Travelling across the country? Going out for a coffee? Meeting a client?
Take a look at your surroundings. Can you take a quick picture of something to share on Instagram and let people know what you’re doing?
On Instagram you don’t always need to create content. You can talk about what you’re already doing and share that.
5. Food & Drink
Well, this one is a bit obvious. It seems like everyone loves posting pictures of food and drink on Instagram. But hey, if you’re eating or drinking something delicious, why not? 😉
Sharing some snaps of your meals, at a restaurant with friends or having a coffee (or tea, or water or whatever you prefer) is another way great way to show people your human side on social media.
6. Books
Is there a book that you’ve read recently that you like? Let everyone know.
You can even highlight some parts or quotes from the book that you’ve enjoyed and pass that knowledge on to your Instagram audience.
7. Behind the scenes
People love to see what really happens at a company behind the scenes. Are you at an event, if so, what is it like? What did you enjoy the most?
Are you hosting or attending a webinar? Why not take a picture and share some slides and what you’re learning (or teaching)?
Are you at a client or team meeting? What can you share from that meeting that might be of interest to your followers?
8. Results
This is another nice and easy one. Do you have any testimonials (either video or written) from clients? Share those on Instagram!
You can create a nice quote for the testimonial in Canva or you can print screen what someone has said and share it!
9. Quotes
Use quotes that match your brand values or use quotes from people in your team!
Don’t go crazy with this one (by that I mean make every single post a quote). But the odd quote here and there can add a nice touch to your brand voice and educate your potential clients about what you believe in and stand for.
10. Fun stuff
This last one is just a reminder to have fun with Instagram and get into the habit of sharing your accountancy firm’s journey.
A great place to have fun on Instagram and share your culture, your brand values, what it’s like working with you and so on, is on Instagram stories.
The great thing about Instagram stories is that any stories you post are deleted in 24 hours. So it’s an excellent place to experiment, find out what your audience engages with the most and try new things out!
You could even give your accountancy firm’s Instagram login info to your team and let them share their point of view and their stories of what’s happening in your accountancy firm each day.
Bonus tips
The above ideas are to get you started with posting a variety of content on Instagram on a regular basis. Here are a few more tips to get the most from Instagram:
- Tag relevant people in your posts by using the @ sign and searching for their name
- Use about 5-20 relevant hashtags (the sweet spot is 10-15 hashtags) to get more likes, views and engagement on your posts
- You can find relevant hashtags for your accountancy firm and clients using the search function on Instagram. Click on search, type in a hashtag you think is relevant and Instagram will suggest additional ones for you to use. See example below:
- Post hashtags at the end of the post
- Engage with people on your IG news feed (like or leave a comment)
- Engage with other people’s Instagram stories by sending them a direct message
- Find and follow relevant people in your niche (if they like what you post, they will follow you back too)
- Use Canva.com to help you easily create graphics for Instagram posts or Instagram stories
- In Instagram stories, take advantage of engagement features such as “Ask me a question” or “Create a poll”
- Highlight certain stories you want to keep for longer than 24 horus in your IG profile
If you have any more questions about Instagram feel free to reach out to me. Or if you want some one-to-one training for yourself or your team, you can book some time with me here.
About the Author
Ashley Davis is the Social Media Director at The Profitable Firm and also works with small to medium sized businesses at Skyline Social.