3. LinkedIn Great for making and maintaining professional connections Everyone should at least create a profile and link it to SME’s business page Easy for people to find you when searching Gives a total account of SME’s employees Make sure you upload your current photo
4. Facebook Great for making and maintaining professional and personal connections IF you have a page, place the following disclaimer in your About Me section: “The views I express in my posts are my own and not necessarily those of SME, CPAs.”
5. Twitter Great for making and maintaining professional and personal connections via short posts
6. Do… Join local business community groups and forums Contribute your knowledge to discussion. Post content that adds value This will encourage people to return to your site and create a sense of credibility among your followers Give people proper credit for their thoughts and ideas Always reference articles with a direct link
7. Do… Report any disparaging remarks or reviews you see about SME to the Marketing Department Recognize you are liable for anything you write or place online Be polite and be sure to use spell and grammar check before you post.
8. Facebook Personal Page It is okay to connect with former college contacts or co-workers The glimpse into your personal life allows clients/prospects to relate to you It is wise to create a Friends List for friends through professional connections You can control what this list of friends sees
9. Facebook Personal Page If client’s request to ‘friend’ you via Facebook: Decline their friend request and send them a LinkedIn request with the following message: Thank you for your friend request on Facebook, however in line with SME’s policy, we prefer LinkedIn to connect with our clients. I look forward to being a part of your LinkedIn network.
10. Do not… Provide specific advice or recommendations. Be general. If in doubt, post something like this: This is far more specific than I feel comfortable providing advice in a public forum. I also would like to make sure I have all the information before providing an opinion. If you’d like to discuss this in more detail offline, please email me directly.
11. Do not… Announce client specific information Example: Headed to North Augusta to do their audit – exciting stuff! Example: Wow, I can’t believe a client would try to claim … as a business expense. Make inappropriate comments about clients, team members or vendors Think “Could I say this if they were standing next to me?”
12. Do not… Invite clients to your Facebook account. If they request to be friends, recall the LinkedIn invite message. Speak on behalf of the firm without expressed permission from the Marketing Department Post anything illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, that invades personal privacy or infringes on intellectual property
13. Rules of Thumb… No one likes a Negative Nancy Post positive thoughts When you are upset, take a break before you post When you find a useful and interesting article…SHARE IT! Remember, engaging is what makes Facebooka valuable tool. Facebook is not for broadcasting, it’s for interacting.
