Social media marketing may be a rage in the broad economy. But most tax professionals do not spend money on such programs and are not impressed with the results they get from them. And overwhelmingly, they put their faith in word-of-mouth marketing. Those are among the conclusions of a survey released this month by Drake Software entitled "Social Media and the Tax Professional."As far as the bulk of the respondents, social media marketing remains a new, largely untested frontier. A whopping 74.3 percent spent no money on social media, while 31 percent indicated that they either didn't have the time, desire or know-how to implement a social media strategy. Of those using social media, 76 percent do not have a content plan or schedule and of those who have tired such marketing programs, 54 percent said they were not as effective as traditional marketing.
Only 9 percent of respondents found social media marketing more effective than traditional marketing. But the survey report, authored by Drake VP James Stork, suggests that how much money practitioners spend correlates directly with how satisfied they are with the results.
It is also clear that bigger firms spend more, although the survey measured size only in terms of number of returns prepared. While 70 percent spend less than $500 annually in this arena, 39 percent of those preparing more than 1,000 returns annually and 38 percent of those with 500 to 1,000 returns exceed that level of spending. That drops to 34 percent of those with 100 to 500 returns; 12 percent with 20 to 100 returns and 11 percent for those with fewer than 20 returns.
Preparers continued to be strong believers in the effectiveness of word of mouth with 96.4 percent of respondents picking word of mouth and referrals as the most effective marketing tool. But the survey report cautions that social media is a form of word of mouth that can reach many more people than traditional methods and reach them much more quickly.
In fact, the report advocates use of social media by describing them as more than a fad and stating that these are tools that are not going away. And it contrasts the use of social media and tax preparer attitudes with those of the broader SMB market. Drake reported that surveys by Vocus and Duct Tape Marketing found 87 percent of SMBs described their use of social media as somewhat helpful or that it has helped a great deal while 84 percent said they plan to spend more on these marketing tools.
