How do accountants come up with content ideas for social media?

Start by listing the benefits of your service and the pain points you solve. Each benefit and pain point becomes a hook for a piece of content. You only need 5 to 10 core topics, then you repeat them with slightly different hooks every one to two weeks.

How long should social media videos be for accounting firms?

Keep them to 30 to 60 seconds. Define a single objective for each video, assume the viewer has zero context, and boil your message down to three to five bullet points. If you cannot explain a step in two lines, you are getting too specific.

I Built a $3M/yr Content Strategy For a CPA Firm

Q: What is the broad-narrow-niche framework for content hooks?

Start your hook with something broad that anyone could be interested in, like money or health. Then narrow it down to a more specific audience. Finally, go full niche with your exact service and ideal client. This structure grabs wide attention and then filters to the right people.

One of the biggest keys to scaling Ryan’s CPA firm to $3 million a year was building his personal brand. He has got over 50,000 followers across platforms and makes millions every year from customers who find him online.

But for probably the first year of producing content together, we had one massive problem: we kept running out of ideas. Without reading the tax code on camera, there are only so many obvious topics you can cover related to taxes.

Today, we post twice a day across all his platforms with 30 to 60 days of content stacked up and ready to go at any given time. Here is the framework we use.

You Only Need 5 to 10 Core Topics

There is an Instagram creator called No Code Alex who demonstrates this perfectly. If you sort his last 100 reels by most viewed, his top-performing videos are essentially the same concept repackaged with slightly different hooks. The steps are almost identical: find a software idea, validate it, build it with a no-code tool, get customers through cold outreach. He just films it again with a fresh opening.

Here is the principle: people need to be reminded more than they need to be told. We do not take action on new information the first time we hear it. Different ways of communicating the same idea will resonate with different people. You really just need one core message and maybe 5 to 10 core topics, and you have content for essentially forever.

The hard part is figuring out which topics actually resonate with your audience.

Start With Benefits and Pain Points

Here is the framework I use for any new client. Let me walk through it using an example — an asset protection strategist for real estate investors, a niche we have never actually worked with.

First, list the benefits of the service: protecting assets from lawsuits, eliminating unnecessary legal fees from a messy LLC structure, making sure assets go to the right heirs, keeping tenants from knowing who you are so they cannot target you.

Then list the pain points: assets are sitting ducks for lawsuits, paying unnecessary filing fees, the government decides what happens to your stuff when you die because you have no plan, tenants know your name and what else you own.

Now here is where it gets practical. Each of those benefits and pain points becomes a hook for a piece of content. You film the video once, repeat it with a different hook every one to two weeks, and suddenly you only need 5 to 10 solid video concepts to post consistently for months.

The Broad-Narrow-Niche Hook Framework

Most advice about hooks focuses on tactics. Here is the foundational strategy instead.

Think of three lines. The first line is broad — something anyone could be interested in. Money, health, sports. The second line goes narrow, zeroing in on your ideal client. The third line goes full niche: asset protection strategy for real estate investors.

Here is an example script: You could lose everything in the blink of an eye if you do this one thing wrong. And 99% of investors I talk to are making this mistake. So let us say you own three different rental properties in different areas and somebody trips and falls in property A…

That first line grabs attention from anyone. The second line qualifies the audience. And then you are into the actual content, which is specific to your niche and demonstrates your expertise.

After building out scripts for years, these are the three tips that matter most.

Define a single objective. Do not try to pack 17 bullet points and eight tips into a 30-second video. People will feel overwhelmed and bounce. Before you script anything, know in your mind what the one takeaway should be. For an asset protection video, the objective might just be to give someone a general idea of what an asset protection strategy even is. That is it.

Assume the viewer has zero context. They do not know who you are, they do not know what your service is, and they might not even know the basics of your industry. When people are scrolling social media, they are in lizard-brain mode. A 120-IQ business owner becomes a 7-IQ scroller. Write for that person. There is a tool called Hemingway App that grades your writing level — aim for third grade. You can also use ChatGPT to simplify complicated steps, but do not use it to write the script from scratch.

Keep it to bullet points. Three to five steps maximum. For each step, state what it is and give one sentence of context. If you cannot make a step make sense in two lines, zoom out. You are getting too specific. The difference between “we do an audit of your current properties and entity structure” and “we look at everything you own and figure out how to organize it properly” is the difference between content that confuses people and content that converts.

Why This Matters for Expert-Driven Businesses

As experts in our fields, we have this tendency to assume other people understand more about our work than they actually do. Accountants throw around terms like EBITDA and revenue and profit, and then they get confused why nobody pays attention to their content.

Simplify it down. That is the entire takeaway. If this whole video were an Instagram Reel, the message would be three words: stop using jargon.

Every framework, every tip, every idea in this breakdown would not fit into a 30 to 60-second social video. And it does not need to. Save the depth for YouTube or long-form content. Social media is about one clear, simple idea delivered in a way that a third grader could understand.

If you take one thing from this, it is that you are probably overcomplicating your social media content. Strip it back to benefits, pain points, and simple hooks — and then just keep repeating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Start by listing the benefits of your service and the pain points you solve for clients. Each benefit and pain point becomes a hook for a piece of content. You really only need 5 to 10 core topics, and then you repeat them with slightly different hooks every one to two weeks. This approach has kept us posting twice a day with 30 to 60 days of content banked at all times.

Every one to two weeks. People need to be reminded more than they need to be told. Different ways of communicating the same idea will resonate with different types of people, so the repetition actually expands your reach. If you look at the top creators on Instagram, their most-viewed videos are often the same concept repackaged with fresh hooks.

What is the broad-narrow-niche framework for content hooks?

It is a three-line structure for writing hooks. Line one is broad — something anyone would care about, like money or protecting your assets. Line two narrows to a more specific audience, like real estate investors. Line three goes full niche with your exact service. This structure grabs wide attention at the top and then filters down to the right people by the time you get into the actual content.

Keep them to 30 to 60 seconds. Define a single objective for each video, assume the viewer has zero context about you or your industry, and boil your message down to three to five bullet points. If you cannot explain a step in two lines, you are getting too specific for social media. Save the depth for YouTube or long-form platforms.