Accountants Round Up

"Social Media: Just Get Plugged In Already"

By Liz Gold: It’s not about the technology, it’s about the relationships. This mantra comes from Tom Hood CPA and president of the Maryland Association of CPAs. Of course, he’s right – when talking about social media.

In a recent blog post, Hood relayed this message to the 25 participants in the AICPA’s Leadership Academy earlier in the month, noting that many young professionals feel that their firms don’t “get it” when it comes to social media and are blocking such sites in their organizations.

Read complete post Social Media: Just Get Plugged In Already
Source: Accounting Tomorrow, 15 July 2009. © 2009 Accountants Media Group and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Getting Started in the World of Social Media"

By Brian Swanson: As a new or young accountant there are a number of responsibilities and challenges on your plate.

Much of your time is dedicated to training on regulations (such as GAAP, tax codes, etc), internal firm processes, the studying for the CPA exam, CPE courses if you are credentialed, not to mention the day-to-day tasks associated with client service and delivery.

And you still need to consider how you will develop your professional network.

Read complete article Getting Started in the World of Social Media
Source: Accounting Tomorrow, 28 July 2009. © 2009 Accountants Media Group and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Twitter 101 for Law Firms and Other Businesses: From Twitter"

By Kevin O'Keefe: Twitter reached out to the business community this past week with a Twitter 101 for businesses at business.twitter.com of all places. It's an excellent resource for lawyers and law firms.

Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.

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Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 25 July 2009. Copyright © 2009, LexBlog. All Rights Reserved.

"The Most Important Marketing Question"

By Rebel Brown: I was listening to a product launch webinar early this morning. The speakers were droning on and on about technology and architecture and innovation.  Not a customer benefit in sight - other than the usual generic claims of 'market leading' performance,' unmatched' reliability, 'next generation' features and all the other 'me toos'. 

To be fair, the vendor was presenting the product facts quite well.  But they were leaving it to their listeners to sift through the technology claims to apply its capabilities to their own situation.

Read complete post The Most Important Marketing Question
Source: Phoenix Rising, 11 May 2009.

"The ROI of Social Networking"

By John Jantsch: One of the most common reason stated by small businesses for not embracing social networking is that they can’t measure or, worse yet, don’t believe there is any solid return on the investment of participation. I get emails almost daily from frustrated marketers who want to dive more fully into social networking, but can’t convince the boss that it’s worth it.

My response to the ROI roadblock is this - How does your boss measure the ROI of attending Chamber mixers, participating in Associations, and dropping in on networking luncheons?

Read complete post The ROI of Social Networking
Source: Small Business Marketing Blog, 23 July 2009. Copyright 2003-2009 Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing.

"100 Accounting Practice Blogs!"

By Michelle Golden: Having just updated the Accounting Blog List again (seems like every week or two) I am delighted to report that we have just crossed the 3-digit count threshold.

Read complete post 100 Accounting Practice Blogs!
Source: Golden Practices, 10 July 2009.

"The Top Ways Clients Buy"

By Michael McLaughlin: For most clients, finding the right consultant is a three-step process: Identify potential firms, assess the choices, and decide who to hire. An online survey of 220 professional services buyers conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit reveals how clients are using a combination of referrals, online resources, and one-on-one interactions to help decide which provider they want.

The top three ways clients find service providers are:

Read complete post The Top Ways Clients Buy
Source: Guerrilla Consulting, 15 June 2009.

"Keep Your Web Site Fresh"

By Tom Kane: It should be no secret that web site content continues to be king for purposes of search engines. Keywords, title tags, etc. are just additional jewels on the crown. So, keeping your web site fresh in terms of new content, fresh tags and keywords is important.

Further, according to SEO expert Tom O’Leary at The Attorney Marketing Blog in a post today, smaller firms have an advantage over BigLaw when it comes to search engines. It isn’t that they couldn’t overpower the smaller firms with their extra people power, it’s just that they don’t.

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Source: Legal Marketing Blog, 30 June 2009. Copyright © 2009, Kane Consulting, Inc.

"Using Social Networks for Fraud Examinations"

By Michael Cohn: Social networks like Facebook and MySpace are being used to conduct investigations to uncover fraud and identity theft, but they could also lead to those same problems.

At a New York State Society of CPAs conference last week, fraud investigator Cynthia Hetherington, founder of the Hetherington Group, talked about how social media can lend themselves to searches that can find information about employees who have misrepresented themselves to their employers.

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Source: WebCPA, 17 June 2009. © 2009 Accountants Media Group and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

"Charting A Firm's Social Media & Communications Policy"

By Michelle Golden: Rare is the firm that hasn't yet addressed controlling Internet usage, text messaging, instant messaging (IMing), and other forms of communication. This topic can quickly become heated, with some partners feeling very strongly that most, if not all, Internet activities are unproductive. A couple of comments like "Chris is checking Hotmail" and "Pat is on Facebook," and it isn't long before a policy is issued:

Access banned to third-party e-mail Web sites, instant messaging, blogs, and all social media sites. The Internet is to be used for research only!

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Source: Practical Accountant, 20 May 2009. © 2009 Accountants Media Group and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.