Golden Practices

Unveiling Mercer & Hole's New Website & Blogs

I'm thrilled to announce today's launch of a very rapid (3-4 month) website redesign of 100+ person UK Chartered Accounting firm, Mercer & Hole.

Incorporated in the firm's site are three, count 'em three(!), practice-related blogs:

1. Insolvency Blog (launched earlier by Chris Laughton and now integrated with the firm's site)
2. SME Plus Blog for business owners and managers
3. Tax Plus Blog (named for their former print newsletter) geared to lawyers and other practitioners and focused on complex tax issues of high-wealth individuals, land owners and such.

Plus they have a marketing department led blog, News & Views, and an HR department led blog called People Plus geared for a dual audience of job candidates and other HR professionals.

The three practice blogs are built and hosted by Lexblog and the other two are built in Expression Engine along with the entire site.

The site has additional functionality that will be available in a few days including translations into French, Spanish and Italian (even sniffs out the language preference of the visitor providing the pages, where available, in their language of choice).

We've thoroughly enjoyed working with Mercer & Hole's marketing team as well as the amazing development team at Airbag Industries (I cannot say enough about Greg Storey...) and the Lexblog team, as well.

The Mercer & Hole team (l to r) consists of Helen (who left us midway to become a teacher!), (me), Lynne, Costas, Lindsay, and Alan (e-marketing specialist who joined as Helen left). They are a terrific group.

Now I'm off to update the Accounting Blog List...

Better Jobs and Better Places to Work

Recently learned about Jobs in the Money, a blog on jobs and career management for accounting and financial professionals. Check it out. It's written by Mark Feffer and Jon Jacobs of www.JobsintheMoney.com and www.efinancialcareers.com.

While the accounting profession goes through shifts to adapt culturally to new generations and to grapple with shortage of talent and waning interest in the partnership model, there is sure to be heightened interest in related careers.

I'm not promoting for young people to flee the profession, but heck, alternatives are out there and young professionals already know about them. So firms better perk their ears and take some action.

How, firms might ask? Step 1 - get open-minded.

My friend Ron Baker was at a conference recently where he met the two women who are responsible for ROWE - Results-Only Work Environment (their company is Culture Rx) that I wrote about awhile back on the VeraSage blog related to success that Best Buy had with ROWE.

Ron's subsequent post hits on a core issue young people have with the professions: time and results are completely unrelated. For the client or the company. Ron's post is called "Why People With No Talent Love Timesheets."

Though his title is meant to spark anger among supporters of the billable hour, the truths embedded in Ron's message cannot be ignored. Time and results are not related. Ever had an employee sit around and do nothing while on the clock? Ever feel unproductive yourself during the workday? Cases in point.

The Culture Rx people have recently launched a blog that is very interesting and will no doubt prove to be viewed as "controversial" by the conservative professions of accounting and law. We'll see. The blog is also called Culture Rx.

Do you have all the great people you need? Maybe. But it's not what I'm hearing from firm to firm.

So do you want really good people to really WANT to work at your firm? Do something about it. First step, start with an open mind.

Professionals Get Publicity and Opportunity Through Blogs

We've mentioned it before as a by-product of a good blog, but it's becoming more and more prevalent.

News media, book publishers, and trade organization publishers are reading professional service firm blogs and like what they see. Accountants and lawyers are getting visibility they never anticipated.

Two accounting bloggers I know have been contacted by Wiley about working on books!

One is Tracy Coenen of Sequence Inc whose Fraud Files blog has been around for awhile and is excellent! She wrote me recently:

"Just wanted to let you know that all my blogging and marketing has paid off! I just got a contract with Wiley to write a book on fraud!

Who'da thunk that a little person like me would get a contract with a great big publisher for Wiley, for a book that I've not even written yet!!! The book is "Essentials of Corporate Fraud Management." It's geared for C-Level executives, attorneys, and other professionals who need quick knowledge on a particular topic.

I have been doing so much cool stuff. writing articles all over the place, getting involved in a high-profile investigation....business has never been better. (And has never been more fun too!)"

Another is Chris Laughton, a UK chartered accountant whose Insolvency blog is only a couple months old! With a born-on date of Nov, 2006, Chris' blog has already caught the attention of the reputable publisher.

Even for professionals who don't thrill at the idea of authoring a book, good blogs can garner solos, boutiques, or even big firms the attention and visibility needed to be a recognized expert on a subject of choice.

As Tracey Segarra of Citrin Cooperman reported in her comment to my recent post about her firm's SOX blog (that was recently halted), author Mike Rhodes received some excellent media attention.

"...his blog led him to being quoted as a corporate governance expert in many national media, including Reuters and Forbes.com.

Unfortunately, time constraints made it difficult for him to give the blog the time and energy he felt it needed to serve its mission as a clearinghouse of information related to corporate governance.

He is still regularly quoted in the media, and truly enjoyed the blogging experience."

This is real and exciting. Just a couple years ago, getting this kind of exposure and opportunity would not have been possible without spending many tens of thousands of dollars with a PR agency--or doing a LOT of legwork oneself.

Kevin O'Keefe (a recovering lawyer) of Seattle-based LexBlog (the blog development service for lawyers) wrote about the new phenomena in his post "Online newspaper journalists offer networking & PR opportunities to blogging lawyers."

"Over the years I've spent a lot of money for the services of PR professionals.

They were good folks with a tough job. First, while not working inside in my law firms and companies, they had to learn as much as possible about me and what made my firms tick. Second, while being pounded on to make an unknown famous overnight, they had to beg and borrow to get me an interview or the company a mention in the press. Third, they had to do it on a limited budget.

But we needed those PR professionals because they had the needed contacts in the press. And they, not us, knew how to communicate with the media.

With blogs and social networks, you, as a lawyer, have every opportunity to make contacts in the press. Plus with user generated content and email taking the formality out of communications, you're certainly capable of communicating with the press.

You also have a the growing advantage of the press coming to you - to your online community that is. Per Brian Chin, our Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Senior Online Producer, 3.5 percent of the journalists working in the newsrooms of American newspapers now work online full time. "That's 2,000 out of the 57,000 in the American Society of Newspaper Editors' 2007 newsroom census."

Practioners are better able to develop media relationships directly rather than through an agency. Through blogs, they can earn the respect and attention of high profile journalists simply by talking (blogging) to their target audience.

Further, through blogs, professionals can even bypass the cutting room floor, and get their message out to their target audience on their own terms. It's exciting stuff!

No, David Meerman Scott, Thank *You*

On May 10, book and blog author David Meerman Scott announced his new book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and thanked a list of people he credits with helping him in his quest to complete this book. He builds on Seth Godin's 19 Rules for Authors with his own offer of a 20th rule:

Thank everyone who helped you. Writing a book takes a lot of time and a great deal of work. Many people help you along the way. And you must thank them. The list that I created and added to my acknowledgments to thank the bloggers I read and others who helped me is long (163 names). But the people on this list were critical to my process.

I'm really honored to be among those David mentions in his thank you post about the full book because David's advice in his ebook "The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly" has helped me so much and, in turn, has helped my clients and many people who have heard my presentations on building an effective electronic presence and capitalizing on using new media to accomplish traditional marketing objectives like public relations, David's specialty.

David, thank you for sharing your ideas so freely. I think you are both brilliant and generous.

I can't wait to read his new book on how to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers.

I'd also like to share the list of people David thanks because I've checked out quite a few and all those I've seen so far are fabulous bloggers:

Networking Event Follow-up: The Rule of Three

Bruce Allen suggests that three follow-ups from an event are a lot better than none and I'd have to agree. He says:

One event = one email, one note, one call.

With the best intentions in mind, writing handwritten notes to everyone you've met is a great idea. But it can seem like a monumental undertaking so what happens? Days go by...then weeks...pretty soon months...and then it's a year. No follow-ups made. I hate to admit it, but I've done this, too (sssshhhh).

Bruce, on his blog Marketing Catalyst, suggests this, instead:

Sort through the stack of business cards and select three. Hang on to those three cards and toss the rest into a corner to gather dust (or hand them off to get entered in a database or whatever -- just get them off your desk).

Email one, write a quick note to another, and call the third. You're done. I'd say this can easily be done in about 5 minutes.

This approach makes sense. Sure it would be optimal to follow up with everyone. But because three is better than none, which is what we end up with most of the time, then three sounds great to me.

Bruce's post is #7 in a series of posts on tips for networking at an event. These are excellent bits of advice! Check out the whole series starting at post #1.

A Running List of Accounting Blogs

Just when I needed to update a couple posts I made last fall and spring about specific accounting blogs I'm aware of, TypePad (my blog host) offers the perfect new way to share my list.

I've added a new "page" to this site (top left sidebar) that isn't a regular blog post so it's not part of my feed, but you can check it anytime for my current list of accounting blogs.

I've merged my two prior lists into one, added a couple, organized it a bit differently, and pulled off a couple abandoned blogs.

Sadly, it looks like one major firm that started a blog (Citrin Cooperman on SOX) has pulled its plug. I want to stress that this isn't a sign that blogging is going away, it's simply an indication that some of the necessary elements may not have been in place for that particular blog.

For a blog to be and stay successful, a blog needs:

• to be written by the right person or team (having a team helps with time issues)
• to cover the right topics (is the topic meaty enough to be sustained over time?)
• an authentic voice with transparency in order to draw readership (a PR department sanitized blog will be about as useful and popular as a static, brochure website), and
• corporate blogging policies and guidelines must exist to support the team, give them the autonomy they need in order to be effective, but also to protect the business' reputation and public impressions.

Failing to address these elements before beginning is a sure way to set a blog up for a disappointing outcome.

Blogs are about people and knowledge, not so much about marketing. This is why it's important to know and understand precisely how to make blogs work in a CPA firm environment, and to get the right people involved at the start.

So here's to monitoring and aiding the development and success of a lot more accounting blogs. Law sports thousands and yet there are still only about 18 20 PRACTICE ORIENTED blogs in the entire public accountancy profession.

The playing field is WIDE open folks.

Reception Ideas

I've written before about the "experience" of doing business with you. A few more great points and ideas are found on Seth Godin's blog this week in his post "How to be a Great Receptionist." He writes:

If the receptionist can change the mindset of the guest, good things happen (or, if it goes poorly, bad things)....So, a great receptionist starts by acting like Vice President, Reception.

A couple gems he offers are to spring for "a bowl of M&Ms or the occasional Heath Bar for a grumpy visitor." I'll add to that, why not have a small snack tray of indulgent AND healthy munchies for your visitors along with the beverages you offer? As busy as we all are today, it's often that we run too long without refueling and that is not really too good for the mood.

I love another of his ideas and I've encountered a firm or two who have done this:  "...ask the entire organization for updates as to who is coming in each day..."  Nothing flatters a guest more than being anticipated and welcomed warmly--by name! 'Oh, you must be Charles Jacob here to see Maureen...she's looking forward to seeing you.'

Spas tend to do this without failure...think of their target clientele...and consider the experience they are trying to create: relax, de-stress, you're-in-great hands. Is a professional firm so different?

Seth also offers: "Is there a TV in reception? Why not hook up some old Three Stooges DVDs?" (okay, maybe not Three Stooges, but something equally classic and universally loved is the point.)

A high-speed internet computer station is another suggestion he makes (not an uncommon idea) but I'll add to be sure to have a visible USB port (for flash drives) and a small laser printer. This makes for a very thoughtful reception area feature so visitors can check and print directions, flights and boarding passes, or print a document they may have meant to bring along.

And while you're at it, why not have a small flash drives available for a guest to use and even keep if they should need one.

I also like Seth's idea of "creating a collage of local organizations your fellow employees have helped with their volunteer work." I read this to mean to feature photos of your team doing great things and enjoying themselves doing it.

I'll add to that with a suggestion to feature a scrapbook of clippings of clients doing great things such as contributing to the community, achieving honors and awards and otherwise growing in their success (with their knowledge and permission, of course).

As I write this, I am reminded of photo albums in my obstetrician's office of hundreds of babies he's delivered...families proudly posing with their newborns--the doctor grinning beside the hospital bed which is a very nice visual of bedside manner, isn't it? Are you ever featured in the news or at events *with* your clients? If so, capture it. If not, why not? Arrange it!

There are so many ways to make life a little easier and better for people. Why not do more of it?

Too Many Categories

Today I did a big clean up of something that was bothering me about my blog...duplicative categories and over-categorization (meaning one post listed in too many different categories).

I saw Daniel Scocco's post "Organize Your Categories: 5 Practical Tips" on Daily Blog Tips and it reminded me that my duplicate and unclear category needed to go. I also learned that it's not such a great idea to put a post into a zillion different categories.

Read his blog for details, but his five tips are:

1. Category names must be descriptive
2. Limit the total number of categories
3. Make sure [the list of categories fits] in 1 screen
4. Try to put posts inside one category only
5. Display the number of posts inside each category

I've seen quite a few blogs with so many categories, it seems like a new one is set up every time the blogger posts. And I've seen others where only a few categories, usually extremely general, make it too time-consuming to scroll through a category to find what I'm looking for.

If yours is like the former, consider consolidating. If the latter, be sure to at least have a keyword search feature on your blog.

I noticed that Seth Godin's highly popular blog doesn't have categories at all, or a keyword search. He just uses a date archive which is not very helpful. (Sorry, Seth, I understand dislike of clutter, but please consider helping us find all your really cool stuff...I can't remember what you wrote in June of 2002.)

Daniel reinforces that date archives are pretty useless for someone looking for specific information:

I am opposed to monthly archives and to calendars (because the time when the content was written is not relevant) so the only way my reader has to find posts is through the categories.

I can appreciate Daniel's suggestion to limit a post to a single category, but (like some of his commenters)I think that is very dependent on the your particular blog and the structure of your categories.

An example might be if you write for a couple different audiences (say two different practice groups) and a handful of different key topics/subjects--you might always pick one of your two audience categories, and one of your various subject categories. Especially if you offer a feed for each audience category.

For the most part, I've reduced my posts to 1-3 categories. I was a bit category happy before...

If you're a reader looking for a category I used to have, the most impacted area was removal of a category called "Marketing" (duh, this is whole blog is marketing-related) that I broke up into other more specific groups: Marketing Budget, Marketing Professionals and Marketing Techniques. I got rid of New Marketer Tips (now it's just part of Marketing Professionals).

As a result of my clean-up, I had to republish my whole blog. If this cluttered up your reader today, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

Autonomy and Excelling, A Powerful Correlation

A lovely illustration of why micromanaging behaviors (including timesheets!) should be avoided at all costs. As Kathy Sierra (author of the wildly popular Creating Passionate Users blog) so wisely puts it:

"The more you use your reins, the less they'll use their brains."

See her whole post on micromanagement where she begins:

If you asked 100 managers which they'd prefer--employees who think, or mindless zombies who respond only (and exactly) as ordered, you'd get 100 responses of, 'What a ridiculous question. We hire smart people and stay out of their way so they can do their jobs.' And if you asked 100 managers to define their management style, none would claim to be micromanagers. Probe deeper, though, and the truth begins to emerge. 

And then she offers ways to determine if you are a micromanager and what to do if you are one or have one. Great stuff!

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy:  In case after case, it is evident that when you trust people to do well, they'll do everything in their power to show you that your trust is well-placed. But if you hold seeds of doubt as to their capabilities, they'll prove that, too.

(same as with kids...think about it, it's true!)

Technorati Jump

Hey just a little excitement today...this blog's Technorati ranking shot up about 14,000 *today* bringing it from flirting with the edge of the top 50,000 (for many months) to clearing it boldly at 37K. Cool. Thanks, readers.

Best Marketing Blogs

Todd Andrlik (who goes by Todd And) is a fresh-thinking PR & marketing consultant who was inspired to develop a list of the Top Marketing Blogs that he calls the Power 150.

He built it because he was looking for the best blogs on marketing, PR, branding, etc., and could only find a consolidated list in Dutch. So he set about developing an English language version and that's what you'll find here.

His scoring is a blend of popularity (Google pagerank+subscribers from one Bloglines feed+Technorati rank) and his subjective score.

There are a ton of fantastic blogs to explore in this list! I still haven't got through checking them all out. After his top 150, he lists about as many "honorable mentions."

With so many excellent blogs on marketing, I'm very honored that Golden Practices--especially being niche specific--is on this list (presently at 182). I owe my readers, and Todd, a big thank you for that.

Be sure to check out some of the other 295 blogs he has identified. And if you want to search these blogs for specific advise, click on his Kitchen Sink link and do a keyword search. For anyone with marketing questions, this is a HUGE resource!

Thank you for creating this, Todd!

Blogging Law

An excellent summary on current blogging laws in the US.

Aviva Directory has very nicely recapped 12 issues that can hang up bloggers such as comments, images, deep-linking and citing others (fair use).

Of course, these laws are continually evolving as precedent hasn't existed for a lot of these issues--so consider blogging laws a moving target. In addition to advice following discussion of each of the 12 legal issues, suggestions framed as "always" "never" and "consider" provide conservative guidance. After the 12 issues, you'll find a healthy list of resources for more info.

Hat tip to David Maister for mentioning this site.

Airlines, Mushrooms, and Apologies

I don't mean to pick on JetBlue. I've never flown them (not a big presence here in St. Louis) but I have a lot o f friends who do and they swear by the airline despite the unfortunate weather debacle in NY. My biggest issue with that situation was the lack of a fast and dramatic "making up for it" action (like Intuit re Turbo Tax problems).

I don't fly Northwest Airlines very often. I flew them recently, though. Today, I opened a letter that said:

"I personally want to apologize to you for the delay in your travel plans. To show you my commitment to quality service, I am adding 1000 bonus miles to your WorldPerks account....I hope you will give us an opportunity to restore your confidence..."

I fly frequently enough (usually American and United) that I usually don't even notice an hour delay. I had to think back and try hard to remember this particular delay. Wow, my usual airlines don't do anything like this. Hmmm. Too bad NWA doesn't go (conveniently) from St Louis to most of my destinations.

Does your firm do something like this for what might be minor inconveniences where your customer hasn't even squawked??

Or does your firm do what Romano's Macaroni Grill (on Brentwood) did the other night when our family went out for my son's 15th birthday?

The restaurant served my eldest son's girlfriend a dish containing mushrooms despite very clear instructions to omit them because she is extremely allergic. The mushrooms were discovered after the dish was partially eaten which caused a lot of anxiety for everyone, especially the girl, who was visibly shaking with fear of her throat swelling up.

The waitress 'reassured' us that "It isn't my fault, the kitchen messed up." Of course, this blame avoidance only served to infuriate all of us. (See my post Blame Avoidance: Why It's a Fatal Error).

Recognizing that mistakes happen and you sure can't please everyone all of the time, isn't it awesome when people who work for companies do and say the right thing!?

Does your company have high standards and train your people to do and say the right thing? Do the leaders in your organization emulate optimal service or do they teach others, by their example, that something less is acceptable?

Don't Treat All Your Clients the Same

In creating a great organization, we'd all like to assure that every person in the company or firm provides consistently excellent service.

But, in reality, do you find that, within your firm, different professionals render different levels or quality of service? This is pretty common, I think.

We find that people within a firm are pretty consistent overall but out of every 10 or so, there seems to be at least one person that seems more exceptional and one that seems sub-par.

Your firm or company should have base-line service standards that are applied to all customers across the board. All customers should be able to rely on treatment that is prompt, fair, respectful, and pleasant--even if the 'news' or 'deliverable' is unpleasant. This is reputation insurance if nothing else.

The base-line standards should hold true no matter who is communicating with the client or who is responsible for them--whether the "lead" partner or manager, an assisting partner, a first year associate, a file clerk or the janitor.

If you have people who are sub-par at service, without a doubt, this needs to be fixed. Your reputation is vulnerable.

But it might surprise you that now I'm going to state that not all customers should be treated equally.

Above your base-line standards (about which many firms don't even have documentation or training, much less accountability...) it's just not physically possible to treat all customers the same (silly little barriers like 'not enough time in the day' seem to prohibit this).

It's actually okay to give super-deluxe service to your very best customers, to give some extras to good customers, and to give your base-line (which I'd hope is still at least slightly above average) to all the rest.

Think of it like an airplane--but it's not just about how much someone is paying you (revenue) for the one ticket, it's how important their overall continued patronage is to you. Loyalty works both ways. Think about hierarchy in standby, upgrades, legroom (United has 'Economy Plus'), club access, and more. This doesn't mean an airline should be rude to coach passengers, but that each step up gets a little better.

Make sure your base-line standards are better than average. And make sure you know exactly who your "good" and "very best" are above that. (See my recent post Who ARE Your Best Clients? for exactly how to evaluate customers.) 

Make sure everyone in your firm knows who's who, too, so that the right level of service can be delivered consistently from person to person. When anyone pulls up a customer in your database, shouldn't they immediately know if they are "gold" "platinum" or "executive platinum" so they can act accordingly?