Boy, have things changed.
A year ago in June, we had about 35 practice blogs by accountants on our Accounting Blog List. Now, there are 95. January 1 there were 65. There is some now some momentum.
30 were built and launched during "busy season" which is amazing enough because back when I entered accounting marketing in the early 90s, CPAs took a marketing hiatus for the first four months of each year. Not so anymore.
Still only 22 "industry sector" blogs so if you are mulling over starting one, the playing field is very wide open for you to own your space.
This isn't about numbers, though, it's about results. I've mentioned some blogger success stories before but a couple exciting new ones have come to be known recently.
Scott Heintzelman, The Exuberant Accountant
Scott launched his blog a year ago. He learned about the potential for CPAs in this interesting medium a year earlier when he attended a meeting of IGAF Worldwide, his firm's international association where I happened to be speaking. Scott was fired up!
I remember talking to him at dinner and I could almost see the wheels spinning: "I've got to do this...how can I make this happen..." (He's in a bigger firm, McKonly Asbury, where I imagine he was thinking that not all his partners would likely be on board with this wacky concept). But his firm acquiesced and his terrific marketing director Jim Rodgers, helped him breathe life into the blog, aptly named if you know Scott!
Corresponding with him when he first started it, Scott had some questions about approaches to his post writing and other normal concerns (am I doing this right? are people really gonna subscribe to my blog?). Some early blog comments from friends and strangers served to encourage him on his journey. It wasn't long before Scott was invited to join the AccountingWEB Bloggers Crew.
It's a year later. Scott emailed me a week or so ago about the first (known) 100% blog-driven referral he received. Here's what he said:
And, as beautiful luck would have it, Scott's blog--along with a few other great accounting blogs including another firm I mentioned in the prior success story link above, Mercer & Hole--were just picked up in Entrepreneur in a story "Accounting Blogs" by Peter Renton.
Paul Neiffer, Farm CPA Today
Another blogger of note is Paul Neiffer. Paul contacted us (through this blog, in fact) late in 2008 and officially went live with his blog in Feb 2009. He had a nice little backlog of posts when he launched and has been going to town on it since then.
Paul grew up in a farm business and gets his own tractor time each year still though he doesn't have a farm in Washington where he practices accounting. This CPA completely got it that his posts needn't (actually shouldn't) all be about debits and credits. You will get to know Paul's genuinely helpful, thoughtful personality in a handful of posts.
Because his blog is sector specific, his audience will appreciate and find relevant anything that farmers care about. This makes for a much more interesting read and Paul is proving to be a natural at delivering great content in a friendly way.
After just 3-4 months, and as a direct result of blogging, Paul has been sought out to write the tax chapter of a farming book and he is developing an alliance with a farm organization that he merely admired from afar when we first spoke.
I'm so proud of both of these guys as well as Mercer & Hole's SME blog team, Tom Selling of The Accounting Onion, Key Bell of Don't Mess With Taxes, and the folks at The Accounting Coach, too, for their great work with their blogs which are leading them to wonderful successes.
Michelle Golden's first in-store book sighting! Click to read Michelle's bio
Michelle -
We have corresponded before, but I am looking for some feedback from you and others regarding how to convince or persuade CPA firms to use social media to build a tax practice.
As you know, I started a national state and local tax (SALT) blog (http://leveragesalt.blogspot.com/) back in January 2009 to build a practice, etc. I also started using Twitter a month or so ago. To this point it has generated some business, referrals, and guest blogging opportunities.
I have recently had discussions with national CPA firms about using social media to grow their SALT practices, and they seem hesitant or stuck in "non-traditional" methods of marketing, etc.
My argument is that companies interact with CCH, or RIA, etc. everyday to get tax developments. Do they interact every day with their SALT consultant? In addition, by the time firms come out with articles or analysis on SALT developments, it is old news. A blog post can be done in a shorter amount of time with, I believe, just as much effect.
Do you think I will be successful in convincing these firms to use social media?
Posted by: Brian Strahle | June 17, 2009 at 02:58 PM
Thank you Michelle for all your leadership to our industry!! You Rock!!
Posted by: Scott Heintzelman | June 17, 2009 at 08:12 PM