Golden Practices Blog

Bosses Worthy of Raving About

An uplifting post on Lisa Hanneberg's Management Craft blog just in time for Bosses Day. It's very refreshing to hear people who adore their bosses!

Why Invest In Search Engine Ranking?

Where do you and your firm show up in the search engines?

Not saying that investing in SEO would have completely prevented the situation below, but it might have helped.

If you've ever found that your competitors, the media, or even others with similar names come up far ahead of you when searching your name or your firm's name on the Internet, you should probably do something about it.

Realize that prospects, referral sources and, especially, potential employees are highly likely to use the Web to look you up. Maybe just to get a phone number or address for directions...

What do they find about you when they search? 

Hopefully it's your site and your content in the first few results returned. Not so for this firm. Over at LexBlog, Kevin O'Keefe just ran this story:

GOOGLE WINS LAWSUIT OVER SEARCH RESULTS

An accounting firm sued Google complaining they were being hurt by the top search results when search for the firm were that the firm had been "disciplined by the California Board of Accountancy for gross negligence."

Santa Clara Law Prof Eric Goldman reports a California Appellate Court this week upheld the trial courts dismissal of the lawsuit. In addition, the plaintiff accounting firm was ordered to pay Google $23,000 in attorney's fees and costs under California SLAPP law.

Be careful out there folks. What people report about you may be memorialized at Google for a long time to come. And there ain't much you're going to do about it.

As for this accounting firm, Google search results now include the disciplinary action of long ago plus tons of commentary that this lawsuit may have been without merit.

Not much recourse. Hopefully the firm can get its own site to advance in the rankings. Also note the power of social media is very real as Kevin notes the commentary that is also getting picked up.

**Note: A decent blog can boost your rankings enormously.

Designing for Accountants and Lawyers

Anyone who has ever designed anything, either print or electronic, for a CPA or Law firm, will certainly appreciate the "Microsoft redesigns Apple's iPod packaging" video.

Enjoy!!

Tip for marketers:  SHOW your people this video when trying to explain why less is more!

So, What's a Blog Again?

I like this short description of blogging posted by Kevin O'Keefe (of LexBlog):

Talked to a lawyer from New York City last evening who had little understanding of blogs. After 15 minutes, she says, "I get it, blog posts are like emails to your target audience keeping them informed of things of interest in your area of practice."

Generation Gap--Less Chasm, More Fissure

I just read with great interest Allison Shields' post "What's Wrong With the New Generation of Lawyers?" referring back to a post Larry Bodine penned back in August called "Generation Gap Hurts Law Firm Marketing."

I really like Allison's take and find myself in strong agreement with her (which happens a lot, actually). What she writes above parallels (though much more eloquently) what ran through my mind when I first read Larry's post.

I don't contest the American Lawyer survey findings that 69% of associates don't expect or desire partnership. I, too, hear this in both law and accounting firms. I agree with her (a former practicing lawyer) that one cannot draw the conclusion (as did Larry) that associates not aspiring to become partner directly correlates with a lack of desire to market.

Allison nicely explains why lack of a clear desire to be partner doesn't necessarily equate to lack of willingness to market.

Just because a lawyer may not want to make partner or have a life-long legal career doesn't necessarily mean that young lawyers aren't interested in their firms, or in marketing. Most young lawyers realize that marketing and bringing in business will increase their professional reputation as well as their own personal bottom line, whether they ultimately stay with their firm or not.

From what I witness, more often than not, associates are more interested in, and willing to participate in, "organized" and "preplanned" marketing activities than are partners.

In the rare instances they don't participate, it is largely because partners don't practice what they preach (i.e. do the marketing planning and activities themselves). Other times it's because associates aren't taught the benefits or techniques of business development. Not taught the benefits to them, they might conclude their marketing efforts are just to drive more profits to partners' pockets.

Stereotypes

In Bodine's post, I really find Cam Marston's narrowly painted stereotypes of Gen X &Y to be heavily (negatively) biased. And Larry's generalization is just as bad: "They don't want to be like the people who are in charge of the firm, the Baby Boomers who have a strong work ethic, are competitive, optimistic and show success visibly with trophies and plaques."

Judging from the people in firms that I meet, this is largely untrue on both sides of the equation. Not all Gen X/Y'ers lack work ethic, competitive spirit, and optimism. Not all "Boomers" have work ethic, are competitive, or care to show success visibly. And certainly, many Boomers have lost their professional optimism.

First of all, I don't think the generations are so far apart, really.

Why do people try to create a chasm, where one needn't exist! Though there are, of course, some differences between people in their 20s/30s and their 50s/60s, it occurs to me that the problems we see in firms aren't so much due to a "Generation Gap." It's a lack of conversation.

Whether in the boardroom, or in the media, sitting around making sweeping generalizations about our differences only makes us less connected, less comfortable with each other, and not more.

Could we possibly approach this in a more UNhealthy manner?

What say we compare what we DO agree on and see how we can build from there?

Where to Start...

Allison writes:

For many lawyers, 'work ethic' has become synonomous with giving over your entire life to your firm and putting the firm ahead of everything else - family, friends, outside interests, and even health. That's not a work ethic - that's slavery. It may bring financial rewards and prestige in some circles, but it also often brings depression, alcoholism, anxiety, stress and a whole host of other problems.

I would say this applies to ALL ages/generations of professionals. Shouldn't we strive to free practioners of ALL ages from this paradigm of unhealthy work attitude?

It's time to have conversations about a better way for the professions to do business. And that includes making it better for all the generations in a firm.

More Accounting Blogs

I'm delighted to add to the list of accounting firm or accounting related blogs out there. I posted a list of accounting blogs back in June, but here are a few more general accounting related blogs:

Accounting for a Detoured Economist by Chris Silvey

McClelland by a Purdue Accounting Prof. on the Interdisciplinary Science of Accounting

The Anonymous Accountant Blog on the trials and tribulations of a lone Big 4 auditor

A Counting School making the world safer for those without a calculator (looks to be authored by an accounting student)

Neil McIntyre an accountant in Toronto

Taxalicious is a "community blog site about one of the least popular topics in the world — taxes."

AccMan Pro on innovation for accountants

Accounting firm blogs for recruiting, culture, etc...

PKM Off the Ledger - day in the life stuff for those considering a career at the firm. Aimed at those new to the profession (as opposed to laterals). I admit I was skeptical at first thinking that the format would lend itself to running out of steam quickly, but they are carrying on well and look to have really diverse participation from within the firm. It's a little formal/stiff still--as though posts are run through the PR dept first--but this may change as they find their individual and collective "blog voices."

PwC People - wow, talk about transparency and NOT running their posts through a PR dept (or "PC" dept) - this blog, also focused on day in the life sorta stuff, has some grit. I find it fascinating and engaging to read posts, written in their own raw voices, from those who are openly gay (a partner and director), several mommies, someone very new to the firm (from industry), and a few who've been there since before the Price/Coopers merger. This blog originates from the UK.

For clients:

Deloitte has a series of podcasts that are interesting...

hat tip to Chris Silvey whose blog roll pointed me to some of these!