Golden Practices Blog

How Effective is Your Social Marketing?

Veteran CPA firm marketer Katie Tolin had posted an article on the need for a social marketing audit in a LinkedIn group I manage a while back and I just spotted it (yeah, I know, my bad).

I commented there with some specific recommendations and thought I'd share them here with you, too. Here's what I wrote, slightly modified for this blog...

I think it's important for the marketing departmant to have their arms around who in the organization is doing what online (only relevant to the org, of course) and to help those individuals learn the best, most effective ways to interact on the Interwebs.

Knowing where people "are" is a good start, but we (as their marketing educators and supporters) want to help them focus their efforts and be aware of signs of true success so they become increasingly encouraged when they occur.

The signs can be quite subtle and might go unnoticed!

Why Outsourcing Social Media Isn't Always the Best Step

Social media takes considerable time and energy.

There are certainly aspects of maintaining a social media presence that are tempting to delegate to interns or outsource to outside companies. 

But wait.

Before you turn to others to "do your social media" for you, remember that social media are just communication tools like telephones and email.

When you have someone "do" email or phone for you, what's that like? How does it go over with the recipient? Would you let just anyone do it?

I prefer you don't delegate the interaction at all. Delegate monitoring and even researching and drafting or the actual act of posting, if you have to.

But be very, very careful if you delegate more. 

If you're a knowledge worker—like a CPA or lawyer—delegating these things well requires finding someone who has exceptional judgment, thinks like you do, and resembles our idea of that superindispensable assistant of the old days—the one who anticipates what we need before we even know we need it. Like Radar O'Reilly.

That person can do your social media "for" you effectively. Interns most probably can't. Outside companies need to be carefully vetted.

(Note: I, in no way, endorse letting someone pretend to be you. I'm referring only to outsourcing company-level social-media interactions. If you have stand-ins for your individual-level interactions, you should be completely transparent about that. Without exception.)

Hiring good judgment isn't cheap. And it's rare to find.

Companies and firms of all sizes—even those with savvy, good-sized marketing departments—sometimes hire outside agencies to interact on the social web on their behalf. Whether it's corporate tweeting and Facebook-page posting, or posting comments on blogs to try to drive some traffic back to their website and boost SEO (search engine optimization), there are businesses who assure you that they'll handle everything you need—you essentially put your entire social web presence in their hands.

And some probably do a good job. (Another note: I've not personally found one yet.)

If you, as the person hiring them, don't know how to go about "doing" social media effectively to begin with, what they say could sound really good. The words and concepts are foreign to you. You don't really want to deal with it. Hiring them solves a big problem for you.

But check out that SEO link I just shared a couple paragraphs ago. Google tells you what to be wary of. Don't let the mystery of what social media entail make you blind to good decision making.

Many of these agencies resort to bad practices and slimy tactics to get you "out there." Sometimes on purpose, and sometimes it's just pure ignorance; they think the approaches are fine. They think what they sell is what you want. Like you sell Viagra or something.

This is why you need to understand what you're actually buying.

A few days ago, I received blog spam from one of the top 10 public-accounting firms in the world who seems to have retained an agency to alleviate their social-media headache.

Oops.

The comment they submitted on an ancient post of mine makes no effort to even pretend to interact with my blog. Its purpose is to attempt to improve search results for the firm related to the keywords included in the comment.

I'll guarantee you that the company is reporting to this Top 10 firm that "we've placed # of links for you as comments on credible blogs." Uh-huh.

Here, I've redacted the firm name and IP address to spare the firm some embarrassment. But not every firm is so fortunate.

Take Martindale-Hubbell (the 140-year-old lawyer-directory company) for example. They hired a company to help them and that company took a similar SEO-boosting path by posting comments to legal blogs.

They at least tried to be conversational. Sort of.

Much to MH's dismay, the hired gun posted a spammy, fake-conversational comment on the New York Personal Injury Attorney Blog whose author Eric Turkewitz called them out. This is the offending gibberish comment:

Being a representative of a law firm, reading an article and blogging and commenting on legal issues has always proved to be useful. To some extent, information given on such blogs and the comments and articles has benefited the victims facing complexities in term of legal issues and helps us also update our knowledge of what is happening around and what all complexities we should expect from our future cases.. It provides a great platform to discuss experiences and share knowledge.

This was particularly bad for MH because they happened to have been well into a promotion about being a leader in social media (which no one in the social-media space believed because of how isolated MH's lawyer listings are from important things like, say, Google searches) even before they proved they weren't a social-media leader with this really bad we-don't-get-it move.

MH stepped forward, answered the questions—albeit a bit inelegantly—and after they got dragged through the mud (see the comments on that mud post, too) later shared how they'd make good. 

Don't let this happen to you!

Be sure you know exactly what the agency (or person) you're thinking of hiring intends to do in your name. 

Do you really want random people making telephone calls or sending emails on your behalf?

Well, letting them interact on the interwebz for you is the very same thing. Without equipping your helpers with information they need in order to represent you knowledgeably, you could really look the fool.

Choose wisely and learn the basics and nuances about anything new to you before you go hiring someone to help you step into it or you could end up with it all over your shoe.

Feature photo courtesy of Joel Abroad on Flickr.

Integrating Social Media Into Your Current Marketing

Are you interested in integrating your marketing to include social media channels?

The first question, then, is: “What are you doing now?”

The odds are that you’re doing some things that can be leveraged into social media activities very nicely. Start with an inventory of all your non–social web activities.

Think about what you do and who you do it for, or in front of:

• Print products (brochures, flyers, etc.): What do you produce? How often? Who sees it?
• Websites: Do you have one or more websites? For whom are they geared?
• E-mails: What e-mail communications do you send? How often? Who sees them? 
• Advertisements: Do you have any TV, radio, print, web, or other advertisements? Where, when, and how often do they appear? Who sees them?
• Print articles: Do you write articles or guest columns? How often? For which publications? Who is the target audience?
• Case studies and testimonials: Do you collect or create these materials? From whom? What do you do with them?
• Surveys: Do you take surveys? Of whom? How often? What information do you collect?
• Membership in organizations: Are you involved in any trade, peer, general business, community, or charitable organizations? Who else is involved (audience)? How do you interact with others in the organization?
• Activities or programs: Do you sponsor any of these? If so, what are they?
• Events, classes, or seminars: Do you attend events, classes, or seminars? Which ones? Who else is there?
• Speaking engagements, seminars, webinars: Do you accept speaking engagements and for whom? Does your company host events, or are they hosted by other organizations? Where are they held?
• Media appearances: Do you appear on TV, radio, print, or on the Web as a resource or quoted expert? 

Other opportunities for sharing are our day-to-day interactions such as talking to people, e-mailing them, and print correspondence (including invoices). Any one of these activities can be bridged into another, or into your social media initiatives, as appropriate.

Remember, though, the tone in the social web is MUCH different than in advertising or traditional media.

De-fluff and de-spin with your actions online. In fact, I suggest you do so everywhere. No one likes gobbledygook and spin. 

Social media doesn't have to be a lot of extra work "on top of" what you're already doing.

There are undoubtedly a lot of untapped opportunities to build your reputation as a skilled, credible professional and perhaps even a “specialist” by maximizing what you already do.  

In the comments, let us know how you've made the most of an activity by leveraging it across multiple channels.

 

Above includes modified excerpt from Social Media Strategies for Professionals and their Firms (2010, Wiley).

Really. How Committed Are you to Caring About Your Customers?

I hate to talk about how amazing Zappos is, because everyone does it and, as David Meerman Scott wrote the other day in "The Trouble with Zappos," doing so frequently elicits eye-rolls from those of us who hear about them over and over and over. David's right. I've seen this myself in front of live audiences.

A lot of people, especially professional service providers, either think Zappos is an anomaly, or that their culture and attitudes don't apply to their firms.

Okay, fine. But please keep reading because this is important.

Last night, I was on the Zappos Facebook page and a few posts down, a customer of Zappos posted a photo of a bouquet and wrote this:

(Rosandra kindly granted me permission to share this)

So. I ask you. Does your firm do stuff like this for your customers?  

I don't mean the occasional congratulatory bouquet or funeral arrangement to the decision-maker at a client's office, but generously and sincerely caring about the people who buy from you and work with you to make the engagement a success? The bookkeeper? The GC's admin assistant? The receptionist?

Yeah, maybe it does cost too much money. Let's think about that. Zappos sells SHOES. Their average sale is probably less than $100. An average customer might buy a pair a quarter or spend, say, $400/year. So, how much is your average sale, again? 

Yeah, it does take extra time. That's the point. Caring takes a little time. No time. No care. How committed are you to the success of your firm? 

NEWSFLASH: YOU DO COMPETE WITH ZAPPOS

Just because Zappos is not a professional firm competitor, they are setting the bar very high among the same, exact people YOU sell to.

Just like Disney, Apple, The Ritz, FedEx, Nordstrom and all the examples we are "tired" of hearing about.

You/we HAVE to pay attention to this and learn from loyalty-creating behaviors they exhibit. We have to become committed to caring if we want to keep our customers. Both law and accounting professionals report that "client retention" is a top issue or concern for them now and in the short term. 

Keep rolling your eyes at companies like Zappos and client retention isn't going to improve.

Why "Personal Brand" is an Oxymoron & Doesn't Jive With Today's Online Marketing

You won’t hear me talk about building your “personal brand,” and that is because I feel strongly that brands are best suited for products and large companies. Brands are inherently IMpersonal.

Conceptually, I didn’t have a problem with substituting “personal brand” for reputation over the past decade or so, as popularized by Tom Peters in his 1997 Fast Company article, “The Brand Called You.” These concepts dramatically changed how employees set themselves apart from the organizations they worked for, which you could call personalizing, but in a way that maintained a corporate-like veil of positioning (spin) to the public.

But this was before online marketing was essential and social media came into play.

If we venture into social media (or any online presence) with a purpose of “branding” ourselves, it’s easy to think we ought to represent ourselves in a corporate-like, sanitized (aka inauthentic) way. This is exactly the opposite of how we need to present ourselves in the social Web.

The fact is, the social Web has truly lifted and burned the corporate veil. Spin is deplored.

Authenticity is a core value in the online world (any world, actually). The online community values usefulness, authenticity, altruism, and validation by outside parties.

If you go back and understand branding’s original purpose, it is to enable premium pricing, thus higher profits. For professionals in firms of any size, excellent reputation or specialization accomplishes the same.

And sadly, of all the professional firms I know who have spent vast sums to brand themselves, very few actually leverage their brands in their pricing! But I digress...

Our focus: a corporate brand isn’t essential for professionals to charge premium prices. A reputation, however, IS.

Being a “brand” can even be harmful to professionals. Why?

Because brands are impersonal and with very few exceptions, people (even on behalf of companies) don’t want to buy personalized knowledge and advice from an impersonal entity. Therefore professionals are far better off presenting themselves in their full, unique, human-y glory, than as a corporate brand. Add to that the fact that corporate brands are generally viewed as inaccessible and, to a great degree, unaccountable, and it becomes clear it's not the way to go for relationship-oriented professionals.

Even the largest corporate brands are trying very hard to position themselves more personally. 

At a recent marketing event featuring top brands, including Radio Flyer, Tropicana, Ford, Chevrolet, GM, Best Buy, Domino’s, Comcast, and Kodak, the single greatest take-away for blogger Jennifer Beese was,

It’s not about the product, it’s about the soul of the brand. It’s about people, not logos. In short, humanize your brand.

Professional firms, too, should recognize this shift and, like traditional "company" brands, stop trying so very hard to corporatize themselves. And rejoice because professionals have a tremendous advantage over corporations in doing this—the professional IS the product and good relationships are part of highest-quality service delivery. It's what customers WANT, hope for, and expect. 

If you are a professional, don’t worry about a building (aka manufacturing) a "brand" for yourself.

Instead, just focus on being true to who you are as you establish and maintain your professional reputation. Seek to do the work that inspires you most, and achieve a strong reputation through excellent expectation management. Being passionate about what you do, and professional and personable while you do it are the best things you can do for your practice to thrive and grow.

 

This is a modified excerpt from Social Media Strategies for Professionals and Their Firms (©2010 John Wiley & Sons).

Do You Make it Easy for People to Call You?

When people find you online, whether via your website, blog, or social media profile, can they easily place a call to you or email you?

I'm going to talk about two aspects of "ease": 1) access to your contact info, and 2) giving too many choices.

Where's Your Contact Info?

When they find YOU via social media profiles, they usually have your name so they know who they want: you.

But it's astonishing how many professional (accountant or lawyer) blogs I find with no contact information for the author. Sometimes I cannot even find the NAME of the author or a link to his or her company's website. (Hint: there are even some sites on the Accounting Blog List where this is the case... hope yours isn't one!)

And some firms don't have contact names and info right there, on each industry or service page of their websites. Why?

It's unfortunate that all that work being invested in marketing can't generate the phone calls these people probably would love to have.

There's another similar problem that stumps would-be callers: listing multiple names, but without context.

Which Person Do I Ask For?

When you run an ad or have a web "service" or "contact us" page that tells about a service you offer and lists multiple names (this is generally done for politics, yes??) answer me this... How can the reader decide who it is that he or she should ask for? 

A charming, witty friend of mine (let's call her "Jenny" since, well, that is her name) posted on Facebook this weekend about her foray into fantasy football and confessed that her approach to selection was to pick players based on whether their names sounded like those of a person she would have dated or would have named her children.

I was sufficiently amused. But if this was your business development at stake, you wouldn't be.

Well, when you list several names, it's literally a crap shoot as to which name the reader will select. Kinda like my friend's approach.

Only, what happens if some of the people whose names are listed are less equipped (personality-wise) to convert an inquiry to a sale? What if the person called is not very responsive? What if the best person for this role is not the most "senior" person, does the senior person get listed anyway? 

Some orgs list multiple names because they don't want to make the difficult decision about which ONE to list. So they'd rather delegate the choice to the reader (!?) and suffer the consequences of allowing them to select one that is less effective or advantageous for the firm?

This is a prime example of letting politics peel layers of marketing result value off of what could otherwise be an effective initiative.

To make it easy as possible for someone to call you, and ensure the best possible result, list ONE name: the name of the person most committed and most equipped to support the sales effort. 

Or, if you list multiple names, state WHY. I came across this firm, the Cadence Group, today.

THIS is a best practice! Emulate this in your calls to action.

When you list multiple contacts, tell people WHY. 

Does each person handle a different region? Does one handle A-L while the other takes M-Z? One for English speaking inquiries and the other for Spanish?

When you tell people exactly whom to call, and why, they can do it more quickly and more confidently. It is easier for them, and it gets you more and better results.

Don't make people guess. And don't make them hunt.

And don't ever, ever have just a "contact us" form with no alternate ways to reach you. Unless you don't actually want to be reached, that is...

Tom Pick Aptly Gathers Ammo for the Great Social Media ROI Debate

There's a great blog post I saw today that happens to refer to my past piece, "'What's the ROI of Social Media?' is the Wrong Question."

Check out Tom Pick's great approach to the The Social Media ROI Debate found on his blog Webbiquity and on Social Media Today. (I really enjoy following them on Facebook!)

Tom shares his own worthy perspective and then links to several resources either in favor of or supporting measuring ROI "of social media" in general, several who say it's not necessary or even impossible (where I stand with regard to a TOOL, yet ROI for an initiative can be), and a few in the "maybe" camp.

All the links he references (have looked at several so far) appear to be great reads (and I'm very honored to be included among them).

Where do you stand on the ROI discussion?

 

Setting Up a Blog (for Professionals)

I gave a presentation yesterday (hosted by Association for Accounting Marketing, but open to all) on Blogging 101, but it wasn't about "what" a blog is or "why" to have one...it was about "how" to go about setting one up, particularly in a professional firm. 

We covered topic selection, traits that make a successful author, the process in making strategic and technical set-up decisions, and a bit about content and promotion. Here are the documents I shared for the teleseminar. (I was excited that the slide deck was selected by Slideshare's editors as their featured presentation today in the How-To and DIY category!)

If you missed the session, you might still enjoy the handouts, and think about attending the second part on Aug 10 (details below).

Blogging: The Practical Matters

Anatomy of a Blog Post

New Blog Development Process

NEXT SESSION

The next session (Blogging 202) will cover expanding a blog's visibility and readership, monitoring online mentions and learning from your traffic data, finding blog content inspiration, and the process a blog author can expect to go through as he or she goes from noob to seasoned.

It will be held on Aug 10 (also free) and you can register at: http://bit.ly/GoldenBlogs202 You need not be a member of the association to sign up, but you will be prompted to set up an account. 

Personal Marketing Planning - Ideas

Had such an amazing time yesterday in Houston at the Assoc. for Accounting Marketing Houston Chapter's meeting where I have a talk on Personal Marketing Plans. It covered the process and mindset for creating them, as well as execution tips for both practitioners and the marketing professionals that support them. 

The attendees were wonderful and asked fantastic questions during and after the session. In follow up to them, and a resource to readers who couldn't attend, I am linking to my slide deck.

Personal Marketing Plans for Professionals from Michelle Golden

I also have some of the content in the slides (around the pie chart on slide 18) in a different format--a mind map. 

The mind map has lots of ideas for marketing activities that are appropriate for the various categories of:

• Current customers
• COIs or referral sources
• Prospective customers (new biz)
• Credibility building activities 
• Skill development, service improvement (aka R&D)

Further, on the mind map, all the items that are in "red" are items that can be achieved via social media in addition to traditional means. 

Download PMPideas

Lastly, I have a past post "What's in a Plan? Marketing Plan and Budget Development" that's related to this topic. You might find it of interest (it includes an older version of this Mindmap so use this version because it's been updated).  

I would love to hear from attendees (and others!) on your progress and questions are welcome anytime. 

Integrating Social Media and Radio

 I'm seeing some talented CPA firm marketing folks successfully meshing social media into their individual "traditional" specialty areas: radio, PR and networking. 

Over three posts, I'll tell you a bit about what each marketing professional has been doing, and each has also generously shared his or her hottest tips for success in the unique specialty area. Today's feature is radio.

Radio Meets Social Media
Eric Majchrzak at Freed Maxick Battaglia in upstate New York

Eric's background includes several years in broadcast radio (outbound marketing) developing strategies and promotional campaigns for various companies. Eric knows radio. And he's been with his CPA firm for about 7 years during which time, he has completely overhauled the firm's formerly outbound-only marketing approaches. 

Old media is not forgotten (e.g. print ads, direct mail, radio, and earned media placements) but now, touch points include high value content on their website, Twitter, and Facebook pages; leveraging LinkedIn via strong profiles, group activities, and questions/answers; and leveraging external blog communities; and enticing multi-channel campaigns like their Tax Credit Locator. 

He's used radio very effectively in his geographic market, both for paid advertising and feature opportunities. But where success recently exploded was in leveraging his CPA's featured radio guest opportunity using Twitter NOT just online but with a roadside (digital) billboard featuring their live twitter stream which carried tweets alerting drivers to tune into Freed Maxick's live guest appearance on the radio "Dave Barrett Talks Estate Taxes on WBEN-AM 930..."

Campaign results in the first 10 weeks include 490 new prospects (5-8 avg per day) of whom 35% are eligible for tax credits, and closing $75,000 in new business.

Eric's Tips for Radio-Related Marketing

• Employ Valuable Calls to Action - Paid commercials MUST have a call to action that's valuable to the audience. Seminars, checklists, whitepapers, survey results, consultations, diagnostic tools, etc are all good value offers. These value offerings differentiate you and engage which aligns perfectly with social media integration.
• Promote Niche Practices - Don't be afraid to use radio that goes deeper than just "general awareness" - just be sure the station is the right format and demographic for your niche.
• Leverage Radio for Earned/Free Media Opportunities - Develop relationships with news department and people besides the account exec - they have needs (experts on short notice) that you can fulfill! On-air expert clips often get aired throughout the day. Watch the value add up! 
• Stretch Your Radio Dollar - Get the MP3 of your radio spots (most stations will give this to you for no charge) and distribute them widely among your social media outposts - for guest appearances, link to the station's audio vault (sending visitors to them is a way to thank the station).
• Know Your Lead Sources - Use unique identifiers (URLs, phone numbers, etc) to track response sources so you can see what works best and modify for greater effectiveness where needed.
• Negotiate Wisely - In radio buy negotiations, don't disclose your budget up front. Make them work to find your limits. Negotiate rates for small flights, then add additional weeks if the rep works with you to sweeten the deal from there. They are usually willing to add extra value.

A Book for Professionals on Social Media

 I'm (gladly) in the final weeks of completing the manuscript for "Social Media Strategies for Professionals and their Firms: The Guide to Establishing Credibility & Accelerating Relationships." This is exhausting exhilarating because of the amount of sheer THINKING I've been forced able to do. 

I will be posting various bits and pieces from the book over the next couple months (it will be released in September, 2010) and inviting comments and critique while the book is still in the edit phase (or anytime, actually).

It's written primarily for legal, accounting and other financial advisory professionals. But other B2B professionals including consultants will, hopefully, also gain from it.

In order to serve as both a quick-start reference and a detailed strategic marketing planning resource, the book is organized into four key sections:

1. WHAT - provides the foundational information professionals need: definitions, rules of engagement, policy considerations, managing the unavoidable intersection of business and personal, an overview of "today's" most relevant tools, and a comparison of the tools.
2. WHY - answers questions about the purpose and value to professionals in using social media including: keys behind goal setting, establishing parameters for ROI, evolution of on-line reputation development and humanizing your marketing, and essentials for positioning yourself to be found by the "right" people.
3. HOW - discusses approaches to individual and firm-level social media strategies and delves into how-tos for the establishing yourself with tools that fall into the two big buckets of social media: networking and content-sharing.
4. TIPS - delivers just what you'd think: best practices, etiquette, cross-promoting, and even how to retire gracefully from your social media initiatives if you find they don't suit you.

I would LOVE and WELCOME your thoughts and suggestions about the structure and whether you think there is something important that I should include and may not have mentioned. 

Oh, and while I've been working on this, I've created a little timeline of the emergence of social media technologies (and behaviors) relative to the availability and evolution of the Internet. 

Seeing it like this was both impressive and (a little) scary for me as it relates to what we humans are capable of in such a small period of time. Wondering if you will have a similar reaction?

I can't help but think of a tweet I saw yesterday from Rebecca Ryan: "People will organize themselves; technology just helps them. -Ben Self, Blue State Digital"

Social Media Timeline

View more presentations from Michelle Golden.

If you use this graphic elsewhere, I just ask that please do so with attribution and a link or trackback here or to slideshare. Also, if you see any errors, please do let me know. Most of the dates came from Wikipedia.

Oscars Results Reflect Today's Marketing Climate - Content Reigns

 Some interesting backstage comments followed the Oscars on ABC News/Entertainment made by Kathryn Bigelow (Best Director for Hurt Locker) on the quality of the 2010 Oscar nominees. She said, 

"This has been a really extraordinary year for content, and content-driven material that is diverse and complex."

I was really moved when I read this. 

It's a reflection of what's garnering the most attention, and exactly mirrors what's happening on-line. What draws is content. 

Sure Avatar is beautiful. Very beautiful, indeed. Far surpassing any movie ever made. But let's be real. The story line is a re-do. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen the flick by naming the 80s movie the story parallels, but you'll know when you watch it. 

Funny when you think about it because, despite pretty redesigns, most current law and accounting firm website content is nearly IDENTICAL to the stuff the firms said about themselves in their first websites, circa 1995. 

And, THAT text came from where? Yes. Straight from the blah-blah, we-we-we, all-about us, fluffy brochures the firms used since.... when? The 80s. 

Just sayin'...

That approach is done. And those sites are so dead they don't even stink anymore! 

Today's web is ALL about content-driven material that is diverse and complex. 

I do see some firms venturing into web content with very watered down, Info-101-type content that wouldn't teach my 16 year-old anything, much less be a worthwhile resource for the C-Suite exec it is supposedly targeted to. 

No no no. Content should never be dumbed down. Please. Punch it UP. Aim high. 

If your audience doesn't get it because it's over their heads, they won't think LESS of you, they'll think MORE of you. This is far safer than dumbing down the content so much that it comes across as insulting or condescending. Be very careful of that.

Get out there. Show your intellect. Show your depth. MOVE people. Give them something to applaud. Stand out!

So, back to the Oscars for the lesson... Pretty is pretty. Popular is popular. But content wins. 

Photo: AP

Think Your Clients Use Your Firm's Website?

If you think your website exists primarily for clients, think again.

A lot of firms think about investing in pricey features that would be in a client-only portion of the website. Did you know that only about 1% of clients return to a firm’s site after hiring them? And when they do, it’s usually to find an address or phone number.

Firms think about adding a payment feature or a document storage tool where clients can get their electronic documents without bothering the firm to send copies. Yikes, how firm-centric are these ideas??

Firms also talk about putting valuable content and tools behind this client-only wall. This is exactly opposite of what your content strategy should be. Put your content and tools "out front" where people can see how brilliant and generous you are.

And recognize other audiences are using your site a lot more than clients ever will.

Clients expect you to personally impart any and all important information to them. Everyone else wants to be able to find it without, or before, having to interact with you.

Most CPA firm website visitors are job seekers; second are prospective clients or referral sources—particularly looking at biographies. Least visited are firms’ services pages.

Build your site features and content according to these realities and you'll get a lot more out of your site.

FAQ Pages for Accountants or Lawyers?

FAQs--the sort found on software or product sites--might not be the most effective approach for marketing a service firm, but what can we learn from them?

If most firms set about to add a general FAQ page today, without thinking it through, it would end up being more like a QWWYWA (Questions We Wish You Would Ask) page. This would be where the firm would regurgitate its brochure and proposal "all about us" language yet again.

But it's proven. That doesn't work.

LESSON ONE: PURPOSE

You don't sell a product that has finite function, limitations, or usage. The FAQ was first created for that. You sell knowledge. So what should your FAQ contain? Be certain of your purpose before you build it. See below.

LESSON TWO: TRANSPARENCY

If your FAQ is going to cover "why buy from us" or "how to buy from us" then be transparent about it. Some ideas about that...

I love how transparent the CEO of Zappos was yesterday in his email to employees about the Amazon / Zappos deal. A great letter, BTW, I commend Tony Hsieh on every aspect of it.

About 1/2 way down the letter begins a "Q&A" section, and 3/4 of the way down is this:

Q: I'm a business/financial reporter. Can you talk like a banker and use fancy-sounding language that we can print in a business publication? (where they used their canned marketing jargon)

And below that is Q: Can you talk like a lawyer now? (where they obviously put that requisite legal stuff)

If an accounting or law firm were to throw in some self-serving info in a FAQ, I would hope they would do it with this sort of transparency (and humor).

LESSON THREE: CONTENT

Who is an FAQ gonna help sell?

• Traditional FAQs are probably not going to close a $10K+ accounting/audit service or big piece of litigation to the C-suite.
• Bookkeeping or basic tax work, sure, but last time I checked, firms over $3-4 million in revenues aren't interested in doing more of either of those services.
• Bankruptcy, estate administration, or estate planning for an individual, perhaps.

For complex issues, some accountants and many lawyers have GREAT FAQ pages, and they are usually called blogs. If you really want an FAQ page, use a blog approach even for a static website.

Make an FAQ topic specific. Not an FAQ "about the firm" but about "estate planning" or "trusts" or "probate." Break a complex issue down into pieces and tackle each piece separately.

A blog is a better tool to accommodate this content style, though.

These professions are so complex that a good FAQ page is a discussion of meaningful issues--a fluid discussion because issues are fluid.

Here is a blog by a small but powerhouse firm who does public company audits aptly titled "Gray Matters." Does it get more complex than SEC compliance? This is meaningful, useful advice, and theoretical concepts (and not always towing the party line!) that keep CEOs, CFOs, and board members reading, and it substantiates the firm's level of knowledge. Big 4 folks subscribe to the blog, too. It's that good.

LESSON FOUR: EFFECTIVENESS

When your competitors read you, and media reads you, you know you are on the right track. When clients or prospects comment on how helpful the site was, or they actually contact you because of it, you are doing it right (assuming these are your goals).

If you are a professional service / knowledge firm, then my recommendation is to skip the all-about-us FAQ and give people evidence of your knowledge. Blog being your tool, or not.

Just, please, don't recycle your brochure language anymore, no one cares about it. Instead, answer questions real people have about real issues.

Show WHAT you know, don't just say you "know a lot of stuff." How, after all, does that make you any different from the person in the office across town?

Tips for Your Next Presentation - Start Off With a Bang!

Outstanding tips from Decker Communications' blog for starting your presentation. Leverage the most important part of your gig through drama and confidence:  Six Dos to Open Your Presentation

Fodder for Convincing Social Media Skeptics

Marketers! Listen up!

How to Sell Social Media to Cynics, Skeptics & Luddites - Tips, Resources & Advice

If you've got an interest in rolling out some social media strategies in your firm, but don't have your senior management on board with you quite yet, the above article is the one-stop shop "make your case" fodder that you need to help you win over your skeptics.

Are you a step further in your implementation? Or just wanting to be sure you head off the "Don'ts" before you "do" one?

From the same great folks at Interactive Insights Group is the Superlist of What NOT to Do in Social Media.

Neither of these are weak little blurbs on the subject. Both are meaty and packed with excellent examples and insights. They will take you awhile to pour through and digest.

Monitoring Yourself or Your Company Online

There are a lot of ways to find out if you or your business are being mentioned online which will include many print media outlets that also publish on the web such as business journals and more.

It used to be that you had to read a lot of magazines or newspapers yourself, or better yet, subscribe to an expensive media clipping service, in order to find out about any mentions. Not anymore.

In fact, since you can monitor for free, you should be following yourself, your company, your most important clients, and your competitors, too.

TOOLS FOR MONITORING

The three top tools to monitor are:

1. Google Alerts
2. Bloglines (run a search for your key term, then "subscribe" to it)
3. Twitter Search

Google Alerts sends you emails containing excerpts and links to any new webpages containing the search terms youset up with them. You can manage your search tems very easily.

Bloglines is a great and easy to use blog aggregator with powerful search capabilities. Any search term at all can be "subscribed to" so that all future blog posts on containing your term will pull into your Bloglines feeds. I like to use it to search for industry news and other hot topics, too, because it is so easy to manage my searches and it's really easy to email a story to myself or someone else.

Twitter is a microblogging tool that is literally exploding. Microblogging means that when posts are made, they are 140 characters or less. There is a LOT of commentary about companies on twitter--the forum just lends itself to it. You can bookmark your search so you don't have to reenter search terms again next time. You can also use Twilert.com to receive email notification of search results much like Google Alerts.

ACTING ON MENTIONS

So if you do find mentions of your company, product or about working with you, it's a really good idea to NOT ignore it. Regardless of where you find mentions about your company, there are, in the elegantly short words of Guy Kawasaki (in a post about how to use twitter), some actions you should take:

• People are pissed: help them out

• People are confused: help them out

• People who have questions: help them out

• People are happy: ask them to spread the word

You will find that people are delighted by contact with the company and that no matter how rocky the relationship started out, they usually become fans and evangelists. By simply monitoring what people are saying about you, you’re using Twitter better than 95% of the companies out there.

And I expand that to say that by acting on mentions of your company you're using ALL your tools better than 95% of the companies out there.

And don't forget to apply these four "help them/ask them" strategies when people tell you, directly, about their experiences working with you!

Marketing Via Differentiation: Music

ACCOUNTING SONGS

The Singing CPA, Steve Zelin, recently released a CD called No Accounting for The Holidays with tracks including:

• Most Deductible Time of the Year

• We Wish You a Great Big Refund

• Joy to the World (The Clients Paid)

• Dreydl, Dreydl, Dreydl (Taxes, Taxes, Taxes)

• Twelve Days of Taxes

• Go Home Ye Weary CPAs

Sounds like a lovely gift for your favorite CPA. He has two other CDs: Just Take A Sick Day and Magical Boxes, and he is available for booking. Might be perfect for a firm holiday party or end-of-tax-season gathering.

Through his music, he is definitely distinguishing himself! He's an alumnus of a Big 4 firm now in private tax practice.

This (similar to blogging) is an effective way to humanize oneself!

ACCOUNTING ROCK BAND?

Other musically inclined CPAs I'm aware of are The Accounting Crows (gotta love that name). Per their website:

The Accounting Crows are "Connecticut's only CPA Rock 'n' Roll Band." However, as auditors who recognize the importance of the rule called "full disclosure," they quickly point out that only 3 of the 4 members (or 75%) of the band are CPAs.

So who is the "other 25 percent" of the band? Mark Zampino, the Crow's keyboard player and only non-CPA, is the Public Affairs Director of the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants (CSCPA) and DNA-tested father of both the band and its name.

They are dynamite! My friend and AAM 2003 conference co-chair, Anne Angera and I booked them to kick off our Boston conference, the theme of which was "Revolutionary Marketing" which they epitomized.

They received a standing ovation.

While their band must be pretty good to have this many bookings, they exude fun, and they poke a lot of fun at themselves on their website.

Lead guitarist Alan Friedman, partner at Friedman Kanneberg in CT, has a practice that includes consulting in the music industry. And he leverages his band extremely well to benefit the accounting business as well as pro bono for important causes.

Their specialization claim is very nicely substantiated on their website, illustrated by his firm's membership in these organizations: National Assoc. of Music Merchants, Retail Print Music Dealers Assoc., National Assoc. of School Music Dealers, Percussive Arts Society, American Music Conference, and Audio Engineering Society. 

As if the memberships weren't support enough, this impressive list of representative clients clinches it.

The band has several other supporting cast members (Crows and Crowquettes) and are always looking for more, according to their (very cheeky) website:

Just read our band bio and you'll understand why we always need some heavy-duty musical stand-ins when last minute gig plans go awry. We never know when Reed is has not-for-profit audit overseas in Outer Slabovia, or Mike has to furnish his board of directors with a 50-page cost containment report requiring him to look up the word "containment" in the dictionary, or John has to be billable for a change, or Mark has to pretend to do something important for the CSCPA, or Alan has to go to the bathroom.

Accordingly, The Accounting Crows need either real CPAs or real musicians (as there's no such thing as a real "CPA musician") to be available when a band member's schedule conflicts with any one of the two important gigs we get each year.

 

All these CPAs deserve kudos and a closer look for gleaning ideas about how to successfully differentiate in a crowded marketplace.

Any other accounting musicians out there? How about rock-n-roll lawyers?

 

Hat tip to Greg Price for posting about Zelin on his blog From Greg's Head!

What's the Diff...Between JPEG, TIFF & GIF?

Whether you only dabble in digital photo use and manipulation, or you are a seasoned desktop publisher, you're likely to learn some great info in these articles on Graphics and the Internet, by Grant Osborne.

This one on JPEGs and JPG Compression and the other on the GIF File Format.

Among other things, the articles cover how to get  transparent backgrounds instead of the dreaded white box (around your shapely logo or graphic image) and how to get rid of the pesky white edge that can surround a graphic on a colored background as shown here.

(image from the source site)

Most Fun Thanksgiving Card!

Just received this fantastic card from an accounting firm, KOS (Kessler Orlean Silver) in the Chicago area

I love how they show they don't take themselves too seriously. The three hunters are the retired/semi-retired partners and the "new generation" partners are the happy, unsuspecting turkeys...

They do a great job of humanizing themselves, don't they?