Is Your Firm on Facebook?
Source: CPA Success
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog entry by Tom Hood*.
If you ignore social media, will it go away?
We think the answer is an emphatic “No!” (See Bill Sheridan's interview with Rick Telberg.)
And we think that is the wrong question. The right question is “How can we harness the power of these new, mostly free tools to help us as CPA professionals?”
That is why we had a special four-hour session at the MACPA's Beach Retreat in Ocean City, Maryland. (Here is a copy of my presentation and pictures.) This post is for the brave participants who wanted to go deeper into the tools and how they might use them (and for all of you who are starting to think about this phenomenon a bit more).
Here is how to get started:
- Educate yourself. Use our free, online, self-directed learning program for social media (15 minutes a day for 35 exercises) — www.cpalearning2.com.
- Create your digital footprint. Create profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google.
- Start listening. Use Google Reader or Bloglines to begin reading thought leaders in your profession or areas of interest. (See Week 6 on RSS and newsreaders.)
- Continue listening. Create your Twitter account and follow your profession and areas of interest. (See Thing 18 and follow us on Twitter — MACPA, Bill Sheridan, Tom Hood.)
- Start publishing! Create a blog (TypePad, Blogger, Tumblr.) and record your thoughts. (See Week 2: Create your blog.)
- Share. Recognize and promote the people you find interesting. Remember to be authentic, show some of your personality, and provide value, first and foremost.
For the complete blog entry, click here.
From CPA Success, the blog of the Maryland Association of CPAs, www.cpasuccess.com, July 5, 2010, “CPAs: how to jumpstart your social media strategy.”
*Tom Hood is executive director and CEO of the Maryland Associations of CPAs.