A partner in a twenty partner firm has thanked me most enthusiastically for my presentation at yesterday’s social media seminar. I was one of 5 speakers engaged by the IT Faculty to speak on Business opportunities for accountants using social media.
My new friend (whom I had never engaged with or met previously) came straight upto me after the event in Chartered Accountants Hall and has since been kind enough to send his views through by email:
“Thank you for being the first person I have listened to over the past 18 months on the subject of social networking for accountants to actually make sense, dispel myths, speak honestly and command a superior knowledge of the issues affecting partners on a day to day basis. Without doubt, in my opinion, the definitive voice for practitioners on social media matters.“
It all sounds a bit gushing but to be honest I walked away from your talk today enlightened and excited to hear the reality that twitter for organisations such as mine will not work. I have spent the past 18 months being told by presenters that we have to be tweeting and it will generate business for us whilst being utterly convinced that our target clients do not operate in this medium. Small businesses and low cost accounting solutions could profit using the twitter forum but they are not my firm’s target clients Fun as it maybe, it underlines my personal belief that the time investment is too great for individuals maintaining active ledgers and our energies are best spent elsewhere.
Thanks for hopefully shaping a more productive future for my firm by being honest and reenergising LinkedIn as a business development tool.
I’m very touched especially as that’s pretty much what I think he said when he rushed over at the end of my talk. And this is pretty much exactly the type of reaction I had hoped to achieve.
To be fair I didn’t say twitter wouldn’t work. Just that you need to consider how long it will take to get a return from the time it takes to build up a positive reputation on twitter; and to consider whether your target audience is engaged on twitter. For many accountants the conclusion will be that there are better ways to spend their time. This is pretty much what I said in my first article on the subject 1n December 2008.
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There is some merit in this argument but there are opportunities to be had on twitter.
It really depends what you consider as a good ROI for your efforts. Too many professionals think twitter should be used solely as a dry medium to communicate industry updates. On a social network who wants to read about the latest rise in capital allowances?
IMO it should be utilised by turning your staff into advocates of the firm. Building relationships in their local area with a mixture of personal and professional tweets.
Building relationships and trust will bring business opportunities over time just like any real life “networking” scenario.
Cheers Peter (and love your title: The Tax Father). I think we’re agreed actually – although I’ve not herd anyone suggest encouraging staff to tweet as advocates of the firm. An intriguing idea that could indeed be worthwhile or might also lead to time wasting. Depends on your team I guess.