Coming soon to a computer terminal near you

I have written before about tweeting and networking online, but I was just at a seminar for a local practitioner group and the subject was social networking so I wanted to touch on it again. Not surprisingly, there is a lot of concern regarding ethics and advertising. People are also concerned about security and about whether they need a disclaimer on their professional posts so as not to be construed as professional advice.
Certainly these are valid concerns to some extent. As a profession, accountants don't seem to be big advertisers, even when it is allowed. I expect it has to do with our profession and relationships being so strongly based in trust. But can we afford not to embrace the changes to the world that the technology brings? Even if being involved in the technology does not bring real value to our clients, we have to consider the perceived value when they see us as technically savvy.
It is interesting how technology has changed our profession. 25 years ago an accountant could make a good living being a more educated bookkeeper. Now, however, with all of the bookkeeping software available, even bookkeepers are having trouble making a living at being a bookkeeper. Granted, 'garbage in, garbage out' means there will always be some need for us in a supervisory capacity, but a lot of what used to be accountant's work is now being done by someone with very little training due to the sophistication of the software and that means we have to keep showing our clients that we are in-the-know in a way that they value.
Someone at the seminar brought up how little value it is to repost something that was posted via an IRS or State Tax Authority website, or why Twitter when you already have a company web page or send out a client email. I don't know about you, but my clients don't go to the IRS website to check for relevant updates, wouldn't think to go to my company web page (if I had one) and might open but probably wouldn't read a client email. The speaker said the percentage of newsletters that was opened was small and the percentage that were clicked-through was even smaller. A relevant tweet to your clients has a better chance of being seen. A post on your facebook page has a better chance of being noticed and has the opportunity of further questions or comments from your clients.
So how many of us take the opportunity to casually connect with our clients, giving them an opening to think of us outside of when they need us, and let them see that we are thinking about them.


Marci Grossman CPA
www.AccountingWeb.com