CPA’s: Don’t Dodge the Blog

Of all the types of B2B professional services firms Marketri works with, accounting firms seem to be most hesitant to embrace social media, and particularly dodging the blog.  From my perspective, it seems that accountants tend to be more comfortable doing what they do, rather than discussing it.  I speculate that some other fears may be: wrapping up too much time that could be spent on client work, giving away too much thought leadership publicly, or conversely, the fear that no one will read it anyway, and maybe just a general uneasiness in stepping outside the comfort zone.

The fact is, in most industries, in order to grow your career there is a general shift toward marketing and business development.   Career-minded staff members are not only expected to do their allotted work well, but also to bring in new business.  As they move up the corporate ladder, the percentage of marketing and business development work eventually eclipses percentage of client work.

Blogging can Help Grow Your Firm and Your Career

Blogging is a great way for mid-level managers to share their expertise and grow their careers.  It’s also a major ingredient to the social media marketing mix.  Sharing your ideas and expertise can position you and your firm as “thought leaders” and showcases the firm’s knowledge and value before even approaching a prospect.  It positions you as a go-to resource in the industry, and also lets you show some personality—after all it is a service business.  If you are active on LinkedIn and Twitter, those arenas are perfect for sharing your (and your colleagues’) posts with your connections, followers and groups.  In addition, it boosts your search engine marketing—the more information on your site relevant to key word searches, the better your site is in Google’s point of view.  Lastly, blog posts often require some research, which by sharing in-house, benefits the rest of your staff.

Getting Started

So, now that you are on board with blogging, where to begin?  One of our recent posts offers tips for getting started.  Also, think about interesting topics and angles for posts.  Who is your target audience and what would they want to know?  Here are some general topics that might be interesting:

• Important changes in tax laws and policies and their implications
• Bookkeeping tips for small businesses
• Evaluations of new tools and programs
• Tax Q&A
• 10 biggest tax return mistakes small businesses make
• 5 estate planning tips
• Fraud prevention tactics
• Practice management
• Rain making / business development tips in the accounting industry

Please let us know how blogging has had a positive effect on your accounting firm, and if you still are dodging the blog, tell us why.