CPAs are Aflutter About Twitter (Part 1)

Why Twitter?

Most CPA firms are standing on a proverbial cliff wondering if they should make the leap into social media and in particular, Twitter. According to the poll on my blog, only 25% of firms are using Twitter while 43% are using Facebook and 93% are using LinkedIn. If you haven’t yet weighed in, please do so (the poll is in the column on the left).

Why should your firm make the leap and begin tweeting? Here are the top 5 reasons:

1. Ambient Intimacy / Lightweight & Meaningful Connections

With a steady stream of tweets from your followers, you begin to get an idea of what others are thinking, feeling and doing. You can learn about their interests and figure out how you can connect in meaningful ways based on what your followers are tweeting about.

2. Share News & Commentary

There are two things you should share with your followers; up-to-date news about your expertise (because your clients/prospects are hopefully following you and this information is important to their business), and commentary about your life. That may seem odd, but how else can you build relationships/friendships with your followers if they don’t know anything about you other than your business? Always tweeting about work-related topics are boring, uninteresting, and can even be misinterpreted as spam. People will unfollow you if you don’t hold their interest or if they believe you are spamming them.

3. Real Time News Source

A nearby ferry passenger scooped the entire news media on the US Airways water landing in the Hudson River. Using his phone, he tweeted a message about it and included a photo. I first heard about the passing of Michael Jackson because “RIP Michael Jackson” was a trending topic on Twitter. What’s a trending topic? On the left column of your Twitter page is a list of the top 10 most twittered tweets at any given moment in time. News spreads like wildfire on Twitter…

4. Mind Reading

Thought it was impossible to read your clients’ minds? It’s not…if you’re following each other, you are able to get a keen insight into their business and personal lives. You have the ability to perform all kinds of searches (more info to come in future posts) and can get an idea of what people are thinking about and what groups are focusing on.

5. Business Conversations

Yes, it is possible to hold business conversations through Twitter. In fact, Twitter allows you to have real time engagement with your clients and other important people (see Centers of Influence) in a public forum. Using Direct Messages, Replies, Hashtags and Tweetups, you can connect regularly with your followers (stay tuned for details on all those Twitter terms).

I will post 3 more blogs this week on Twitter; Getting Started/Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced User information. So stay tuned!

If you plan to make the leap (or already have but are quickly seeing how complicated 140 characters can be), I recommend buying The Twitter Book by Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein. It retails for $19.99 but you can find it on Amazon for under $14.