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7 APRIL 2011ACCOUNTANCYAGE.COM/FEATURES
SOCIAL NETWORKING : 15
T he whole world seems to havegonecrazyaboutsocialmedia:allof your family and friends are on
Facebook, your business contacts are all onLinkedIn, and even you have a Twitteraccount to rival Stephen Fry’s. Not onlydoeseveryoneseemtobe talkingaboutandusingtheseandothersocialmediasites, but the valuations being put onthecompaniesbehindthesesitesarereminiscentof thedot-combubbleattheturnofthemillennium.
The ability of these new tech-nologies to transform the waypeople communicate, buildcommunities, share ideas andengageincommercialandsocialactivities isnot indispute.Lookatthewaysocialmedia iscurrentlyfacilitating political change inthe Middle East and NorthAfrica.Inmanyconsumerbusi-
nesses,particularlythosefocusingonyoungpeople,socialmediaistransformingthewaycompaniesbuildandpromotetheirbrands.However, like the dot.com bubble which
eventually burst, I believe that many socialmedia sites will never achieve the returnsinvestors and shareholders expect, and thatmany commercial users of these sites will nevergain the benefits they anticipated when theystarted to invest in and use this technology. Acaseinpoint is theuseofsocialmediabyprofes-sional services firms, including accountants, toboost their marketing and business develop-ment(BD)activities.Eggedonbyanarmyofcommunicationsagen-
ciesandconsultants,accountancyfirmshavebeenencouragedtogettheirpartnersandstaff trainedinandsetuponLinkedIn,tosetupaTwitteraccountfor the firm, and to open up a Facebook page.Call me a cynic, but the increased activityaround socialmedia has occurred at a timewhen most practices have been struggling
because of the economic climate, and assisting firms with socialmediahasprovedanicelittleearnerforagencieswhenbudgetsforothermarketingactivitieshavebeenfalling.Personally,Ithinkithasbeentheclassiccaseoftheemperor’snewclothes:tellpartnersthatthisnewtechnology–thattheydon’treallyunderstand–will trans-formtheirability topull innewworkandthengetthemtoinvest inittogeneratesomemuch-neededincomefortheagency.Butsadlythereturnsfromthissocialmediaactivitywillbelow,andIwillusetherestofthisarticletoexplainwhy.To assesswhether socialmediahas anything to offer account-
ancyfirmslookingtoimprovetheirmarketingandbusinessdevel-opment, it is important tounderstandhowthis technologymightinfluencebuyersateachstageofthenewbusinesscycle.The first rule of effective marketing is to ensure that you do a
greatjobforyourexistingclients,sothattheyactasyouradvocates
andrecommendyoutoothers.Thisword-of-mouthrecommen-dationhasalwaysbeenthemostimportantwayinwhichaccount-ants get new business, and was around a long time before‘modern’ marketing techniques were sanctioned by the variousinstitutes.Assatisfiedclientsare less likely to tellothershowgoodyouare–unlikedissatisfiedclientswhowill telleveryone–findingwaystoacceleratetheprocessofreferralisimportant.Thebestwayto ensure that this happens is to bring clients and non-clientstogether at appropriate events – seminars, dinners, discussionforums,etc.–andtofacilitatethisexchangeofrecommendation.Personally,Icannotseehowsocialmediaaddstothisimportant
BD activity. I know LinkedIn allows recommendations to beposted,butamItheonlyonewhofinds theseveryschmaltzyandoff-putting? Anyway,thereseemstobefartoomuchof“I’llrecom-mendyouifyourecommendme”goingon!The secondmost effective source of new business is relation-
shipbuildingwithprospectiveclientsandpotentialreferrers.NowhereIwilladmit thatLinkedIndoesserveapurposeasacontactsdatabasewithafewinterestingknobsandwhistles.However, initi-atingandbuildingrelationshipswithdecision-makerswhomightuseyourservices,orreferyoutoothers,happensthroughface-to-face personal contact. The key then is to find ways to engineeropportunities tomeetsuchpeople.This isbestachievedthroughnetworking or speaking at seminars, conferences and otherforumsattendedbyyourtargetaudience.Such relationship initiationandsubsequentbuildingdoesnot
happen in cyberspace. Using LinkedIn as a tool to researchpeople’s backgrounds is one of its uses, but please do not betempted to use it to ‘cold call’ people who you are targeting. Irecentlycameacrossaconsultancythatwasrecommendingfirmstodojustthis.Coldcallingnever(well,veryrarely)worksinprofes-sional servicesmarketing–meetyour targetata function first, tryto assess their needs, and thenmake an approach. They are farmorelikelytorespondinthissituation.Finally, much has been made of social media, particularly
Twitter,asatooltocommunicateinformationonissuesrelevanttoyour target audience. Now we all recognise the importance ofgood thought leadership in demonstrating our capability in aparticulararea,butbombardingpeoplewith140-charater tweetsis not theway to do this. Stick towhite papers and articles in thetradeandbusinesspress,bothofwhichhavemorecredibilitythantweetsorevenblogs.Peoplearebeingbombardedwithablizzardof informationthesedaysandtweeting justaddstothis.Write lessoftenand inmediawhichwillhavemore impact, andremembertosendreprintsorPDFsdirect toyourclientsandtargets.Social media is not a panacea for an accountancy firm’s
marketingproblems.Somesites, likeLinkedInhavelimitedbene-fits, but believing that you can sit at your desk typing tweets andposts, which no onewill read, rather than getting out and aboutandmeeting people face-to-face is the bigmyth of socialmediathat is currentlybeingpeddled in theprofessional services sectorby many who should know better. And remember, you do notwant tobewalkingaboutyouroffice like theemperorwiththeBDequivalentofnoclotheson, i.e.withoutanywork.KevinWheelerhasbeenadvisingaccountancy firmsonallaspectsofmarketingandbusinessdevelopment for24years
Emperor’s new clothesSOCIALMEDIA ISREVOLUTIONISINGTHEWAYPEOPLECOMMUNICATE,BUT ITSVALUE TOBUSINESSES ISBEINGGREATLYOVERSTATED,SAYSKEVINWHEELER
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