Off the Ledger
Your days as a college student are almost numbered. The working world is calling. As you get ready to embark on your career, you have to be thinking, “What am I going to do when I graduate?” “Is a job in public accounting right for me?”
Where do you want to go?
You have so many options. Big firm or small? How do you decide? Where can you go to get the real, honest look at a career in public accounting? What is it REALLY like to be an intern? What will my life be like as a staff accountant?
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At Porter Keadle Moore, LLP (PKM) we’re here to help. We’ve created this blog site just for you! To help you find answers to these and other questions about working in a public accounting firm. Real interns and brand new staff accountants chronicle their experiences with our firm. Read what they have to say. Ask questions, share your opinions and we’ll respond.
Terrific Twitter Traffic
Carrie Connell- Audit Senior
With all the hype about social media these days, the topic of how to use applications like Facebook, Linked- IN and Twitter in the corporate world often come up. Today I read a blog by David Rachford titled “How Accountant’s Get Terrific Twitter Traffic.” Rachford offers many helpful tips on how to use Twitter from a professional standpoint
Tweets must add value. Whether you’re on topic sharing tax or accounting advice, or sharing a link to an interesting or informative article - If you think it’s worth sharing; tweet it. Sometimes even posts that are specific to your interests or hobbies may be relevant to your followers, as they give insight as to who you are. Remember, people do business with people they: “Know, Like & Trust” - so be upbeat, personal, and gain trust by showing expertise & sharing relevant content.
Tweets must be timely. You may have heard that Twitter is now becoming a major source for breaking news. Whether it’s a disaster or election results, word spreads on Twitter fast. Twitter is the rumor mill on steroids. And if something cool just happened for you and a client, (i.e. “Just finished a successful Audit Defense w/ a client, saved the client $33k! full story here: link) by all means: Tweet it.
Tweets must be spam free. Spam is generally unsolicited email communication. It’s considered bad form to send personal messages via Twitter directing them to your website… if it’s relevant info you want to share - share it with everyone. Also, it’s my opinion, that “serial tweeters” or those who post 5-10 posts to their feed in immediate succession are generally spammers. I periodically go through my twitter feed and ‘un-follow’ those Tweeters.
Keep your followers RELEVANT: With so many people on Twitter spouting off mostly random, inane stuff ( 40% of posts are useless, 37% conversational, 8% pass along value; link: Computerworld.com article ) if you don’t maintain your list with relevant people, you’re just adding to the noise. I’d rather have 100 relevant readers (CPAs & Accountants) than 10,000 people who don’t have the slightest interest in what I have to say.
Prune Your Followers Regularly: There are some people you don’t want to follow you… you can block them, or just delete them. One problem with Twitter is that it’s a VERY open system. Of course, the openess is a benefit too; as it allows third party applications such as tweetdeck to be easily developed and spread; but caveat emptor - it’s very easy for someone to look at your followers list and basically go out and try to grab your followers. Don’t pay it much mind - but be beware. I think it’s a good thing to go through your list and cut names and Tweeters who you don’t think fit your reader profile.
So, for all of you college grads who are only utilizing Twitter to find out what bar everyone will be at on Friday night, remember these tips and use your “tweeting” skills to benefit your future career.
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