An Accountant's Guide
Information is everywhere, and it's hardly news anymore that it is becoming increasingly more social. The brilliance of this is that it is so easy to keep up to date with what's happening in the accountancy industry. The downfall is that there is so much 'stuff', how can you tell what is good or not? Here are some of our Do's and Don'ts of finding good content online:
DO "be everywhere and nowhere"
You don't need to be active on a social media platform to enjoy its benefits. For example, many companies and other financial organisations keep an open Facebook and Twitter page, meaning you can view all the content they're posting, without having to be a member or identify yourself.
DON'T overload yourself with information
It's really important to know exactly what you're looking for online. Before you follow a certain site, person or company, go through their backlog of posts and see whether it will be relevant or if it's really what you're looking for. Otherwise, the really good material might get lost in all the mediocre things that are also getting posted.
DO use aggregation sites and alerting
Places like Hootsuite are great for searching buzzwords, hot topics or to see what is trending in areas that you are interested in. The information is constant and you can continually change what you're looking out for! This is a great way to instantly see what's going on. Alerting is a function whereby if you find a site, newsfeed, YouTube channel or any source that you think is great, you can set up an 'alert' which will send you an email whenever the content is updated or new things are uploaded. Though the process may seem a little slower, it is great for making sure that you don't miss out on anything. Unlike watching out for a trending topic, alerting will make sure you never miss something that you've notified as important to you.
DON'T underestimate the value of bloggers and vloggers
Great content doesn't have to come from an official news site. There are so many great bloggers and vloggers out there with plenty to say. It may be useful to see what they're getting up to, as they may be attending events or just really good at keeping their finger on the pulse. Again, make sure that you're finding the right people to follow, and when you've found them reap the benefits of all the good content they'll be posting!
Our courses like Social Media for Accountants and our recently updated Thinking Strategically for Accountants also have great information about using Social Media to its best.
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