Should CFOs be on social media?
If so, why? And what about the risks?
This was the crux of my innovation lab session at the FEI Leadership Summit this week.
The answer?
Start with the top five issues facing CFOs (from our research and polling at the conference):
- Talent development and retention
- Information overload
- Being reactive vs proactive
- Doing more with less
- Keeping up
Social media can help with all of these top issues!
Start with using social media to learn and stay on top of fast-changing developments in accounting / finance. I showed the group how I use social technologies to create my personal knowledge network, a supply chain of information that comes to me via social networks and tools.
Then there is the recent study by McKinsey that shows a 25 percent productivity boost for knowledge workers with a potential global ROI impact of $1 trillion dollars in the next few years. Then there is the MIT Sloan/Deloitte study and IBM showing the growing importance of “social business,” which I suggest CFOs stay up on.
Finally, there is my pre-conference interview with FEI blogger Edith Orenstein, CFOs innovate, motivate using social tools.
Here is my presentation:
And the twitter summary from the hashtag #FEISUmmit14 which is like having the notes from the entire conference.
Here are my top apps for creating your own personal information supply chain:
- Twitter (follow our Social CFO list)
- LinkedIn (follow the influencers in Accounting)
- Blog – Typepad or WordPress
- Slideshare – See my account here
- Twitter filter app – Hootsuite or Tweetdeck
- Evernote for curatiing and archiving
- Zite and Flipboard for collecting
- NEW killer app Refresh for contacts and meetings
So should CFOs use social media? As futurist Mike Walsh said in the opening session of the conference, “The more you automate, the more (you and) your team will need to elevate.”
What do you think?
Social CFO resources:
- Recaps from the conference from FEI are here and here
- Here is our on-demand training catalog
- See our YouTube playlist – Social Media for CPAs
- Our CPA Success blog section on social media
- Work Less, Make More – mobile technology and accountants from Rick Telberg
- How to Leverage Social Networking – Journal of Accountancy
- Check out our BLI catalog for social media training – on-line and on your location