Even if you’re not a social media power user — and if you’re a CPA, odds are you’re not — you can’t ignore the impact the social movement has had on all facets of our professional lives.

• Good leaders today don’t command, they collaborate.
   
• Good learners don’t sit in a classroom and take notes. They’re social learners. They ask their networks for help, then put those answers to work.
   
• Good businesses don’t do social media. They bake social strategies into their DNA so that everything they do is part of an effort to become more social, more human.

In short, the key to everything we do today is people — more specifically, connecting with people who will add value to our lives. Our ability to collaborate, build trusted relationships, and learn constantly will define us going forward.

That brings us to MACPA Groups.

The Maryland Association of CPAs launched Groups this week. It’s a community that connects CPAs to the people, information and resources that will help them get things done.

• Interested in tax issues? Join our State and Federal Tax Groups, where you’ll get the answers you need to best serve your clients during Busy Season.
   
• Working in public practice or industry? Our Practitioners Group will connect you with CPAs and resources that focus on public practice issues, and our Business and Industry Group will connect you with corporate influencers.
   
• Need advice or opinions about the Affordable Care Act? We’ve got a group for that, too.

Those are just a few of the groups that are already available, and the best part is, if we don’t have a group that meets your unique needs, you can create one. MACPA Groups is designed with niches and specialization in mind. We’re all experts at something, and now we have a tool that lets us share that expertise and grow it by learning from others.

I’ll follow up later this week with some specific tips for getting started in MACPA Groups. For now, check out MACPA.org/groups, update your profile, then start building your network and exploring Groups.

In our fast-changing, social world, it could just be a life-saver.

Check out our MACPA Groups ads here, here, here and here.