Social media is a time sink, a distraction, and many CPA firms and employers continue to block it.

But, what if they are wrong?

One of the biggest challenges facing CPAs is keeping up with the rapidly changing and expanding information they need to stay on top of. What if social media can actually be a valuable tool to help them manage better in the chaos?

A new study featured in a post by Don Bulmer, titled Thought Leadership: A New Social Currency answers that question this way:

“Through the research, we found that sophisticated business professionals are becoming very active in social media to support and inform their decisions. They rely heavily on social networks for access to content and thought leadership that they can't find elsewhere. They are also contributing by sharing their experiences on a continuous basis — adding credibility and trust to information available in various social media environments.

“In a social environment, thought leadership gives companies an ability to engage their audiences through high-impact content and ideas that can fuel growth and execution of business strategy.”

Take it a step further. What if CPAs can use social media to establish themselves as thought leaders and share their knowledge with clients, prospective clients, and their entire team?

Would you still think it is a time sink? Or can you see the value in it?

Debbie Weil, author of the Corporate Blogging Book (and our awesome blog coach), talks about the power of blogging (and social media) by using a quote from Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat: “In-forming is the individual person's analog to open-sourcing, ourtsourcing, insourcing, supply-chaining, and off-shoring. In-forming is the ability to build and supply your own personal supply chain — a supply chain of information, knowledge, and entertainment. … Google's phenomenal global popularity … shows how hungry people are for this form of collaboration. Google is now processing roughly 1 billion searches per day, up from 150 million just three years ago.”

Let me give you a real-life example. I have been researching and thinking about whether this recovery (and the Great Recession of 2008) are fundamentally different than prior downturn-recovery cycles and what it might mean to CPAs. You can read more about this is my post, Do We Need a Reset?

How did I start my research? With a Google search, and then with my social network. Using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, along with my blog reader, I quickly found several great sources of information (including the two in this post) and inspiration about the “re-Set” economy. I could then go from blog posts to books to authors, and form a supply-chain of insights and ideas to “in-form” my research. I even found the conference (re-Set  Business) I will be attending this week via those same social media connections.

Without leaving my office, I have found a community of people talking about the very same thing I was interested in and I now have access to their perspectives and insights. I have even created a map of those main connections to show you how these all connect in a related post on the Business Learning Institute blog, re-Setting Your Business: There's a Map (for Learning) That!

I am able to share my learning and insights during the conference (via Twitter) and after the conference via blog posts. The community I found will be meshed with my community (here at CPA Success) and I will get a mash-up of real-time learning. I will also be communicating to my team back at work, giving them the benefit of this learning. For me, that is the power of social media for individual professionals.

You can follow the conversation from re-Set Business on their social networks at Twitter (hashtag #resetbiz), Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Try it the next time you are doing research. Add social media and social networking to build your own personal supply chain of information.

Can you begin to see the value of social media for thought leadership and researching new areas? Or are you still not convinced?