I was invited recently to share my thoughts about social media for accounting students at my alma mater, Loyola University in Maryland (@loyolamaryland).
Remember when you graduated from college? How big was your personal network?
I graduated 30 years ago and mine included about 15 people. I could call all of them on a land line or dorm phone, or had a physical snail-mail address.
I asked the students how big their networks are today. Answers included 1,200, 900, 628, 730. Several had laptops open and were checking their Facebook accounts.
They all had LinkedIn accounts and several had Twitter accounts. They were all knowledgeable and comfortable with social media but had not thought about it in a professional context. They loved the idea of using Twitter and blogs to stay up on our rapidly changing profession. It was a great exchange and I hope they found value in the conversation.
Here is my presentation with lots of resources in the last few slides.
I also reached out to my friends via Twitter for their advice to students. Within a day I got a “tweetload” of advice from some of the industries top thought leaders.
Bill Sheridan (@billsheridan) sent a tweet with a link to The The 10 Rules of Social Media Engagement.
Eric Cohen (@cybercpa) said, “On the Internet, nobody knows you are a student. Start establishing your brand and developing your network with care today.”
Jody Padar (@jodypadarcpa) said, “Be yourself! People are human and you should be too. If you need to think twice about posting…DON'T.”
See the attached tweetbook for the rest of the advice (and people to follow): Download Social-Media-Advice-for-Accounting-Students
I hope some of the students will share their insights via comments in this post.
- Be social … or be marginalized
- So why aren't more CPAs Social?
- See all of our posts about social media on CPA Success here.
- Interviews about social media here.
- How to Leverage Social Media, from the Journal of Accountancy
- Making Social Media Work for you, from the Journal of Accountancy
Check out these social media-related programs from the MACPA and the Business Learning Institute:
- Sept. 19: Social Media for Accountants: Tools and Strategy
- Sept. 25: Social Media for Business
- Oct. 12: Social Media for Business
- Oct. 29: Social Media for Accountants: Tools and Strategy
- Nov. 9: Social Medial for Business
- Social Media Basecamp for Professional Service Firms
- Social Media Strategy and Quick Start: Developing and Implementing a Social Media Strategy for CPA Firms and Organizations