CGA's use Social Media too!

TCP Accounting & Tax Services, by Gwyneth James

Case study from my book and my close friend, thank you Gwyneth!

I am an accountant. There are not many other accountants on social media, I have found.  However, I am also a businesswoman and the mother of two teenage boys. The former means I know a good opportunity to promote my accounting firm when I see one. The latter means I’m more in touch with social media and less intimidated by recent trends than another person might be.

One of the frustrations I encountered soon after I bought my business three years ago was the lack of knowledge my small business clients had about their financial aspect of their businesses. Things like what was tax-deductible and what was not, for example. Or how to correctly calculate payroll taxes. Or how to take advantage of tax credits.

Gwyneth's handle is @ghj_cga or you can go directly to her Twitter account by clicking on www.twitter.com/ghj_cga .

It didn’t take me long to realize I could use social media as a method for sharing some of the things I knew in an effort to try and help people. I started off with a business page in Facebook and a profile on LinkedIn. I loved watching my “likes” and “connections” grow and it didn’t take me long to figure out how to avoid having to post the same message twice. I was not overly impressed with LinkedIn at first since it didn’t have a live news feed – to see what people had posted, you had to refresh the webpage. Even now, it only updates the news feed if you “click for updates”.

I saw other people were using Twitter to populate their LinkedIn updates so in December 2010 I joined Twitter. I started out following a few trusted local people and media companies to see what the “best practices” were. After a couple of weeks, I made my first posts and retweets. Somehow I also figured out how to set it up so my tweets fed through to both LinkedIn and Facebook. That was such an accomplishment I celebrated with a big glass of wine!

You can go directly to Gwyneth's LinkedIn account by clicking on http://ca.linkedin.com/in/gwynethjames .

Through my presence on social media I have made connections in the Peterborough area I never would have made – primarily with folks younger than I am (I’m 48) who are involved in the community and interested in promoting it. I have been recommended and gained new clients as a direct result of SM. I have learned about news events and have been reminded of important tax legislation. I have been asked to judge a local version of Dragons’ Den and to write articles for local magazines. Most importantly, I have been able to put my personal stamp on company communications which reinforces the image I want to project – friendly, approachable, and supportive.

Gwyneth James CGA, Owner

TCP Accounting & Tax Services

www.tcpaccounting.ca