Responsibilities: social media: opportunities and risks for tax practices.

• Author: Purcell, Thomas J., III

ONLINE PLATFORMS ARE CHANGING HOW CPAs work, offering new ways to engage with clients, colleagues, and the world at large. Social media is helping CPAs build stronger business relationships and recruit talent across the planet. This column touches on the benefits and opportunities social media provides to today's CPAs and the importance of controlling or limiting the use of the new technology. While it is important to recognize the value and impact of social media, CPAs need to protect information and their reputations online.

It has been more than nine years since the launch of Facebook, and it now has a global audience of more than 1 billion people. In February, internet marketer Ignite Visibility released a report (available at tin.yurl.com/a8dgqzx) predicting that, in 2013, Facebook's search interest (i.e., its appearance on search engine traffic and keywords) will be more than twice as high as LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Google. However, all of these sites will grow in 2013, the report said. LinkedIn proclaims that it is the world's largest professional network, with more than 200 million members in more than 200 countries.

It is hard to imagine a practicing CPA not having a smartphone or tablet these days. These new communication devices provide greater productivity and efficiencies, allowing practitioners to stay connected to their businesses 24/7/365 if they choose. They can keep current on emails while waiting for a flight, respond to client requests from the golf course, take and send pictures, perform technical tax research, or send instant messages to employees in the middle of the night regarding a critical 8 a.m. meeting the following morning.

Like most businesspeople, CPAs leverage social media for business networking, lead generation, corporate and personal branding, and recruiting/job opportunities. According to The SocialCPAs Social Media Survey (released in December 2012 and available at tinyurl.com/cd3s9y5), more than 90% of CPA respondents said they actively used Linkedln in 2012, followed by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and WordPress. The survey also found that more than 45% of these CPAs spent one to five hours a week on social media--roughly the same time they spent on traditional networking activities.

What does all this have to do with practicing tax and accounting? Considering that tax and accounting touch every business sector on every continent, the e-revolution allows anyone to work from anywhere, and accountants are motivated to build and retain business, the answer is that it has everything to do with tax and accounting.

Most financial services firms use social media to drive traffic to their websites and online traditional content about their services and expertise. They generate inbound opportunities from site users who search the internet or visit their sites directly for information about building their businesses and compliance. Many CPA firms and CPA employers in industry measure website users; request, track, and leverage user information from site downloads; and respond directly to web inquiries to generate leads and create new business opportunities. However, many CPAs are missing an opportunity to provide additional high-quality content that generates more traffic--content that can be pushed out through social media to attract new website users.

Social media is also an effective measurement tool for marketing. The Content Marketing Institute lists social media sharing third--behind web traffic and direct sales--as a measure of...