The stability of social media.

Are social media a. fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?" asks Erik Qualman in a Search Engine Watch article, "Social Media: Fad or Revolution?" published August 10, 2009. Qualman quickly answers his question with the subheadline, "Welcome to the Social Media Revolution."

To support his confidence that social media are not fads, Qualman presents 37 statements as evidence that social media are "a fundamental shift in the way we communicate."

Employee recruitment and retention

The following statements in Qualman's long list may be of interest to CPA firms and their clients in that they might remind firm recruiters to be aware of probable differences in the culture and expectations of younger prospective employees:

* By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber baby boomers--96% of Gen Y have joined a social network.

* Eighty percent of companies use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.

* A 2009 U.S. Department of Education study revealed that, on average, online students outperformed those receiving face-to-face instruction.

* One in six higher education students is enrolled in online curriculum.

* Generations Y and Z consider e-mail passe. Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen in 2009.

Client recruitment and retention

Many firms and their clients use social media for...

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