CMA BC Vancouver Chapter

CMAs all a twitter Part 1

Twitter is one of Social Media's A-Team and unsurprisingly there are many CMAs already active in the twittersphere. I thought I'd start a regular feature where I shared the latest on CMAs on twitter. However, before we continue you might be thinking:

"Twitter twitter twitter, what is it?"

We are planning a proper introduction to the tool in the coming weeks, so for now I will simply share the below video, which is as good a primer as I've seen.

A plug here for the creators of this video, Lee Lefever (@leelefever) and the Common Craft Show - Lee has a whole host of videos on all sorts of subjects, from social media to politics, the Plain English series are simply excellent.

On to the CMA twitterers, twits, twitter folk or whatever you feel comfortable calling them. Lets start with the CMA BC Society office, who with the help of Shane Gibson (@shanegibson) is getting more and more familiar with tools such as twitter. So far I know of the following, @shannon_cmabc, @bobcmabc, @cmabc, @debbie_cmabc and @vinettapeek. Some, like Vinetta have been tweeting a while, others are just getting started.

Outside of the CMA BC Office there is @davemacdonald, @finstoryteller, @wongrichard, @dbideshi, @philgraham and of course @cmavancouver. Some people, such as yours truly offer a couple of twitter flavours, in my case @rightantler.

Outside of our local geographical area we have @ordredescma in Quebec,  @BecomeaCMA in Ontario and @CMAAlberta in, ummm, Alberta!

If you are wondering why oh why do people use twitter in the first place, apart from the video above you may find this post of interest as well as this one.

I'm sure there are other twitter users out there, so if I've missed you I encourage you to add your twitter username to the comments. Over @cmavancouver, we try to follow as many CMAs as we can, but even with this modest aim,  it can be challenging to keep up! If you are on twitter, then check out some of the folk above and if not, clicking on the links will take you to a page of their latest tweets. Enjoy!

An introduction to blogging for accountants (esp. CMAs!)

The words ‘blogs and ‘blogging’ seem ubiquitous in today’s business life. There are now ‘official’ blogs such as insidethecbc.com. You see a new(ish) tab on company websites; next to the standard headings such as ‘About Us’ and ‘Products’ we often find ‘Blog.’ Then there are all the personal blogs. So what is a blog? Why should I care? Especially as a CMA.

At it’s most fundamental level, a blog (short for weblog) is a website or more increasingly a part of a website which is easily updatable and presents the most current content at the top. This content is interactive. Originally it was the preserve of computer geeks and, I’m told; anti-social and spotty teenagers. Over the years it has evolved into that it is today.

But let’s go back a step. “Easily updatable” - what does this mean? If you are familiar with e-mail, then ‘posting’ to a blog is as easy as typing in a subject line and then writing what you actually want to say. Think of the ‘blog’ as the addressee in the ‘to’ field, then hit send. Within a few minutes, your blog will have the message you just sent at the very top of the page.

There are certainly more elaborate metaphors for this, but in reality one of the major appeals of ‘blogging’ is that the technology is the easy part. It’s often much harder to think of what you want to say and write it. By comparison the technicalities such as websites, interfaces, uploads, tagging, hyperlinks or anything else; are less of an issue.

I would say that when blogs started the focus was on the technology, then the numbers blogging exploded, as those who could think of what to write discovered they had an easy way to reach millions of potential readers. The result is today’s rich variety of subjects ready and waiting for your perusal. It’s fair to say that whatever you can think of, probably has a blog!

So this leads to the question.

“If there is already a blog for any subject I can think of, then why should I bother myself?”

The interesting thing about all of these blogs is that they are a form of personal expression. They are the views of individual writers on almost any subject you care to name - with no filters, no editors, no censorship. Unless there is someone out there who has exactly the same views on your subject which are expressed in exactly the same way, then your blog will be unique!

By way of example writing an introduction to the subject of blogging like this very post, is not unique. Many people have done so, probably more eloquently than I have here. (Here is an example). However in the context of my audience, CMA members in BC, I don’t believe it has been done before. Even if it has, then the blogging world moves so quickly it doesn’t hurt to do it again :-)

For CMAs I believe it comes down to two reasons. One personal, one  professional. There may also be some cross-over. Ok, that's three reasons, does a CMA have to be able to count?

On the personal side, you will see from my interview in the latest Update Magazine that I get most of my news and information about the world around from the Internet. A large proportion of this is from blogs. In addition to news I follow a collection of writers on subjects I am interested in, such as storytelling, design, birds, philosophy etc. On the flip side my own blog posts become a source for others.

(note: the current issue of Update Magazine is not online just yet, stay tuned!)

On the professional side, I follow a number of different blogs which keep me up to date on the latest trends, educate me on things I would like to know more about and others that give me valuable insight in my working life. As little as 10 years ago, to get this information I would have various magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and watched or listened to TV and Radio programmes. Today, in addition to these traditional sources we now have blogs. I can draw from a pool of millions and millions of writers who are online.

To conclude, I would like to return to one part of my original definition, namely that blogs are interactive. Let’s say I visit a blog and read a post about a subject I find interesting. I can contribute instantly, by writing my own comment in a box and posting it. I can initiate a discussion with the blogger about what they have written.  If you don’t agree with something in this post you can say so. I can then respond. You can respond and so on. What’s more this whole discussion is public, allowing the reader to benefit not only from the original article but also the reaction it generated. Many bloggers will tell you this is the most rewarding part of the activity. Some of the most interesting reading is found in the comments! This is not something you will get from a TV programme, for example.

If you take this idea into business and think about how you can use this to start a conversation with your customers; hear what they think, hear what they need. How valuable is that to you? This subject alone is worthy of a future post, as are many of elements of what I’ve described above.  As a result, many companies are using blogging as a marketing tool. Many of these are Fortune 500 companies.

Hopefully this serves as an introduction to blogging. If you have any questions or feedback please comment below :-)

If You're Reading This, You Probably Have An Online Profile. Do You Manage It?

Whether you've thought about it or not, there's a pretty good chance that you have an online profile.  In fact, your lack of profile can sometimes be a profile, too.  Some people have been shocked at the information (old phone numbers, addresses, etc.) that a site such as pipl.com can drudge up - these same people would have otherwise believed that their information was entirely offline and secure.

We have certainly passed the age where it is special to be online.  By the way, if you've ever heard the term Web 2.0, that's all it means:  Everyone with a computer and internet connection can be online and contribute to the web. 

Regardless of whether actively control your online profile or just leave it alone, people will rely on online tools to make decisions about you.  Your profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, myspace, and Google are some of the most basic places a potential employer, or even a recruiting firm, will search before scheduling an interview - if not before lifting the phone to call you.  Make no mistake that your potential hires are doing those exact same searches as well.

Generally, by our nature and skill sets, most CMAs are professionals of influence either within their organizations or with their clients.  Ensuring that your online profile is not detracting from your influence or career growth is essential in today's world.

To that end, it’s important to note that when something is posted online, one can assume it will be there forever.  Even after an item, or a complete profile, is deleted it may be cached on servers – Google is noted for this type of indexing.  Ensuring that you maintain up-to-date records in basic places such as the sites mentioned above is key.  Up-to-date records helps older info get buried quicker and affords more control over what information about you is readily accessible online.  This need not be more complicated than just ensuring that your profiles are as current as you'd like with as much information as you feel comfortable sharing with the world.

A suggestion about online profiles is that, wherever possible, try to use the same public username.  This will ensure uniformity across your profiles and help people verify whether this is the same "you" from any other sites you may use.

One question many share is in relation to security.  When it comes to managing online profiles, every site has their own security functions and they need to be read carefully on a case by case basis.  There are sometimes breaches.  Conservative people often only provide a site with as much information as they'd ever want the world to see and other people.... well, they just publish anything without censorship.  Interpreting those risks and committing as far as one's own comfort level extends is essential to effective profile management.

There are 40 or 50 different places that people can create profiles for themselves.  As part of an ongoing blog series, we’ll be profiling some of the primary sites that professionals are commonly using and possibly some of the fringe sites that might become popular in short order or just fade.

Nothing is static on the web and no one can guarantee what sites or technologies will prevail.  While branding yourself online is one kind of magic, the diligence in personal information management outlined here is prudent and definitely much more accessible.