Accountants are more prevalent in the social mediasphere than you might think; they’ve taken over Twitter, blog regularly and can even be found figuring out how to make Foursquare relevant to business. But since tapping the potential of social media for business is relatively new, not all organizations know exactly how to use the tools, nor do the understand the importance of a good social media policy within their organization. So here are some tips for making the most out of social media without losing your job. We’re sorry we have to even share these but we’ve seen some of you guys out there in the social mediasphere and it appears you need a reminder.
Choose Your 140 Characters Carefully – If you’re on Twitter and are complaining about your job, understand that the entire world can see you. Even if your stream is private, the great Google sees everything. A few months back, Twitter’s internal search allowed private tweets to appear in searches. I’m not sure if this little hole has been patched but if it hasn’t, you don’t want to be a victim of your own public stream of consciousness. Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say in an e-mail to your boss.
Ask About Your Firm’s Social Media Policy – Though it’s sort of implied in the firm’s overall policy on communications outside of the company, social media is an entirely different avenue and the rules may not be as cut and dry as the GAAP you’re used to. Not all companies will specifically bar you from blogging on your free time and many turn a blind eye to the activity… until you say something they don’t like. Don’t assume that you’re safe if you don’t share your name or location: it’s fairly easy to reveal your identity if you’re sharing details of your life like where you live and what you do. It gets easier if you’re using a blog to rant about work or out obnoxious coworkers. This applies to positive blogs as well; even if you’re doing the industry a service by discussing current events in accounting, some firms would rather you not say anything at all. Be careful with your details and when in doubt, ask about your firm’s social media policy.
Facebook Friends – You’re not friends with him in real life so don’t be friends with your boss on Facebook. Facebook can be a great networking tool if you aren’t sharing photos of your drunken weekend adventures but if you are, better leave your boss or even coworkers off your friends list. Remember also that Facebook privacy settings can be complicated to say the least; even if you have most of your profile set to private, if you haven’t gone in and changed certain settings, mobile uploads and other photo albums can still appear in search results. That means any nosy coworker out to make you look bad could easily stumble upon your page and access things you’ve posted thinking they are invisible to anyone but your friends. I’m all for being cozy with colleagues but be careful when adding people you work with if you, like 99% of us, use your Facebook to rant, brag and occasionally spout off inappropriate things.
Careful when commenting on blogs! – Listen, we love you guys for contributing but sometimes we have to wonder if you’re playing with a full deck. If you’re commenting from and about work, keep the details to a minimum and use the anonymity of the Internet to your advantage! I have Jr Deputy Accountant readers who work for the banks, the Fed or government agencies but that secret stays between them and me – some choose to create a nickname that wouldn’t reveal who they really are and others stick with “anonymous”. However you do it, remember that if your name is George Stein and you work at KPMG, using GSKPMG2010 isn’t fooling anyone. Talking about salaries or griping about the conditions are totally allowed – if not encouraged – but be smart about it and never use your real name unless you work in communications or don’t mind your boss or colleagues seeing your comments. Once again, remember the great Google sees ALL.
Whatever you do, never forget the Internet is forever – You can delete your Myspace account but since the Internet tends to aggregate information, just because you’ve deleted something doesn’t mean it is gone forever. Case in point: when I write a blog post on JDA, it’s picked up and republished by two news aggregators instantly, which means I’m stuck with whatever typo I missed or stupid comment I made, even if I change or delete it on my own site. It is the same with Twitter as many bizarre websites aggregate tweets about a particular subject, some permanently. So you might be able to zap an obvious faux pas the morning after but it could come back to haunt you if it ends up somewhere else.
Exactly. Pay is the only problem that needs to be fixed in order to address all the other problems boomers keep complaining about. Make the pay competitive with other professions and I bet all of a sudden you’ll have all the talent you could possibly need.
In order for the firms to pay what people want and deserve for the ridiculous hours that they work, clients have to be willing to pay higher fees. It would take all the firms collectively increasing fees (substantially, not just your typical COL increase) to achieve this, which I can’t see happening. If one firm raises fees, clients will leave and there will always be another firm willing to do the work for the lower fee. Firms know this and won’t risk losing clients, so I can’t see fees being raised across the board significantly enough to effect compensation increases big enough to attract more people to the industry.
If firms indexed public accounting pay to Boomer property values they would solve their talent shortage almost instantly.
Staff accountants may perceive that they are working long hours but right out of the gate they are not really producing that much value. I know that last year of school is expensive and grads are looking to recoup that, but it’s worthless to me as an employer. The work at the staff level can easily be done overseas for 1/3 the cost. Big 4 managers are incented to do just that. In my experience it takes 1-2 years before a staff accountant is earning their pay (and that’s their pay, not their bill rate).
The Grads flock to Big 4 and they are pushed that way by their professors (those accounting dept. chairs don’t fund themselves ya’ know). I know we (regional firm) are paying more per hour to beginning staff than big 4, largely because we don’t crush them with OT, and we pay for OT when they work it.
Might want to give a regional firm a chance.
What size regional?
40 people, one office, mid-Atlantic, clients in 4 states.
I entered public accounting in 1986.
Around that time, I remember a partner saying the United States needed to solve three big problems:
Funding social security, the rising cost of education, and the rising cost of healthcare.
Almost 40 years later none of those problems have been addressed adequately. And there have been numerous discussions about the severity of those problems.
I imagine it will be the same with public accounting. Like education and healthcare they will keep things the way they are as long as they can. That’s why the accounting profession is rife with consultants cannot come up with an effective strategy to solve its own crisis.
The world existed before public accounting, and will exist afterward.