Who to follow on Twitter

Who to follow on Twitter

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At long last I've taken the plunge and set up a twitter account for the practice. Any suggestions on who to follow? I'm looking for interesting and informative tweets that might also be of interest to clients and other followers if retweeted.

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By Peter Kilvington
23rd Oct 2012 12:33

Followers

Silly question but why cant you write your own interesting and informative tweets instead of retweeting others?  

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Replying to mrme89:
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By mikesole
23rd Oct 2012 12:58

Twitter followers

Peter Kilvington wrote:

Silly question but why cant you write your own interesting and informative tweets instead of retweeting others?  

Of course I can do that, but I'm looking to do more than that and share anything that might also be of interest comes my way.

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By jon.martingale
23rd Oct 2012 14:21

Feel free to follow me...

...I try to post a blend of tweets relating to the accountancy industry, current affairs, sport, humour and useful information relating to my current employer and products I manage. Others may disagree with all of this though :-)

My Twitter address is @JonMartingale

Regards

Jon Martingale

Product Manager (Accounts Production) IRIS software

 

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By Eve 2206
23rd Oct 2012 14:38

So Peter, are you going to tell us your twitter address (if that's allowed on here??).  I'm on twitter but lacking in accountants to follow.  So far most of those I follow are people like PETA, WWF, RSPB etc!  Need some business in my life.  I can then set up a 'private' twitter account for my anti-fur/cruelty tirades, lol.

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Replying to coops456:
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By Raquel
26th Oct 2012 14:21

 

 

John Griffin who's a Partner at Newby Castleman accountants tweets good updates, tips & advice.

His twitter address is @NewbyCastleman

Hope that helps 

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
23rd Oct 2012 14:54

What do you want to read about?

After spending a couple of years trying to work out exactly what the point of it was the penny dropped.

If I had my time again I'd just think about what I'm interested in reading about and then, if no names sprang to mind, I'd just search on Twitter for key words & hash tags, browse tweets and then follow the people or organisations who seem to provide the most valuable and interesting contributions.

My purpose in being on there is to gather rather than provide tweets but if I do retweet or comment on things it's in the hope that I'm adding some value to the t'sphere, (no need to know what I had for breakfast).

In my case I am far more interested in issues that have little if anything to do with accountancy but am aware that clients follow me and so I think it's a good idea to have a business and personal twitter account to keep the two sides separate.

On the accountancy side I've found KPMG worth following and there's always the good old ACCA & ICAEW as well as tax/accountancy service vendors then say the BBC or your favourite newspaper for other stuff.  For local stuff I follow my MP who happens to be unusual, he's interesting!

PS: I'm unlucky enough to have a well known name so got a load of followers within a few weeks of signing on...most seem to have gone once they found out I couldn't predict the score.

 

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By bernard michael
23rd Oct 2012 15:05

If it doesn't bring you clients, which I doubt it does, why waste your time on Twitter?

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
23rd Oct 2012 15:13

There's more to life.....

than accountancy, well there is in my life.  Seriously, I'm not on there to get clients but to keep up to date with "stuff" I'm interested in and because you can dip in & out of other contributers and see who they get their info from, I've found it a great quick way to keep in touch with what interests me.

From the accountancy side, I will find it a lot easier to keep up to date than my website as I can post links and info from wherever I am.

Apologies saved part done by accident this is edit

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By GaryMc
23rd Oct 2012 15:19

List of accountants

If you follow @BookMarkLee - for informative tweets and info, he has compiled a list of accountants tweeting as themselves and a list of firms who tweet.

The frequency and relevance of tweets on this list varies from those who signed up, tweeted once or twice and then never looked at it again, to those who tweet nothing but links to their own website, to those who use it as intended and tweet a mixture of personal and professional views.

Some others to have a look at are

@heathertowns

@cheapaccounting

@John_Endacott

@iptax

@fcablog

Just a few off the top of my head.

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Jennifer Adams
By Jennifer Adams
23rd Oct 2012 15:27

How about me and my articles?!

My latest article 'Whats in a Name - Get the details right' currently has 13 followers.

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By Rachael White
23rd Oct 2012 17:02

Hello,

I am of course going to mention @accountingwebuk, but most of our Suppliers also have Twitter feeds, which can be really useful if you're interested in their products and advice. 

Our sister websites @businesszoneb, @hrzone, @practice_web, @ukbizforums and @mycustomer are also great for tips and information, although not solely accounting based.

Hope this helps,

Rachael

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By carnmores
23rd Oct 2012 17:44

i really wouldnt bother

paul is right its all about collecting info in the great scheme of things nobody cares about what we tweet and why should they - it is and alway will be a social gossip site or a big business site - use your time elsewhere to better effect

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By dogsbreath
25th Oct 2012 00:02

Why?  What is the business

Why?  What is the business benefit considering the amount of effort required to generate that benefit?

It's a bit odd taking this stance on an accountancy site,  but accountants are renowned for putting business first (like closing the London accountancy students bar to create a couple more rooms!).

Soshial meeja is of very dubious benefit in this case.  OK,  totally relevant if you're specifically targeting the typical Twit (is that the singular noun?),  or some PR agency trying to get your latest client to "trend".  But really,  accountancy?

By all means do it in your own time as it were.  I wouldn't expect any real benefit to come of it without putting in a lot of effort,  probably way more than you'll get out of it as new business.  Personally I'd sooner work on face-to-face contacts with business people as being a better stream of prospects.

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
25th Oct 2012 16:48

The info business

db - not sure that's what the OP or people like me want business Twitter for.

At the moment I get bombarded with emails, news feeds, news letters, magazines and even stuff on here concerning the latest news and developments in the Accountancy/tax world and have to constantly trawl through tons of irrelevant and even duplicated stuff to get to the few bits that are relevant to my firm and my clients.

I will then pick bits that are of general interest and stick them on the website and, on specific issues, will email or call clients directly to see if they want to take advantage or maybe to warn them of potential risks.

With Twitter I am more in control of who I follow for information plus, rather than bombing me with several paragraphs on a topic the source is forced to condense it into 140 characters, making it far easier for me to flick though the 30-40 tweets I get a day to pick perhaps 2-3 that can be commented on and sent out or just retweeted.

I already know that far more clients use Twitter than ever refer to my website on a regular basis and so this really is the future for me to keep my clients up to date.

So the Social Media and prospect grabbing side of things is not my prime concern.

PS: Like a real Twit, I started typing Soshial meeja into Twitter's search feed, she sounded interesting!

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By alexwilson82
26th Oct 2012 11:51

Keep in touch

Social media is a great way to maintain regular contact with your clients with little effort - much easier than sending out emails or writing newsletters. More and more business owners will be joining Twitter as a way of reaching their customers, so why shouldn't accountants use it too? 

I would recommend following your clients and retweeting their interesting posts (it shows them you care!), and also agree with the above sentiments that you should try to maintain a balance of business and non-business followings (e.g. sport, news, etc). I quite like Maria Popova (@brainpicker) who has some interesting stuff out there. And of course you can follow me at @alexw_cf - I am by no means a proliferative tweeter*, but trying to improve.

 

*surely this is much better than twit!

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Della Hudson FCA
By Della Hudson
26th Oct 2012 12:38

Follow clients, prospects and competitors

I use Twitter for all sorts of reasons including generating new business.

I follow:

clients and often "chat" with them or retweet their promotions if relevant to my followerslocal businesses who may become clients, suppliers or just interesting friends (search for your town)people I meet at face to face events to continue the relationshipinteresting accountants across the country to share ideaslocal competitors to see what they're up tofriends who often retweet my articles

I'd also recommend @bookmarklee and @cheapaccounting as interesting

Also follow things that you are interested in eg sport and you will soon start chatting to people in the same way that you do in face to face networking.

If you are interesting then people will soon follow you. It is the quality of your following that is more important than quantity. Aim for 1/3 about your business, 1/3 about general business and 1/3 personal (at about the same disclosure level as face to face networking) to show that you are a human being

Definitely put a photo on so that people will recognise you when you go to face to face networking.

Don't share Linked in or Facebook comments on Twitter and vice versa without thinking because the style is different

You're welcome to follow me @hudsonaccountan

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By accountingterrier
26th Oct 2012 12:47

Agree

I agree completely with alexwilson82, as a (very) small business owner running a full service bookkeeping practice, I have finally taken the plunge and set up a website.

I think that Twitter is a great way to update the website on a daily basis, stay in touch with my clients, provide nudges about general deadlines, and retweet interesting/informative posts/links when I don't have the time to sit and write a lengthy mass email/mail shot/news article.

There is no reason why you can't have two twitter identities (if you're so inclined) one for business, one for personal - I have never been interested in social media of any sort and have only just started to use it for business purposes and I think it's a useful way to connect. I still wouldn't bother to use it personally but for business...definitely.

It's also a way to try and steer the uneducated masses away from believing we're all dusty old men who can only write long hand in ledger books!

We have to appeal to the upcoming professionals and they all use Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, it's a fact of life!

Lord Sugar never stops, I quite like him and Richard Branson.....

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By Jon Stow
26th Oct 2012 15:08

You are welcome

to follow my list https://twitter.com/JonStow/tax-guys-and-girls which has 258 members which would give you a head start, and of course me, @JonStow. Also follow the illustrious members mentioned above, most of whom are on my list anyway..

Yes, Twitter is very useful, very informative and great for giving referrals and getting business.

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