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Do you tweet....?

15th Sep 2010
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The jury is out for me on the use of social media for professional practices.  Time and time again I am told by marketing experts that social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook etc can be used for professional practices to market their wares.  I however remain extremely sceptical and think it may actually lower a firm's brand.  Does a client expect to see their accountant on Twitter??

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By Becky Midgley
15th Sep 2010 13:04

A little story...

I tweet, both personally and for Sift Media websites, and as such I follow and am followed by various people from all walks of life. This following has developed and grown over the two years I have been on the site. Someone I follow in Bristol put out a Tweet to say he needed a recommendation for a good roofer/builder and quick! I retweeted his plea and within the hour he had three recommendations for good local builders.

So perhaps it is worth it to get your name out there, or perhaps it's just worth talking to clients about whether they are on Twitter and whether they would be happy to recommend you. However you interpret Twitter I would say it is most definitely the Yellow Pages of the future, among many other things, so perhaps even if you do not use it, it's not advisable to completely ignore it or its power and influence.

By the way, this should really have been posted as an Any Answers rather than a blog. If you want to repost it there, let me know when you have and I will delete this blog and move my comment over edited of course!

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By MarionMorrison
16th Sep 2010 12:44

Not necessarily Becky

It all depends on the practice's public face and the nature of the clients.  I want to be where the clients are, which is Facebook (they're literate, intelligent and 25-35 typically).  So there's a personal presence on FB and an office presence.  For me it helps clients to see us as real human beings who post about loving a film or a band.  It is also a very useful medium to publish notes about the recent IR [***]-ups with under and overpayments.

But our clients generally couldn't care less about Twitter other than vaguely distant following of famous people.  So we have no Twitter presence and no plans to change until it becomes a bit more widespread.

But you also have a sizeable slice of the population who are in the Grumpy Old Man category (to generalise) who looks on Twitter in much the same way they would view a tongue-piercing.  If the practice has a lot of such GOMs then pushing Twitter as a potential avenue of communication, tarnishes the 'reputation' of the practice in GOM eyes.  Horses for courses.

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