Posted: June 9, 2011 | Author: The Modern Accountant | Filed under: Accountants and Social Media, Accounting, Accounting Firms, Young Accountants | Tags: accounting, accounting firms, firm life, young accountants |
On Being a Young Accountant: Q&A With Holly Gendron
What’s it like being a young accounting professional today? What perspectives does the younger generation have on their daily responsibilities, firm life and work/life balance? What advice would they give to other young accounting professionals entering the field?
We recently talked to Holly Gendron, a young accounting professional in Rochester, N.Y. about her new career at Manning & Napier Advisors. Gendron, who graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a BBA in accounting in 2008 and an MBA in accounting and finance in 2009, has been with Manning & Napier for six months. Prior to that, she spent a year and a half with Ernst & Young in Rochester.
1.) What is a typical day like for you at Manning & Napier?
I thoroughly enjoy working at Manning & Napier Advisors. I typically arrive at around 8:15 and begin my day. My daily tasks mostly depend on what time of the month it is. For example, at the end of the month I perform various tasks with the general ledger for the main entity, Manning and Napier Advisors, Inc. When the month is over I create various reconciliations for the accounts. I monitor certain assets within the company and report their value within the general ledger. I am also cross-trained in processing accounts payable.
2.) How does working at Manning & Napier compare to working for Ernst & Young?
Public accounting, in general, is a very demanding career. It does not leave much time to have a work/life balance. The flexibility is almost impossible. For example, I just bought a house. If I were still working in public accounting, I would not have had the time to go out and “house hunt” as well as go through the moving and closing process. It would have been extremely difficult. Working in the private sector allows me the flexibility to do the things I love, such as volunteer work with local charities. It is not as much of a hassle to coordinate my schedule to allow myself the time to achieve a work/life balance and do the things I love.
3.) How do your responsibilities differ from your previous position?
In my new position at Manning, I have ownership over the work I am doing. In public accounting, there is a vigorous review process. However in the private sector, I am allowed more freedom and responsibility to complete my work, learn from my mistakes and grow my skill set.
4.) What do you like most about your job? What do you like the least?
I thoroughly enjoy the predictable schedule with my position. I know what the expectations are for me completing work and know specific deadlines that are attainable. I can plan my outside life around the tasks and know when I will be available to volunteer after work.
Sometimes, the work is a little monotonous, but I still enjoy doing it because I am gaining an understanding of the company.
5.) What are your thoughts on being a young accountant in your company? Are you one of the few or are there a lot of younger professionals?
Manning is a unique place. Many of the people who work there are young professionals, making the atmosphere comfortable, yet still professional. I like that I can relate to my peers. In my department specifically, there is a good mix of young professionals and individuals who have been with the company for quite a few years. I like this aspect as well because I can ask these individuals for help or ask questions about the company and their experience with the company.
6.) Do you face any particular struggles/challenges because you are a young accountant?
No, not at all. The only struggle or challenge that I can specifically comment on is lack of experience. I am not always 100% confident in myself and my work because I lack certain experience, however, I believe that is true with any profession and I expect it to get better the longer I am in the field.
7.) How does your firm approach social media?
Manning is just starting to address social media. There is a message board area on the intranet homepage that has postings for events, items for sale, etc. It is almost like an in-house Craigslist, which is very cool. They are also in the process of developing an intranet site that will have each employee’s name, department and picture. This is good because so much interaction is done via email, but the company itself isn’t very big, so you may pass someone in the hall that you email daily but you may not even know it is the person you are constantly interacting with. Being a newer employee to the company, I am really looking forward to this site kicking off because I will get to know people better.
8.) What are some of your favorite accounting-related blogs, websites, tools, etc.?
This is pretty pathetic, but I do not read up much on accounting outside of work. I think my former professor from St. Bonaventure, Dr. Anders’, emails about upcoming rules/regulations in accounting is the most accounting-related readings I do. A goal of mine is to start getting into that and make sure I stay up-to-date with the accounting world.
9.) What advice would you give to young accounting professionals just starting out in their careers? What do you know now that you wish you knew then?
My advice to a young accounting professional would be that public accounting is NOT the be-all, end-all of existence as an accountant. There are a multitude of different career paths involving accounting. I only went into public accounting right out of school because most of my accounting professors encouraged it. Some people enjoy it, but if it’s not your cup of tea, that’s okay. There is life outside of public accounting; I’m living proof of it! I cannot even begin to tell you how exponentially happier I am working in the private sector compared to the public accounting sector.
It’s definitely important to find a firm that is right for you, even if it’s not the most prestigious choice. I was more focused on the name “Ernst & Young” than on the atmosphere, which I think hurt me in the long run. I did not fit in with the company’s environment and quickly learned it. That year and a half of my life was less than stellar. I wish I hadn’t so preoccupied with working for one of the “Big Four.”
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Posted: May 31, 2011 | Author: The Modern Accountant | Filed under: Accountants and Social Media, Accounting, Accounting Firm Marketing Strategies, Accounting Firms, Accounting Professionals, Facebook, Marketing for Accountants, Social Media | Tags: Accountants and Social Media, facebook, Social Media, social media for accounting firms, social media strategies for accountants |
So, your accounting firm created a Facebook page.
Great! Now what?
Ideally, your first reaction to that shouldn’t be “Wait, there’s more?” But if it is, fear not. Today’s post is going to give you five actionable items that will make your firm profile less of a page and more of a totally fun place to hang out.
We’re also going to show you some examples of accounting firms who have fantastic Facebook pages, which will give you some ideas you might be able to incorporate into your own page quickly and easily.
1.) Share (if it’s useful and relevant.)
Your accounting firm’s Facebook page is a great forum for sharing information with clients and potential clients. If you’re not sure what kind of information you should post in a status update, here are some examples:
- Your firm opens a new office location across town.
- A new tax law that may affect your clients goes into effect.
- Your firm wins an award at a national conference.
- You’re hosting a webinar and inviting clients to attend.
- Your firm is going to be attending a trade show next month.
- You have a new digital brochure to pass along to clients.
- You snapped a few candid shots of employees during the workday.
- You found an interesting article about the accounting profession.
- Your firm raised a bunch of money for a local charity at a fundraising event.
2.) Integrate
Does your firm use Twitter? If so, you can link your Twitter account with Facebook so that whenever you update your Twitter feed your Tweet automatically shows up on the company’s Facebook page. How about a blog? If your firm maintains a blog it’s a great idea to share a link to the post in your status update or use a Facebook application like Networked Blogs to automatically feed your firm’s blog into the Facebook page.
If your firm is super social media savvy, you may even integrate its Flickr feed, YouTube channel or Tumblr. The point is – bring your information together and display it collectively to give it better visibility and make it easier for clients to access it.
3.) Interact
Give clients a reason to come to your Facebook page and interact with them. If someone posts a comment or question, respond to them. If it’s a hot topic, you can create a discussion thread and ask your Facebook friends to participate. Create a client survey through one of Facebook’s survey applications and distribute it via your Facebook page. Create a “Contact Us” page or invite clients to write a review of your firm. Let Facebook friends sign up for company newsletters.
If you engage your Facebook friends by allowing them to complete certain tasks, they will be more likely to come to your firm’s Facebook page to interact with you. And, as we’ve mentioned before, interaction builds relationships and trust, which are essential to growing your accounting firm’s business.
4.) Humanize
Give your firm’s Facebook page a human touch. The easiest way to do this is to show pictures of real people who are working hard to make clients’ lives easier. Create a team page with contact information of key employees. Post pictures of your employees participating in local charity events, attending a trade show, having fun at a company outing, or working with a client.
Your photo page on Facebook will communicate volumes to clients; you want it to show your firm is made up of people who enjoy their jobs and care about their clients.
5.) Observe
Have you looked at other accounting firms’ Facebook profiles? You can learn a lot about what to do (and what not to do) just by checking out other pages. You may come across a Facebook application you’ve never heard of or just pick up some ideas on what to include in your status updates. There are many accounting firms on Facebook doing an excellent job maintaining their firm pages.
Here are a few of the best accounting firm pages I’ve found on Facebook. Pay close attention to the pages they’ve created, the content of their updates, their photo pages and the applications they are using to interact with clients.
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Posted: May 12, 2011 | Author: The Modern Accountant | Filed under: Accountants and Social Media, Accounting, Accounting Professionals, PICPA, Social Media | Tags: Accountants and Social Media, accounting, CPA Players, PICPA |
In yesterday’s post we introduced you to the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs’ (PICPA) vice president of communications, Maureen Renzi, who shared some thoughts and strategy about PICPA’s social media video campaign on YouTube, the CPA Players. Today’s post is a continuation of that discussion.
Which social media platform do you find is most engaging to your audience?
By far, our Facebook page has been the most engaging, particularly when we run contests. Our latest effort to heighten awareness of the expanded education requirement to be a CPA attracted a lot of attention, particularly with the younger members. Our LinkedIn group has been around for a few years, and lately I’ve noticed that members are starting to post questions and discussions there as well. Just this week someone posted something on small businesses being targeted by cybercriminals and proposed amendments to the Pennsylvania Realty Transfer Tax. It’s definitely an evolving medium and CPAs are trying to figure out how it works in their personal and professional life.
Which social media platforms are best for which activities?
Facebook is definitely the hands down favorite if you want to do an event highlight with photos and generate quick and easy comments. LinkedIn is evolving to make it easier to engage. They now have the “like” button and the postings are more easily assessable. I’ve noticed that members are starting to post some questions and share articles on this platform.
We see more thought leadership discussions on LinkedIn. There’s another LinkedIn group that has quite a bit of professional interaction – Social CPAs. They have many discussions on how to use social media to market professional services. From a mobile perspective, Facebook and Twitter are much easier to stay engaged via a smart phone. I personally have found the LinkedIn app to be helpful to stay updated, but not to engage.
How do you use all your various social media platforms to cross-promote your video campaign? What kind of conversations have you had with your fans about it?
We shared the videos across all platforms – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – as we released each video. We also reached out to bloggers and other pages on Facebook that address either accounting topics or movies, such as Humphrey Bogart fans, Empire Strikes Back pages, etc. There have not been many conversations generated, but we have had exposure.
Again, the Facebook “likes” made for an easy response. When you look at postings that generate the most comments, it’s usually on a controversial issue, or something that people are really passionate about. We didn’t expect to get many comments, but I’m happy that the videos have been viewed.
What would you say to an organization that believes social media is for teenagers? How would you convince them that it’s a worthwhile marketing opportunity to explore?
I’d suggest that people look at the numbers! If they want to reach people, they need to be where the people are. It was a big news story this year that Facebook surpassed Google as the number one internet destination. And it’s not all young people going to Facebook. According to FB, there is a combined 28 million people over the age of 45 active on Facebook – and users of all ages just in Pennsylvania is nearly 6 million. That’s a lot of reach!
Do you have any social media “best practices”/advice for organizations that are looking to do more with social media?
Recognize that social media is not free; you need to spend a valuable asset – time. Define what you hope to accomplish, and make people accountable for specific responsibilities. Also, every company should have a social media policy in place to protect the company and the individual. In the past year, we have developed a schedule and list of shared responsibilities to help coordinate our efforts and engage our members. We are trying to show the PICPA’s personality by posting fun events, highlights of member accomplishments, and some thought leadership postings.
How do you measure the success of your social media campaigns?
For the viral videos, we look at views to the videos and hits to our consumer portal. For Facebook and LinkedIn, we look at growth in numbers of likes to our page and members to our PICPA group as well as the level of engagement.
Any upcoming new video campaigns we should keep an eye out for?
Pennsylvania CPA licensing requirements are changing. Effective Jan. 1, 2012 the number of course hours required to be a CPA will go from 120 hours to 150 hours. To be sure our members are aware of these changes and have their CPAs-in-training prepared, we released a new video on May 2 – 150…It’s Coming!
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So, your accounting firm created a Facebook page.
