Ideas in Motion: In the Blogosphere With FromGregsHead.com
By Scott H. Cytron, ABC
Have blogs passed you by?
They haven’t passed the eye of Greg Price, CPA.CITP, CFE, CISA, director of Consulting Solutions and Information Technology for PKF Texas in Houston. In his day job, Greg directs his firm’s IT Consulting practice, working with a variety of clients in accounting and systems processes.
On off-hours, he’s the voice of FromGregsHead.com, a new blog that began about six weeks ago and is running strong with an average of two new entries each week.
For readers who are unfamiliar with blogs, here’s a short lesson. “Blog” is short for “Web log,” or an online diary of information that can be professional, personal or a combination of both. Blogs are an enormous part of today’s pop culture and are read across the world for information, insight and education. NITLE, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting liberal education, reports there are 2.8 million active blogs on the Internet (worldwide).
Even though blogs are plentiful and available on just about any topic imaginable, a partner at an accounting firm who has a blog is anything but traditional – in fact, it’s few and far between.
I recently sat down with Greg to pick his brain on the why, where and how associated with his blog.
Scott Cytron: How did the idea for a blog come about?
Greg Price: PKF Texas is all about innovation by presenting our clients different ways of doing business and building their bottom line. As a full-service accounting and consulting firm, we work hard to position ourselves in the greater-Houston community, throughout Texas and even internationally as a true business partner. On the technology side, we build on the innovation we tout throughout all of our services.
We practice what we preach, so creating a blog seemed like a natural next step for me to find yet another way to “touch” a client or prospect and demonstrate our firm’s technology acumen.
You’ve probably noticed that the blog isn’t about my personal life – after all, who would be interested in that? It’s more about observations on the technology infrastructure in Houston, advanced processes I can pass on to readers, various ways to incorporate Dynamics NAV software (formerly Navision) into a client’s business, and other bits of information.
SC: Can’t you accomplish the same thing by communicating with clients and prospects in other ways?
GP: We regularly are in touch with our clients on a number of various matters, and our firm certainly has cross-over in services offered; in other words, if our tax staff sees an IT opportunity, they pass it on to our area, and visa versa.
We see the blog as an extension of our efforts, and yet, it goes a step further by opening up our lines of communication with an entirely new audience – readers who have no familiarity with me or PKF Texas, but may have found us by doing a Google search for something loosely related to technology and accounting.
SC: Can you be more specific? How would a person 3,000 miles away benefit from the blog and what would you get out of the association with that person?
GP: Like anything else, you’ll have a direct connection with a potential prospect or a current client by sparking something of interest in that person – or a mutual connection.
Take, for example, my observations about how WiFi or wireless hotspots in the greater-Houston area aren’t as plentiful as other cities that are just as progressive in terms of technology and innovation. A person in Iowa may stumble on my blog, and despite the fact that he/she agrees or disagrees with my thoughts, I’ve created a “connection” with this person who may be in a position to pass along my name or our firm as a referral source to a business friend who might need our services.
Think of it as a way of finding something in common with another person you’ve met for the first time. By leveraging the human connection with technology, you’re able to reach out to a completely new audience who may someday need your services or want your opinion.
SC: I’ve heard that some blog readers disassociate themselves with a blog that appears to be too much corporate-speak or thinly disguised as a sub-site for the company itself. What do you say about your blog in light of this?
GP: Good question. Even though I’ve talked a bit about the relationship between PKF Texas and my blog, I want to be clear that FromGregsHead.com is entirely my own thoughts and ideas. We did our homework prior to launching the blog, knowing that it could not be a simple publicity machine for PKF Texas. If you read the entries, you’ll see that they seldom talk about the firm. We did this on purpose and I think it works very well in our favor.
SC: Is a blog costly to get up and running?
GP: Not really. You can get as extensive as you want with design and format, but there are plenty of free sources on the Internet to start a blog, including blogspot.com. These systems are very intuitive; it takes only about 30 minutes on average to set up a blog and begin posting. In our case, we spent a bit longer on creating our blog because it is an extension of my personality and the firm’s credibility. We wanted to ensure it was professional and a bit edgy as well. I think we accomplished our mission.
SC: How do you come up with ideas to write about in the blog?
GP: Certainly not solely from the accounting community because there are a whole lot of other sources to draw from. After all, clients and prospects aren’t reading accounting trades and Web sites like AS411.com; they are more interested in mainstream, and in many cases, niche business publications.
There is a section on the blog that includes “Links,” or my favorite sites to visit for more information. These include publications such as Business 2.0 and Inc. magazine, as well as other information sites, including the Rice Alliance, the Houston Angel Network and even the Federal Reserve Bank Economic Letter. The sky’s the limit when it comes to links, and I someday would like to see us list more links than we have room for on the site!
SC: What’s your primary advice to other CPAs who are thinking about blogging?
GP: Do your homework; read as many blogs as you can to get a sense of how they are composed and how they flow. I’ll admit that many blogs are very tedious and delve into personal lives that are just not a part of our culture. That’s fine for the segment of the population who wants this kind of material – but not for me who is trying to, again, be a business “partner.”
Other than that, try it and see if it works for you. With minimal upfront costs, what do you have to lose?
About Author:
Scott H. Cytron, ABC, is an accredited communications and public relations consultant working in the accounting, health care, high-tech and finance industries. He also teaches efficient and effective writing to professional services’ groups and can be reached at scott@cytronandcompany.com or through his Web site, http://www.cytronandcompany.com.
About Column:
Ideas in Motion is a monthly column designed to focus on best practices within CPA firms and organizations involved in providing technology related services.
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