Happy Second Year Anniversary, Partners-Network Blog!
Twoyears.Two hundred and eightblogs. I think that is pretty good! When I started, I was concerned with whether or notI would be able to come up with material for one post a week… and,here I am doing it twice a week without even working up a sweat.
The ideas come quite easily. I write about concerns clients share with me. As a CPA with active clients, I am like a magnet drawing their questions. I like helping them and also have a knack of being able to share the experiences with others, particularly through this blog. There were a number of issuesI did not handle, but I was able to draw on others in my firm to write the blog or assist me in it.They were always mentioned accordingly.
I found out a lot about “social media,” which the blog is part of. My blogs do not go viral, do not elicit many comments and do not generate business directly. My purpose for the blogs is to deliver immediately usable information. There are no commercials (some very rarely), no solicitations and no sales pitches. I want you – my readers – to be smarter, better empowered and equipped to deal with the issues I write about. Some might ask what I get out of it. Well, I get a lot.
When I write a blog I need to be succinct, communicate actionable ideas and get my ideas across quickly. I am getting good at this. Sometimes the blogs are directed at a limited number of people and sometimes to a wide audience. I call or email those affected or who would benefit to let them know about the blog. Others I mail, printed copies with a note about how it applies to them and sometimes I tell them that they should have a consultation with me because they are greatly affected by what I wrote. I have also used groupings of blogs as handouts for speeches I present, which saves me a great deal of preparation time. Actually, I’ve also used the blogs to not get business. Rather than have a consultation with someone, I send them a grouping of my blogs that address their issues. I didn’t realize the extent I’ve been doing this until I sat down to write this blog. I must have done this about three dozen times last year. I didn’t make money on it, but I made someone happy by providing them with a quick and directed response to their concerns, at no charge. Maybe, someday, one of them will refer a client to us.
The blogs also help to either build or strengthen my and my firm’s “brand.” The wide variety of topics show areas I practice in, but there are many subjects I haven’t touched. At Withum, we have over a dozen industry groups and over two dozen service specialist groups. I tend to write about what I am mostly involved with. We have nine regular blogs, including mine, on many topics, each written by experts in those subjects. You can get the entire list and links by clicking here. The blogs are CEO Thinks by Bill Hagaman, our CEO, Charitable Nation by Ray Russolillo, Double Taxation by Tony Nitti who also writes Forbes.com’s tax blog, Ownership Writes by Bernie Leone, our succession planning guru, First Busy Season by Matthew Walsh, Withum on Wall Street by Frank Boutillette and Tony Tuths, ERISA Sunscreen by Dave Dacey and Where in the World by our International Tax Specialist Kimberlee Phelan. Many of the blogs also have guest writers. They are all great and there is no charge to get an email whenever a new blog is posted.
These blogs are a way of sharing and transferring what we know in an actionable way. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do writing them.Two years. Two hundred and eight blogs and still blogging strong! Pretty good!
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