And now the good news. I know why there are so few accounting and finance practitioners blogging… they don’t want to blog.

I started this blog to teach accountants and auditors to become effective bloggers and to use social media wisely. There is a huge void in the blogosphere because few accountants, auditors, and finance professionals are blogging regularly and enthusiastically.

It’s my opinion that NOW is the time to start your blog and get recognition for you and your firm. If you provide good value to blog readers, you have an excellent chance of being noticed and getting some traction.

Unfortunately, this site has never taken off the way I hoped it would. I wanted to offer accountants and auditors completely free information on developing their blogs and social media profiles. And they don’t want to participate.I know that I’ve told you that you have to be committed to blogging for at least a year before you’ll see real results. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough traffic here to merit continuing for that long.

I’ve had a handful of very loyal readers since November, but not enough to justify the time I’m putting into this site. I hoped that after January 1st we’d get more readers because so many professionals take a renewed interest in marketing and networking with other professionals. But the traffic hasn’t taken off, and it’s best that I put this blog on hold while I focus my efforts elsewhere.

I’m pleased to say that I am beyond swamped in my consulting practice, and my corporate blog Fraud Files is flourishing. I am also going to be writing a weekly Column called Fraud Files for AOL’s money site DailyFinance, and my Fraud Files column for the Wisconsin Law Journal is coming back as well. I am finishing up this year’s update on my AICPA publication The CPA’s Handbook of Fraud and Commercial Crime Prevention, and I’ve got a couple of other projects in the works.

I don’t know if this site will be back or not. It will depend on whether there still seems to be a need for it, along with an audience who wants it. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to the site for the last four months.

But how do you decide who to follow? In short, you should follow people who interest you. Anyone you don’t want to hear from simply adds noise to your Twitter feed.

There are plenty of “Twitter spammers” out there who are following anyone and everyone in an attempt to gather a following of their own. This works partly because many Twitter users have their accounts set up to “auto follow.” The minute anyone follows them, they automatically follow the person back.

I did this for a while, and it was dumb. I had added tons of people to my Twitter feed who I had no interest in. Lots of them were outright spammers, others were just selling things I didn’t want to buy. As I realized my mistake and started removing these people from my list, I started to enjoy Twitter again and got much more out of it.

The moral of the story is to follow people on Twitter carefully. Think about who you want to hear from, and who you want following you.  Seek out people with common interests and shared expertise.

So who, exactly, should you avoid following on Twitter? These are my top ten suggestions:

1. Pure spambots – These are automated accounts that are pushing the sale of a product and/or promote the same advertising links over and over. They often have a username that is a common first name plus four digits. Many times, they have no avatar or use one that is easily identified as a stock photo, rather than an actual person who is Tweeting.
2. Social media gurus – Do you really need a “guru” to tell you how to use Twitter? There are zillions of “social media experts” out there who want to sell you a system for using social media. Truthfully, it’s not all that hard to use social media effectively, and I’ve told you how on this site FOR FREE. Anything else you need to know about social media is available for free online, and you don’t need a “guru” to sell you their services.
3. Celebrities – Whether a celebrity is honestly using Twitter himself or herself, or whether it’s really one of their PR people doing the Tweeting does not matter. The Tweets of a celebrity add no value to you, so why bother?
4. People who are not engaged on Twitter – The people who use Twitter only for advertising or announcing their blog posts aren’t adding any value to you either. If you want to keep up on their blog posts, you can use an RSS reader which will let you know when they have new blog posts. You don’t need to add their noise to your Twitter stream. Also, anyone who simply posts links and never actually discusses them or participates in a conversation is not a good person to follow either.
5. SEO pushers – Anyone who is blathering about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a dinosaur, and there is no reason to follow them. To get good positioning in search engine results, you simply need to write good content that has good keyword utilization. It’s really as simple as that, and you don’t need to pay someone to tell you this. Anything you need to know about SEO is freely available on the internet, and any gimmicks an SEO guru is trying to sell you are worthless.
6. MLM pushers -  This includes anyone who is pushing a pyramid scheme (recruiting scheme) that they call MLM, multi-level marketing, network marketing, or direct sales. It’s all the same, and the name of the game is recruiting. These people will add nothing to your life but false claims about how much money they’re making and how you can have financial freedom. Any marketers selling their knowledge to MLM pushers should be avoided too, as they’re no better than the people actually in the pyramid schemes.
7. Affiliate marketers and make money online freaks – Do you really want to hear how you can make a million dollars a day while in your pajamas? The internet is overrun by people who make money online by telling you how to make money online. All of this is nothing more than an informal pyramid scheme. They’re selling products that will help you make money…. but the way YOU are supposed to make money is by also selling those same products. It’s an endless chain of selling a worthless product, and you should avoid these people at all costs. Yes, there are some people making money online because they are promoting legitimate products and services. But they’re so few and far between that you should just avoid the whole industry.
8. Millionaires who are Tweeting about how rich they are – If you were worth millions, would you really be spending your time on Twitter telling people how rich you are? They’re trying to sell you something, and their claims about being millionaires are worthless.
9. Porn pushers, teeth whiteners and weight loss solutions – These are simply spambots who add no value.  They are trying to sell you something you don’t want, and that makes them worthless.
10. Inspirational quotes – Are you involved with Twitter so you can see hundreds of uplifting quotes each day? I doubt it. These people are just noise.

Choose who you follow carefully to make the most of your time and your Twitter experience.

1. Market on your own and develop press contacts
2. Pay a PR agency a retainer to work on your behalf to find press opportunities
3. Pay a PR agency on a “pay for placement” basis, essentially only paying them when they actually get press for you

Which is best? For me, the best option has been to market on my own, but it has been a ton of work. I’ve been in business for ten years, and I’ve spent countless hours blogging and staying in contact with the media to create opportunities for myself.  The results have been amazing. Between the blogging and press coverage, I rank very high in Google for the search terms I monitor.

I declined to go the round of having a PR agency on retainer. I simply didn’t want to spend the money, and I felt like I could work the hardest on my behalf. It’s not that PR agencies don’t do good work. Many of them are great, but they have lots of clients and I didn’t want to get lost in the shuffle.

I’ve tried “pay for placement” a few times, with dismal results. I am on a list for an agency that only does these types of placements. When they think they’ve found a press opportunity that fits my expertise, they contact me about it. Their opportunities often come about because of reporters or bloggers who are seeking a quote from someone with a particular area of expertise.

The agency initially won’t say what media outlet the opportunity is with, because they don’t want you circumventing their process and “stealing” the opportunity for free. That make sense. But be careful, because it’s hard to evaluate the opportunity without knowing exactly where you’re going to be appearing. Sometimes they will tell you before you pay, which is helpful.

The opportunities I got were with major media, and I negotiated down their fee for placement. Sounds ideal, doesn’t it? It did until after the pieces ran. I got almost no traffic to my website from them, and I had paid a hefty fee. Sure, my name appeared in well-known media outlets, but there were no tangible (or even intangible) results as far as I could see. Money wasted.

I’d rather spend my time cultivating my own opportunities than paying someone else for “placing” me with a media outlet. I’m sure others have had much better results with paying for placement, but for me, it wasn’t worth even a fraction of what I spent on it. Lesson learned. I won’t pay for media placement again. And now that I’m well established in the eyes of the media, they’re seeking me out, so I don’t need to work as hard.

The purpose of this blog is to serve as an outlet for my thoughts on (1) higher education in general and accounting education in particular, (2) financial accounting and its regulation, and (3) accounting humor and accounting movies.

And why does he blog? Is blogging worth all the time he puts into it?

Worth is relative.  I’m an academic and I don’t have anything to sell.  I’m doing it because it is my professorial responsibility to give back to the world, the accounting profession, or at least anyone who wants to learn from me.  That means, I evaluate The Summa’s success by readership and, to a certain extent, by influence.

Does that sound interesting to you? Maybe not, but the blog is actually very engaging. Accounting professors often make the mistake of taking a “just the facts” approach to what they write. How boring! I can get news from any old news site. Professor Albrecht takes a different approach. He is more than happy to include lots of his personal opinions on accounting and regulation issues. That’s what makes the blog so good.

One of Professor Albrecht’s favorite issues is IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). He’s not a fan of this small set of rules which relies very heavily on the judgment of management in preparing financial statements. I also love that Professor Albrecht is a big fan of blogging and is encouraging accountants and auditors to become avid bloggers, which just happens to be the whole focus of BloggingSuits.com!

Each week, BloggingSuits highlights one Superstar Finance Blogger that we’ve found while surfing the internet. These blogs are interesting, frequently updated (2 to 3 times per week), and full of useful materials for clients, practitioners, or both. Bonus points are awarded if the blog allows comments and has a healthy dialogue with readers. If you know an accounting or finance blogger who deserves to be recognized in our Superstar series, drop us a line!

Except you’ve found that no one (or almost no one) seems to be following you on Twitter. You say such interesting things, yet no one seems to be paying attention. What have you done wrong???

I can break the problem down into three simple points… and I guarantee that you’re making a fatal error in at least one of these if you can’t seem to build a following on Twitter.

1. You’re Tweeting about stupid stuff – If your primary focus of your Twitter account is business, then tweet about business. Talk about the latest news or interesting articles around the internet that relate to your area of expertise. Some fun is permitted with Twitter, of course. But if you want to increase your visibility for business purposes, you’ve got to focus mainly on business. (And make sure that what you’re providing regarding business topics is of interest to those you hope will follow you!)
2. You’re not following others – I’m sure that you’ve heard that in order to receive, you sometimes must first give. That principle is very important in attracting Twitter followers. You must first follow others before you can expect people to follow you. When you follow someone on Twitter, they get a message saying you’ve followed them if they’ve got their notifications turned on. There’s a good chance they’ll take a look at your profile and see if you’re worth following back. This is a great way to get new followers! Otherwise, how does anyone even know that you’re out there??? (Be careful, though… .Don’t just run off and follow anyone and everyone in the hope that they’ll all follow you back. Follow only those tweeters who you are really interested in hearing from and interacting with. Following a bunch of crappy accounts won’t attract the kind of followers you want, so don’t even bother.)
3. You’re not really engaging with others – Are you talking at people, or are you engaging in conversations and information exchanges via Twitter? It’s fine to post links to interesting stories and blog articles, but Twitter is supposed to be interactive. It’s not a one-way information highway. This is a two-way street, and you’ll attract more interest if you are engaging with other tweeters. Respond to their tweets, ask questions, and give your two cents on topics others are tweeting about. You have to be involved to grow your following.

If you’re doing these three things right, don’t worry. Your following may still build slowly. It takes time for people to notice you, trust you, and want to interact with you. If you’ve got these three bases covered, you are more than ready to grow your Twitter following and now it’s just a matter of patience and continuing to interact consistently.

And if you still haven’t gotten started with Twitter… take a look at my 5 Easy Twitter Tips to help you get started!

So first I did some reading…. First stop, Microsoft’s site. I looked at the hardware requirements and software compatibility. Then I compared the 3 versions of Windows 7 available. I hate choosing. Microsoft makes the whole enchilada, and then turns off certain features for users who want to pay less. How do you know which one to choose? Take a careful look at the comparisons. I ended up going with the middle-of-the-road choice because it included the option to run in “XP mode.” I knew this might be necessary for some of my older tax programs. I didn’t want to take my chances by not having that option available.

Then I went to Google and started searching for how long the upgrade might take, as well as tips and tools I might find useful. I found plenty of tips to make the upgrade run smoothly. And this is how I found the most amazing tool ever…. LapLink PCmover.

Normally, when you install a new operating system, you will have to install all your software from scratch once you’ve got the new system running. PCmover did away with this labor-intensive process. Basically, PCmover bundles up all your data and software, and then lets you move it to the new system and unpack it there. AND IT REALLY WORKS.

I did a separate backup of all my data to an external hard drive, just in case PCmover wasn’t all I’d heard. Worst case scenario, I’d have a clean backup of all my data and would just have to manually install all my software and restore my data. (In which case, I’d really be no worse off than I originally thought I’d be.)

After doing the separate backup of my data, I ran PC mover and followed the instructions to pack up all the data and software I wanted to move. Then I installed Windows 7… a completely clean install so that I’d have no lingering problems from my previous operating system issues. The install went just fine.

Next, I unpacked my data and software with PCmover. And it worked like a charm! A few programs didn’t run on the new operating system, but all I had to do was reinstall those from scratch and they were fine. All of the other programs functioned perfectly! AND I SAVED HOURS AND HOURS OF TIME.

All told, I spent about 6 hours on the upgrade. Most of that time was waiting for data transfers, so very little time was spent actually interacting during the process. I simply worked on my laptop while the upgrade and data moves were happening on the desktop.

And how about Windows 7? I love to hate Microsoft…. so it shames me that I’m saying I love Windows 7 so far! It looks and feels amazing. I think I’m going to love this operating system!

One word of warning: Some people are apparently having problems with older hardware like printers and such. Apparently, there aren’t drivers available for older hardware, so you may have to get new stuff in order to use Windows 7. That wasn’t a problem for me, because the only hardware I depend on at work is a newer printer and fairly new scanner. Both work fine. Obviously, this might create a lot of costs at your office. However, remember that you’ll eventually have to make the move to Windows 7, so start planning now if you’ve got older hardware that will need to be replaced.

The first thing to remember about blogging is that content is key. It matters less how often you blog, and more what you blog about. Readers come to your blog for engaging content that teaches them something or gives them an alternative point of view to consider.

I’ve been blogging on my corporate blog The Fraud Files for over four years. During that time, the types of articles I post has changed. When I first started out, I mostly posted short articles about news stories related to fraud. I didn’t offer a whole lot of opinion, as I was just feeling out this whole “blogging thing” and I wasn’t sure whether I should let my very strong opinions be heard.

As time has gone on, I have moved toward posting articles that include very much about my personal point of view. That has included my opinions on issues, as well as my conclusions based on original research on a topic or company. I’ve found that articles including original thought from me have been much more appealing to blog readers. So my conclusion is that it’s important to give readers “your take” on the topics you’re writing about. They can get straight news anywhere on the internet. You need to provide readers with something new and original to consider.

But back to the main point of this post… How often should you blog? My blogging has ranged from posting several times a day, to posting a few times a week. That has been based on what exciting things are going on in the world of fraud, as well as how much time I have to devote to writing.

What I’ve found is that the best frequency is about three times a week, focusing on publishing those three articles on weekdays. When I post more often than that, say five or seven times a week, I don’t see a measurable increase in traffic. It seems my readers are happy with three new topics a week, and anything more is really only published for my own enjoyment.

Of course, there is no right or wrong in how often you should publish on your blog. But from my experience, posting new articles three times a week, with original thought and content, seems to work best. It’s often enough to keep your regular readers coming back consistently, without overwhelming them with tons of posts they don’t have time to read.

When I tell people that I blog for a living, the initial response is usually one of interest.  However, when I answer the guaranteed follow-up question, “What do you blog about?” and I reply “accounting”, that’s when I get the strange looks.  “Why on Earth would anyone want to blog about such a boring subject,” is how I would describe their facial reaction.

Despite the reaction of strangers, the content and purpose of your blog is yours to decide and there are certain techniques that can be utilized that will keep your readers engaged and coming back (no matter how “boring” a subject might seem):

• Blog regularly – For any blog to be successful, regular content is paramount.  I’m not suggesting that you dedicate your entire day to posting but you should commit to posting to at least twice a week.  Long periods without posting will turn readers off and they’ll assume that you’re not serious about keeping them informed.  
• Keep it concise – There are various opinions on word count and there is no magic number but since we’re focusing on accounting and finance as the topic, I personally find this to be crucial to creating an effective blog.  Once you have a draft, attempt to cut 10% of it, even 20% for longer posts.  You’ll be surprised how you can tighten your points and arguments with fewer words.  Say everything you want to in your post and then make it more succinct.
• Be selective with your links – Linking is a crucial method of giving your post context and calling attention to key points in your text. One could argue that no post should be without them (although this humble blogger has, on occasion, done so).  Plus it’s a fun way to give credit to other bloggers that you enjoy or admire.  However, too many links could dilute their overall effectiveness, so be selective.
• Stay true to your style – People will enjoy your blog and keep coming back because of your voice and style.  If you change your voice or content, readers may lose interest.  That being said, don’t be afraid to experiment, embrace constructive criticism, and realize that you will not write the perfect post every time.  It will keep your readers interested and they will appreciate that you listen to them.

Each blog will have different goals but you may find that these change as you blog more, so stay open-minded.   The points above are just a few strategies that have served me well as I have made the transition from CPA to blogger.  Whatever the intent of your blog for you or your firm, these will keep your blog both informative and unique.

Guest Post by: Brett Vanderwater

In the changing landscape of communication channels social media has become a key to bringing visibility to the passion that you deliver through your career. I began utilizing the social media platforms a few months ago and have found the benefits exponential to expanding a targeted network, knowledge on your area of expertise, and raising visibility.

Network has grown through social media sources of Linked InTwitter, and Blogging on financial topics.

• Linked In has brought further networking has provided a means to keep in touch with colleagues as we move through our careers (and around the World). It also brings valuable discussion groups, news, and a forum for asking/answering financial questions to a targeted audience. The speed of information is at your fingertips.
• I utilize Twitter to get the current scoop. The speed of information is critical to staying ahead of the competition and moving a business forward. The micro blogging site provides a channel for short messages on current situations. The value here is the ability to channel the information channels by the following similar interests.
• I have been blogging for a few months. While at first I looked at this as I don’t have time, I’m finding that I have been blogging all along. As knowledge workers we continuously feed information to ourselves to keep current and document what we want to reference in the future. Blogging< can simply provide a means to share items we review on a daily basis.

I have found the BloggingSuits blog a valuable read to further understand the wide open landscape of social media and channel where you want to go with it. The topics are well written and easily understood.

I am a Strategic Financial Leader who delivers sustained value to world class companies.

I thrive on leading financial change in an organization, optimizing growth of revenue and increased profits…a win-win situation!”

To Connect to Brett Vanderwater, MBA, CIA, CMA, CTP; Linked In, Twitter, Blog

The site calls itself a “tabloid” for accounting and finance professionals, and that’s what makes it so fun. They’re never afraid to print rumor and innuendo. They’re keeping accountants and auditors honest, never afraid to write about the idiocy frequently displayed by finance professionals and executives.

It doesn’t hurt that Going Concern is willing to quote me and link to my blog. Is the site about hard-hitting news? Not always. But they sure are willing to turn on the lights and make the cockroaches scatter. And part of the reason why it’s so interesting is that they’ll touch topics that others are too afraid to discuss.

The site is relatively new, as it kicked off in June 2009, but looks to have steady traffic growth.  There are regular features which make the site worth visiting daily, including a news round-up and a quote of the day. One of my favorite categories on the site is “Accountants Behaving Badly.” Going Concern also has a good presence on Twitter,  Kudos to Going Concern for keeping the accountants on their toes!

Each week, BloggingSuits highlights one Superstar Finance Blogger that we’ve found while surfing the internet. These blogs are interesting, frequently updated (2 to 3 times per week), and full of useful materials for clients, practitioners, or both. Bonus points are awarded if the blog allows comments and has a healthy dialogue with readers. If you know an accounting or finance blogger who deserves to be recognized in our Superstar series, drop us a line!