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State of the nation

by Dennis Howlett on April 9, 2008

Damien Wild reports on the state of the accounting blogosphere. This is my interpretation:

  • Mercer and Hole: uses blog techniques but doesn’t engage with the potential readership – more an information site than one that scratches where it itches
  • Cumulo Accountancy and Taxation: dead. Made a brave attempt but didn’t understand how to reach its clients.
  • RowePro – dead. Not updated since October, 2007
  • PwC -regularly updated but I have no idea what they’re trying to say except to their internal audience.
  • Jeremy Newman – a great blog designed to expose the competitive inequalities that exist between the Big 4 and the tier 2 players. I wish Jeremy would be more aggressive.
  • Richard Murphy – needs no introduction. A person who ‘got it’ right off the bat and has leveraged his knowledge and skill to develop a valuable brand.Â
  • Holden Associates – Jason Holden is a really smart guy but I wonder whether his emphasis on marketing is appropriate for the SMB market he serves. Where are the conversations?
  • Michael Izza – Needs to be more active in the ion community. His occasional blog posts are little more than news letters.
  • Small Practice Accountant – dead. Not updated since December, 2007
  • John Tate – regularly updated but little discussion going on. John deserves more attention.

Missed:

  • Philip Woodgate – partner in AccountancyAge winning firm Goodman Jones. Philip is a bit busy these days but does his best to keep up. Therein lies a problem methinks. Philip is one of my business partners and I understand the stresses he is under. I still think though he could do more.
  • Stuart Jones – one of the best examples of a campaigning practitioner for the ‘little guy.’ Stuart has been a great help to other business partners If ever there was a 5 star award for community support, Stuart would be top of my list.
  • Francine McKenna – scourge of the Big Four but always incisive. Francine should be on everyone’s reading list.
  • Krupo – representative of the new generation of audit managers. His style and wit should be an inspiration to any graduate looking to ‘make his/her bones. Rarely on topic but who cares?
  • Neil McIntyre  – newly minted Canadian CA. What a ride that guy has had. It’s been a pleasure to follow his progress and still he keeps it up,

I have probably missed a few but these are the folks I have followed, debated and argued with over the last couple of years.

There is clearly room for entry and improvement. Perhaps this is a reflection of the profession as a whole. If it is any comfort at all, those who have embraced the blog metaphor and understood what it means for client service are doing very well indeed.

In the meantime I say thanks one and all for being there and encouraging me.

PS – Michelle Golden – the inspiration for Damien’s post. If you’re reading this then ask me about IT Counts. It’s rocking.

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Tagged as: Innovation

  • @Heather. I beg to differ on the format but am glad you're doing well elsewhere. ICAEW has already won an award for its community, is shortlisted for 4 other awards. GoodmanJones - 3rd year in succession shortlisted for a major award for 'innovative use of internet' IT Counts community now with c.4K members from a standing start this March. Average 2+ comments per post. Highly active - shown to CPAs in Washington and to innovators in San Francisco earlier this month. Growing group of accounting websites/weblogs all doing well. Podcasting is alive and well - colleague of mine now has over 300, with regular subscribers topping 2K per week. No-one I know seems to be running out of ideas. On appropriate topics I can generate thousands of page views a day. Now running an aggregation site with 2 others, microblogging site with 1840+ subscribers a day...the list goes on.
  • That was a lot of hyphens.
  • Actually Dennis - you couldn't be further off the point.

    It was never our intention to reach our clients through blogging - largely our clients have never been that bothered with the blog at all - we have and continue to grow - and look for more useful means of reaching our targeted audience, I think we would have liked to have continued with the podcasting and in honesty this is still on our agenda - however we have felt for a goodly amount of time that blogging has become dull and a little passe - it seems to be inhabited by a circle of people who just spin around the same sphere.

    We do however continually look to introduce fresh perspectives - and if you are looking you might find us in different guises bringing new perspectives to the web based accountancy world. Cumulo Accountancy is far from dead - our brave attempt was aimed at bringing some humour and insight - as for our clients, we have always understood. Tax Blagger is actually more often than not found in printed format these days - and he's going great guns - with a very relevant audience - Heather
  • "Rarely on topic but who cares?"

    LOL - thanks, that's the best endorsement I could ever dream of. :)

    Keep up the good work here too.
  • @mark: How could I forget? Of course you're part of the fabric of our nascent world. Shame on me and thanks for brining Robert's blog to my attention.
  • Hi Dennis
    One other accountancy (more tax) related blog of which I'm aware is written on an ad hoc basis by tax guru Robert Maas, http://twocheersforthechancellor.blogspot.com/

    I guess my bog for ambitious accountants doesn't count as it's mostly FOR accountants rather than ABOUT accountants - although I often comment on best practice related issues too: http://bookmarklee.wordpress.com (I've been updating it regularly for almost 2 years now).

    And there's also my newer tax related blog on www.TaxAdviceNetwork.co.uk/blog
    although again I guess it doesn't count, this time because it's clearly focused on tax related issues (again including practice related matters).

    And, finally, the most popular (sadly) of my blogs, by a long way,: www.Accountant-jokes.com

    Still I hope you don't mind me adding this post.

    Mark
  • Hi Den,

    Well thanks for the mention. Just lately I have not been as active as I want, we are in the middle of an office move as well as getting those old files paperless, taking on new clients at a fair click, so lots going on.

    You are right, I have had quite an emphasis on marketing, this is/was intentional, as it is an area so many SME’s do not get or do not know what to do, and the direct replies to me (via my website and not the blog mind!) form non clients has been good, we have also picked up clients from this!

    Having said all that, once the dust settles (sorry it’s a new office there is no dust yet!) I will be back with vengeance on the blog, I will not only concentrate on marketing, but also tackling tax, vat, HR and many more subjects, you may even see a few guest bloggers who are specialist in these areas give some of their tome and knowledge away for free.

    So lots going on at the Holden Associates camp, and we intend to make 2008 a very good year indeed.

    As always, always interested in feed back on the blog, and any suggestions on what people would like to see tackled let me know and we will tackle it.

    Jason
  • Thanks for the mention Dennis. I hope by sharing my journey through the CA designation, others may be inspired in the future to share theirs!
  • Dennis, Thaks so much for your encouragement. I would also add Edith Orenstein's blog at Financial Executives International, http://www2.financialexecutives.org/blog/blog.c...

    She writes thorough summaries of all of the important meetings and articles. Her experience and knowledge of the issues is boundless. An amazing resource. I can't wait until we see more of Edith in the blog.
  • Dennis
    Bang to rights. It was unforgiveable of me to overlook Philip Woodgate (http://www.sme-blog.net/) as I believe he and his firm Goodman Jones have done a great job. I wasn't aware of Stuart Jones (http://www.3ca.co.uk/) but it looks like he's producing a valuable site too.
    Damian
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