I was a boy in heaven. It was the mid-'80s and I was at my dad's office, pretending to work while he caught up on client tax returns. In the corner of the supply room sat "the computer." It looked like it had been off for quite a while. Naturally, I asked my dad to turn it on. He did.
"What's it do?" I asked.
"It's going to make this a whole lot easier," he replied, waving a large paper ledger full of carefully penciled numbers in rectangles. He was right. The next year, Lotus 1-2-3 allowed his CPA firm to make more accurate calculations more quickly than ever before.
After that came Excel, new tax software, and then Quickbooks. Good accountants suppressed both their ego ("That program can't do what I do") and their fear ("Will my clients still need me?"). Instead, they recognized the technology for what it was – a new way to solidify relationships and expand upon the value they provided to their clients.
The same is true of technology for financial professionals today. By embracing new technologies such as social media, you can provide higher quality services to more clients in less time, with better results.
Social Media has graduated from "fun platform" to a must-use technology.
I understand. Social media is fraught with regulatory risk, silliness and pointlessness. Actually, I completely agree. That is exactly the experience that most financial professionals have had.
But that's because they're using it wrong. You probably are, too. Hear me out.
Insights shared on social media can help you improve your business. There's a lot of noise out there, but fortunately, there's some extremely valuable signal as well. You just have to know who to follow.
Vendors are sharing their technology advances and some fantastic best-practices advice. Industry leaders are providing real-world examples that will help you expand your business. Attorneys and accountants are publishing tips to keep you out of trouble.
