For Social Media Trailblazers, Think...Accountants?

When Social Media mavens want to rub antennae with the gurus of their field, they go to Mashable or TED.  But what about the rest of us who are struggling just to understand 21st century technology, not attract venture capital?

For that goal, the Maryland Association of CPAs just might be our new best friends.  They have created an innovative and extremely approachable Website called CPA Learning 2.0 that is so user-friendly and fun to use that you'll never look at green eye shades or April 15th the same way again!

The self-study, self-guided program features 34 Steps to social media literacy that are designed to be sampled over the course of nine weeks.  That might sound like a lot, but the tutorials are completely flexible.  You can skip around, change the time frame to suit your schedule, or completely ignore sections that don't interest you.

For instance, there were whole sections that I know in advance that I would never use such as joining MySpace or blogging about my friends' photos on Flickr.  But the good news of that is that you will feel your comfort level and competence with social media growing just by being able to discern what is right or wrong for you or what seems like it would be a meaningless black hole vortex of wasted time.

If blogging in particular interests you, the Maryland accountants also have a terrific one called CPA Success.  And even if you never blog a word, it's great reading for all professionals who want to explore new ways to market themselves in a recessionary economy.

I'll finish with some great advice for social media beginners, courtesy of Tom Hood, CEO of MACPA, and its chief blogger. When asked by the Journal of Accountancy how a CPA should get started using social networking, he replied, "I would say the answer is to start small.  So go out there, set up a profile, get on these social networks, and then step two, listen.  Don't start throwing a lot of stuff out there right away--just watch some conversations, make some friends, talk, find out what the conversations are, and then begin to add to those communities.  And then step three would be to continue to experiment and have fun."

Fantastic social media advice for any beginner, or veteran for that matter.  One more question, Tom:  Does this mean a new iPad or 3G phone would be deductible?