If you’re one of the few people that followed me on Twitter, you may have noticed that my Twitter profile has been wiped clean.

As in, totally obliterated.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself.

I can hear the collective gasp now. How could he do such a thing? This is bird abuse!

Let me outline five simple reasons why I decided to do this:

1. I hate social media, and always have. Since the dawn of MySpace, I have hated social media with a passion. I’ve always found it to be a complete waste of time, a false substitute for genuine human interaction, and an utter annoyance and intrusion into my life. I consider social media to be the worst thing to ever come out of the Internet boom. Thus, when I saw other simple indicators telling me that Twitter was no longer relevant for communication with the people I care about communicating with, it was easy to pull the plug.
2. I’ve been testing Twitter ads, and they suck. As a marketing guy first and foremost, I believe in testing extensively before making a decision about the utility of a marketing medium. I’ve been testing Twitter ads on and off for about 18 months, and despite my best testing, tweaking, and targeting, I just can’t get them to yield results. So, I’m done throwing good money after bad. No advertising, no need for a profile
3. Tweet engagement is super weak sauce. For the past 10 months, I’ve been “engaging” on the major social platforms — Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. I bought a social media management software system,

With the filing deadline just two weeks away, most tax professionals are gasping for air right now, barely able to keep their heads above the mountain of 1040 work that they’re drowning in.

Some practitioners, however, have made a choice not to live that way for the next couple weeks. You can make that choice, too, and all it takes are a couple very simple procedural changes in your business.

At our tax resolution boot camp last September, Chrisa Anderson, CPA shared a brilliant strategy for attenuating the April madness: Just stop taking on new returns. Anybody that doesn’t have their documents in by this week simply goes on extension. Problem solved.

Another Premium member, Dan Henn, CPA, has taken it a step further. Not only does he have a document cutoff, he also imposes a Rush Service fee for any returns that an individual absolutely insists on being completed between now and the filing deadline. And it’s not a small priority service fee, either. In fact, he charges the client an extra 50% of their regular tax prep fee.

So if you are normally scrambling like a crazy person to complete returns for the next two weeks, it’s time to make some policy changes. And this doesn’t need to be a “we’ll do that next year” sort of thing. No. Do it now. Today.

Anybody that calls in today or later… Anybody that sends you an email… They simply get told that they’re going on extension or need to pay a priority service surcharge. It’s as simple as that.

Have a nice, relaxing rest of your filing season!

Having a strategy behind the content marketing for your tax firm determines whether or not you will be successful. Rather than simply posting content when the time seems right, a strategy allows us to create a concept, execute a plan, and measure whether or not that strategy is achieving results.

Here are ten of the most important components of your content marketing strategy.

1. Determine Your Goals
Goals help you bring your business forward. When you lay out clear objectives for your firm’s content marketing strategy, you can continue to push your business to reach new heights.

Take a moment to think about what you want your content marketing to accomplish. Is it an SEO play? An engagement mechanism for your existing clients? A follow up touch to your prospects?

While you’re probably sitting there thinking that you want all of those things to happen, you need to focus in on the most important. If you’re not attracting any visitors to your website, your content marketing plan may be to get new traffic for lead generation. If you’re bringing traffic but they’re not opting in as a lead, your goal may be to convert more visitors to leads. Think about what your business needs and craft goals around your unique position.

When creating your goals, you want them to be clear and measurable. Set a deadline, a number, and make it realistic.

2. Know Your Audience
After you’ve determined what your goals are, think about who your target audience is. Just like wanting to accomplish all the goals, you may believe that your target audience is everyone and anyone. But while you may think this thought process will include any individual that comes your way, you’re actually making it more difficult to pull in new clients.

Take a moment to think about who your ideal … Continue reading