RSS: Really Simple Syndication

1. RSS enables people to receive updates from your Web site. This means they no longer have to keep checking back to your site to see if there is anything new. This makes life easier for them and reduces the risk that they miss an item of interest.
   
   
2. To use RSS on your Web site, identify the pages on your Web site that you regularly update such as your homepage, news, articles, or events. 
   
   
3. Have your Web team RSS-enable those pages and add an RSS icon to enable users to subscribe to the RSS feed. (RSS-enablement is a very simple process and your Web team should have no problem with it.)
   
   
4. Let your clients know that they can now subscribe to firm resources via RSS -- they will need to use one of many email or Web-based RSS readers.

Blogs

1. Take some time to learn about blogs both by reading many of the excellent Web resources on the do's and don'ts of blogging such as www.debbieweil.com and by examining a variety of blogs -- particularly those that are related to business and professional services. Browse the blogs at http://www.technorati.com/blogs/business and take a look at the following two blogs by accounting firm partners:
   http://www.corporategovernanceblog.com
   http://www.fromgregshead.com
   
   
2. Evaluate whether someone (or a group of professionals) in your firm has the desire, aptitude, and time to develop an engaging blog focused on a topic of interest to current or prospective clients. While your blog should offer some fresh ideas and perspectives, it can also act as a valuable channel for promoting existing firm thought-leadership material and activity.
   
   
3. Work with your Web team to select an appropriate blogging tool and set up the blog.
   
   
4. Consider piloting the blog internally to give your blogger(s) and firm leadership the opportunity to explore its potential in a safe environment.
   
   
5. Launch the blog, actively promoting it to clients through existing marketing channels, and gauge the response both directly on the blog and via indirect feedback from clients.
   
   
6. Over time, seek to learn through the blog "conversation" about the issues that clients are most concerned with as a means of refining firm services and marketing.

Podcasts

1. Review your recent and planned marketing activity to identify subject matter that would lend itself to audio delivery.
   
   
2. Consider recording interviews or panel discussions with firm experts or reviewing client success stories.
   
   
3. Work with your technology and Web team to create good quality audio recordings and make them available on your Web site.
   
   
4. Also consider submitting your podcasts to distributors such as www.podcast.net and iTunes -- it's free to do so -- where people can browse and subscribe to a wide array of podcasts and have them download automatically to their iPod or MP3 player for listening to on their commute or perhaps while exercising.

See also:

• Report: Accounting Firms Slow to Embrace Web Technologies
• Accountants Who Blog

For more information, visit Muzeview.com.