Confessions of a Social CEO - Social Amplification at the AICPA EDGE Conference

Social media technologies have been and continue to be the single best thing I have learned as a leader and CEO of the Maryland Association of CEOs and the Business Learning Institute. Period.

Case in point - the #AICPA_EDGE Conference last week in NOLA where our MACPA/BLI team and members accounted for 20% of the tweetstream with 600 thousand impressions (out of 3 million) and we held five of the top fifteen tweeters, two of the top three contributors (@rjbrowncpa and @tomhood), and two of the top RTs @rjbrowncpa (that is retweet for any of you newbies).

Six hundred thousand impressions without paying a dime? That is what social amplification is all about. Gshiftlabs provides defined it as "Amplification happens when your content is shared, either through organic or paid engagement, within social marketing channels thereby increasing your word-of-mouth exposure. Amplification works by getting your message promoted (amplified) through employees, customers, industry partners, fans and influencers."

Just look at the tweetreach report from the conference here and the Storify recap here.

What is even more important than the social amplification is the sharing of knowledge and learning that comes from participating in this form of social learning.

Now imagine getting the notes and insights from the participants in real time and being able to capture, reflect and review after the conference. Then take that message and send it out to your colleagues, friends, customers and clients. boss, and even family members to reach thousands or even millions of people. This is what I mean by social learning and social amplification and leadership in the digital age.

Here is a list of the MACPA/BLI Tweeters from #AICPA_EDGE for you to follow:

1. @tomhood - CEO of MACPA/BLI
2. @rjbrowncpa - Rebekah Brown, MACPA's Manager of Membership Development & Engagement and BLI speaker
3. @macpa - Twitter account for the Maryland Association of CPAs
4. @byron_cpa - Byron Patrick - MACPA Past Chairman and renowned Tech guru
5. @billsheridan- CCO of MACPA/BLI and master trend hunter, curator, Top 100 Influencer and keynoter for BLI
6. @blionline - Twitter account for our Business Learning Institute
7. @jwilzcpa - Jeff Wilson - AICPA Alum and active MACPA member
8. @romi814 - Remi Omisore - AICPA Alum and active AICPA and MACPA member

Hint - Use the tweetreach report to follow the top tweeters from #AICPA_EDGE (just click on each account and follow on twitter. I have been doing this since 2006 when we first started blogging, twitter in 2006 (13.9 k followers), LinkedIn in 2007 (488,000 followers), slideshare (626,000 views). #augmented #amplified

I hope this helps you keep your L>C in the upcoming year.

Resources:

• Why I blog as a CEO and you should too - see embedded Slideshare Case Study from our Beach Retreat
• Our BLI Library of Social Media courses for Finance and Accounting Professionals
• How to Win the Race with the Machines blog post from my session at #AICPA_EDGE

TOM HOOD, CPA.CITP.CGMA is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the CPA Profession and the CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA). Tom is also the founder and CEO of the Business Learning Institute, the innovation and learning affiliate of the MACPA, a leading talent development and strategy organization for CPAs, finance and accounting professionals in the US. They provide customized, competency-based curriculums and a portfolio of “success skills” and technical programs designed for the Finance and Accounting Profession.