Do you feel overwhelmed by the ads and comments from people shouting and touting their wares from social media rooftops? Do you feel you need to have some time to unplug and cleanse your soul? I do, and I’m hardly a major social media user.
With our attention being pinged from so many directions, who has time for social media anymore? So why don’t I crawl under a digital rock and disengage from it all?
The reason is simple: Social media is good business.
Eons ago, when I was first introduced to what we now call “social media,” the rule of thumb was that Facebook was personal, LinkedIn was business and YouTube was to find cat videos. Clearly, that’s no longer the case. If you are not making use of these social mediums to support your practice, you are missing out. They save us unimaginable amounts of time by doing the research on QuickBooks, apps, practice management and workflow for our businesses.
Think of them as your “canaries in a coal mine,” testing out the apps, tips and tricks you don’t have the time to test yourself. While I could focus on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and so on, I’m choosing to cover the top groups I find useful on Facebook and YouTube.
The following are active groups on either Facebook or YouTube, each with more than 1,000 members or subscribers.
The WorkFlow WateringHole (Currently 4.1K members)
The WorkFlow WateringHole (WFWH) is based on workflows, apps, systems and processes, as well as best practices for accounting types. Even with a fintech focus, it can be super useful for professionals in other areas of business as well. WFWH helped me find my CRM, Dubsado (which is not specifically for accounting professionals, but is used by many for its own automated workflows. If you are interested, Dubsado offers a fully functioning free trial for up to three clients, rather than a time-limited one. It can be purchased at 20% off the first month or year using the code: efkcompubooks).
QB-HQ (Currently 3.8K members)
As the name suggests, QB-HQ helps connect QuickBooks-centric accountants, bookkeepers and ProAdvisors. It also is a forum for questions and answers
QuickBooks Tips and Tricks (Currently 4.6K members)
Again, as the name suggests, QuickBooks Tips and Tricks is for QuickBooks Desktop and Online users looking for sharing hacks that make these Intuit products more functional.
Training for QuickBooks Users (Currently 7.5K members)
This forum is great for sharing training events for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. Members are encouraged to promote their own workshops or share public events.
YouTube
Hector Garcia CPA (Currently 160K subscribers)
Hector Garcia has a “ton” of subscribers—and deservedly so. He is a prolific trainer “extraordinaire,” having created countless tutorial and tips/tricks videos (816 on YouTube as of this writing) to walk you through almost everything there is to know about QuickBooks and being a top-notch ProAdvisor. I have seen Hector welcome guests, but most of the time, his videos star a cast of one. And believe me, Hector is more than enough. I have no idea how he makes time to produce all these training video gems, but we are the lucky beneficiaries of his expertise.
Long for Success LLC (Currently 11.9K subscribers)
Michelle Long’s “QB Power Hour” covers all things QuickBooks and ProAdvisor. She and co-host Dan deLong often welcome guests in the form of app representatives and power users. Each of these guests are inspirational, to say the least. As this was published, there were 165 videos on YouTube for this channel.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much time and effort these groups and channels have saved me, enabling me to focus on growing my business and servicing my clients. But I can tell you they can do the very same for you.
Are these the only coal mine canaries? Of course not. These are my Top 6, but I would love to hear from you. What channels and resources do you recommend? Please share them with us by putting your recommendations in the comments box.
Esther Friedberg Karp is an internationally-renowned trainer, writer and speaker from Toronto, where she runs her QuickBooks consulting practice, EFK CompuBooks Inc. Consistently in Insightful Accountant's Top 100 ProAdvisors, she has been named to the Top 10 twice.
A ProAdvisor in three countries, she has traveled the world with Intuit, spoken at QuickBooks Connect in San Jose and Toronto, among other places, and has written countless articles for Intuit Global.
Esther has been named one of the “Top 50 Women in Accounting,” a “Top 10 Influencer” in the Canadian Bookkeeping World, and is a repeat nominee for the “RBC Canadian Women’s Entrepreneur Awards.” She counts among her clients many international companies, as well as accounting professionals seeking her out on behalf of their own clients for her expertise in multi-currency and various countries’ editions of QuickBooks Desktop and Online.
She can be reached at esther@e-compubooks.com or 416-410-0750.
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