It’s Media Season

By Ned Steele, MediaImpact

It’s been a challenging couple of years for the accounting profession, as far as media coverage. But now, in many ways, is a good time.

For the profession, it’s tax season. But it’s also media season.

Now – right now – is the best time of the year, and one of the best windows in many years, for accountants to get favorable, invaluable publicity that will help build their practices.

Tax time is when the media want to talk to accountants – about topics that any marketing-savvy firm should want to talk about.

I’m referring, of course, to my favorite mantra – that when we share tips, information, advice, and expertise with the public through free publicity, we get the best kind of exposure in the world. The kind that tells an audience, “hey -- the media think we’re good enough and important enough to be interviewed!”

And here’s the 2003 bonus: the new smorgasbord of retirement savings plan proposals has all Americans talking – and grappling to understand. Someone has to explain this new stuff to the public, and be interviewed, quoted, and featured in the media.

It might as well be you! For too long, I believe, accountants have played second and third fiddle to financial planners, investment advisers, and certain lawyers in getting themselves quoted in the media. There is no reason for accountants to take a back seat – particularly at tax time.

So, what can you do? How about:

Take a few minutes from your very busy schedule and call or e-mail the reporter at your local paper who covers personal finance. Offer to be a resource.
Suggest four new angles or topics of concern that the newspaper hasn’t written about yet, and suggest the reporter do a story on them. You know what those topics are – perhaps the past year’s key little known rulings and decisions that you are alerting your clients to. Or maybe the topics and concerns that come up most as you meet with clients.
In fact, informally log the client questions or concerns you’re hearing voiced most, and ask the reporter if he/she would like to know what the year’s hot topics are. I guarantee they’ll be curious, and it may well lead to a story – quoting you.
Contact the best adult-oriented radio station in your area and suggest they do a series on this year’s tax filing tips – followed by another series on tax planning for 2003. Offer to be the resource they interview and feature.
Speak to a local chamber of commerce, community, or religious group on a “Tax Time” theme. Invite local media to cover it. If they can’t come – turn your talk into a brief article, and invite them to publish it.
“Publish” the article yourself, using a simple program like Microsoft Publisher or even Word, to format it attractively. Then mail it to everyone on your marketing list. Current clients too.
Conduct an informal, anonymous poll among your clients. Pick a catchy, timely question – such as, “Will you convert your IRA if the new retirement plans become law?” Send the results in a brief one-page press release to the media.
If you service a particular industry, profession, or niche market, contact the “trade” (professional) publication those people all read. Or the newsletter of the association they belong to. Offer to write a guest column, or be interviewed. How to know what your market reads? Just ask them!

Finally, do this now. It takes a little time to line these opportunities up. Don’t wait until April. Go for it today. Accountants are a taxpayer’s and a business’s trusted adviser. You have a unique perspective that other financial experts cannot touch. It’s your time. It’s media season.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to create a business development initiative and build their business. The president of Ned Steele’s MediaImpact, he is the author of “102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice.” To learn more, visit www.mediaimpact.biz, call 212-243-8383, or e-mail him at: info@mediaimpact.biz.

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