By: jackie.sauter

This is the first in an occasional series of interviews with local business leaders who blog or use social media to promote themselves or their industry. Our goal is to show the business and legal community how you can harness the power of the Web professionally. If you’re interested in participating, contact @mddailyrecord on Twitter or email jackie.sauter[at]mddailyrecord.com.

In step with Tom Hood, CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs

Hi, Tom. Tell us about yourself and where you blog from.

I’m a CPA and the CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs. I blog from Baltimore (and wherever I am) at three different Web sites.

MACPA was the first state CPA society on Youtube, had the first blog, was the first on Second Life and first to podcast. We also developed an online self-study application for CPAs to learn about Web 2.0 & social media at cpalearning2.com. For background on why we think this is important check out this YouTube video.

What are your blogs about?

Cpasuccess.com is about being successful as a CPA in today’s environment. It often includes Maryland specific updates. Our targeted audience is obviously Maryland CPAs (covering our 12,000 members), but it also has a national audience.

Newcpas.com is for new / young professionals, especially those pursuing a career as a Certified Public Accountant.

Cpalegislativeinsider.com covers the Maryland General Assembly and developments effecting CPAs in Maryland.

How long have you been blogging? What prompted you to start?

We’re going on our third year; we started cpasuccess.com in September 2006. We were prompted to start blogging by the rise in popularity of Web 2.0 tools as an exciting new communication medium.

How long have you Twittered? What do you like about the service?

I’ve been Twittering since July 2008 @tomhood with my editor @billsheridan, and have one account for our association @macpa. I like Twitter because like other social technologies it allows you to connect and get information.

What’s your favorite part of blogging?
Creating conversations with readers; it forces you to focus on what is most important at that time.

List three or four of your favorite or most popular blogs?

• http://cpatrendlines.com/

• http://www.debbieweil.com/

• http://www.tompeters.com/

Tell us about your life outside of social media.
Outside of social media, I am CEO of MACPA, a husband and father of three boys (20, 19 & 14).

Do you also use Myspace, LinkedIn, or Facebook? Any favorite platforms to share?

I have a Myspace, LinkedIn and Facebook account as well as a Plaxo account.

Linked In is a great place for CPAs to start. It works on the “six degrees of separation” concept; my network has 229 “trusted connections,” 25,000 second level connections (friends of friends), and 2,057,400 third degree connections! That is how these networks work.

Plaxo is another business/professional network much like Linked In. Both of these also offer recommendations of people they think you know (or should know), a very useful application.

Facebook is THE application for college students and graduates. I am seeing many employers using Facebook to reach the college crowd. There are also business groups and many other uses of Facebook for areas of special interest.

Myspace has migrated to more of a high school and music social networking site. I see less uses for CPAs on this site than any of the others.

I have made more valuable connections on Twitter than any other network. I have also found a vibrant community of CPAs, CFOs, regulatory watchers and others who provide amazing insights and information about a lot of important accounting topics. Did you know the SEC is on Twitter? That certainly got my attention.

Then there are blogs, podcasts and wikis, which are incredible communication and productivity tools.

How much time do you spend on social media each week?

About 6 to 10 hours.

Can you describe your Twitter followers to us?

They are in the following basic categories:

• Maryland oriented people (including our CPA members)

• Social media professionals

•   CPAs & finance-oriented newspersons

•   Other CEOs

•  Association executives

Have any of the social networking sites helped your professional career?

Yes. MACPA’s recognition as an industry leader has been due to our efforts in social media. We are nationally recognized in the CPA profession – and I was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the CPA Profession this year (my fourth time on the list) by Accounting Today.

CPAs should care about social media for two important reasons.

1. It significantly increases the ability to connect to more people, manage relationships and deal with the ever-increasing volume of information in our lives and;
2. It can be a terrific tool for recruitment and retention of the millennial generation.