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- Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 38 posts
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Hello
So have recently started up my own twitter account for my bookkeeping business (not very exciting as of yet) but am wondering if anyone else an avid user or is thinking about having a go.
Any ideas or suggestions for topics or tweets?
Currently have decided to have a soletrader start up theme for this month and hope to tweet some useful bits of information.
Any thoughts on twitter good or bad??
Anyone want to follow me @clearbookkeepin and I'll follow back.
Aleatha
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Hi Aleatha,
I too jumped into the world of twitter around Feb this year and I have only managed a few tweets basically down to time and lack of imagination I suppose. Although up to now I am not an avid user of social networks and am not a fan of facebook, but I did enjoy the film 'Social Network'. However I gave twitter a look.
I have ended up following more people and reading their tweets than having time to do my own. It is very fast paced and I am constantly receiving messages that sometimes you do just skip some.
I think the quality of the tweet is down to the tweeter and I suppose you follow someone in the hope they will supply something that is useful, such as you say book keeping tips, however the RT's (ReTweets) can be a little annoying as you receive a forwarded message by the person you are following from someone who you are not following, if you get my drift. But isn't it just email but shorter? and giving valuable information away for free perhaps.
Love my technology, especially spreadsheets but social messaging has not quite convinced me yet. Only aged 35 so not adverse to change, or am I?
Christopher.
Edited at 04 Oct 2011 08:47 PM GMT
Edited at 04 Oct 2011 08:48 PM GMT
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- Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 38 posts
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Hi Christopher,
Nice to hear from someone else having a little dabble. Looks like not many other people are on there yet from here . It is just so hard to find time by the time I have read all the tweets from the people I follow I have no time to tweet something imaginative myself.
Aleatha
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- Member PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 195 posts
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I am on Twitter as a person and as a business (ClareB4 personal and brutonyoung business)
On the same (sort of) topic - does anyone else blog?
http://www.brutonyoung.co.uk/blog.html
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Hi Everyone,
I have just properly signed up on twitter and wondering if there is any other fellow Bookkeeper willing to be followed.
Please feel free to add me as per details below.
Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts on Twitter.
It is the only social medium which has appealed me! Would not say the same for facebook and Linked in!
Please keep the comments coming 
Kind Regards,
Nathalie
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- Companion Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 1137 posts
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Hi
For me Face book and Twitter could have been very good. But all I see them for now is the trolls and a element of people who are just nasty and horrible . Untill either company want to do something about trolls behaviour. I am planning to stay away from Twitter. It it the young people I worry about in particular . I deliberately give false information to everything I sign up on the internet as they all sell your personal info in one way or another, either by google or bing taking info about what sites you are on , hidden cookies and now the government want even more right to intrude into your emails and postings under new laws.
You should make sure your anti virus software removes all your protected cookies everyday. As this is how they use the sites to get info.
The reason you may find not everyone wants to dabbble in twitter is because they value their privacy.
Fair enough to anyone if they dabble and are not worrried . But for the me, the less the Government knows about my private life the better. I thought we lived in a democractic country but the way the Government keeps interfering online the less I believe we do. It is becoming more like China everyday.
I also have a serious issue with Twitter , Facebook , the government all knowing so much info about you. Ireland have been taking facebook and twitter to court for this very reason , thank goodness someone is.
Between the government now wanting to know what we earn from the ICB under the MLR rules. Which I have serious issues with . The less the government know about me the better. After all We are all in it together according to Dave, so when the government is happy to share their income and private life with us . I might consider it . most likely not. The next thing they will be introducing is tagging. And no I have nothing to hide. But it is my right in democratic county to have my information kept private.
Edited at 29 Apr 2012 08:04 PM GMT
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OH MY GOD. I'm now closing down every online account I've ever opened, burning my hard drives and going to live under my covers forever.
Seriously though, the only things people can know about them is what you tell them. Have a look at facebook and twitter cookies, they don't hold any personal information. Cookies generally hold login session data. When you visit a site it can check your cookie data which it then cross references with their database to check that you can login.
I'm not saying that it's not a good idea to have some good security software, and to be careful who you give your personal details too, but the bigger issue is not someone stealing your cookies, but rather giving too much information away to begin with. Generally from a personal facebook page (not a business) you can easily harvest a lot of personal information. These can include date of birth, place of birth, mothers maiden name, pets names, holiday destinations etc. People can use this information to access your banks etc, but why not just either limit the information you provide or who has access to your page?
I didn't know the governement wanted to know how much I earn, but you know what? I tell them on my tax return, I have nothing to hide, and if anyone has got something to hide surely it's better for everyone they get caught? I pay my taxes, why not everyone else? It would be a far better country if we did.
A lot of people are similar with CCTV, personally I love the cameras. I have nothing to hide and the operators are far more worried about catching bad guys or preventing crime than seeig who I'm down the town with at the weekend. It's the same with ANPR, I love my car. If someone steals it I want the police to recover it pronto. Give us more I say.
From a personal point of view I don't like Twitter, or Linkedin but I have got a bit of business from Facebook . It really depends how you set out your stall.
Kris
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- Companion Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 1137 posts
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Hi
I am not saying cookies get loads of information but they do get information, but people are far too quick to tell their life story. ,Yence why the majority of the time I give completely false information if I am signing up for something.
I even had the HMRC ring me up the other day asking for my date of birth which I refused to give. I have no proof who they are. They could be anyone on the phone. They have no problems not speaking to you if you don,t pass their security checks so I have now decided to have my own security checks on the Individual ringing me from the HMRC. What is good for them is just as good for me.
Yes I do a tax return, so why does the HMRC now want to know my exact earnings EDIT or there about in a range as bookkeeper. Why should they see my information in more detail . They are just been dishonest by not asking for detail in honest way. So no I am not going to help them. If they do in a honest way I might. I want to see everyones including the HMRC staff pay details also. I bet I wont be able to though. Again one rule for them.
The argument about having nothing to hide is an individual one, but no government or any one needs to know everything about you . To be frank it is none of there business. Just because you do not want every one to know everything about you it does not make you guilty, which is what they are trying to make out under very questionable Law .
For example people in South Africa would have never got rid of appartheid or many horrible things in the world if they had told their governments all their plans. As I say I thought I was living the UK and not China.
I live in a democratic country, and if it was not against the law . I would removed every CTV camera in the country. If I want to tell someone where I am going I will. All this interferring is an infringement on rights.
I even had a friend the other day , who said they could tell were their husband was through GPS on their phone. In the old days that would be stalking. My husband and my self burst in to laugher as did my other friends.
Edited at 30 Apr 2012 08:07 AM GMT
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I don't have time to go into every point, off to bed soon, but I did want to pick up on your point about CCTV. I have seen first hand the benefit of CCTV. I watched a boy, not much more than 18, get kicked to within an inch of his life on CCTV. It was only because of the camera and an on the ball CCTV operator that that boy lived, and those responsible are locked up. This may come as a shock, but people lie. Sometimes to the police, and sometimes even to the court.
Now I'll ask one simple question, what if that boy was your son? People often have views, but until you see first hand how these things help, or tell a family their sin has died because no one told the police what was happening, or no one admited taking part, or the ambulance didn't get there because no one called in time. Then you can say remove cameras.
For note, I deal with these things on a weekly basis. I know how useful CCTV is, in preventing crime, in detecting crime and in making sure those responsible go away for a very long time. You can tell the court what happened, and you can see the difference when the sheriff, the jury and the defence lawyer see it in full technicolour.
The rest will need to wait for another day, sorry.
Kris
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Will come back tomorrow.
Night night everyone,
xxx
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- Companion Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 1137 posts
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Hi
I feel terrible for the boy who was injured. You need to look at the bigger picture our towns , village and centers need to be a safer place. The Government of all parties are using CTV cameras as Lazy way to cut real police on the street. I am very proud to live in Glasgow as there are real police in the city centre . All my clients have said what a huge difference it has made to their business in the last ten years . Glasgow is now vibrant which is great for business.
It it far better than a town dieing because they are all full of CTV cameras and no police . It is the same as having the conducter on Scotiish trains it makes a huge difference. First rail are clearly trying to get rid of really good staff and replace them with ctv . I would rather have good staff and real people any day then CTV cameras . It could be solved by the government not paying bankers bonus.
It is far better for business and the Envirnoment, then everyone travelling by car to work and not passing small businesses because you potter by after getting the train. The more people in a town centre means the more business earning and paying taxes.
This is relevant to bookkeepers because every town that dies because it is not policed properly effects our carreer . There is a small town that this has happened close to me. I do not want to mention names,as I hope it recovers. but it just feels like the council, government our happy to let it die rather than have proper community policing .
The computer or cameras can not deal with perceived safety . For the record my husband is a Councillor and I actively campaign for the safety in my community and local area.
I love technolgy but not to the extent that is it all our nothing. You can have the best of both worlds. I just do not believe that Twitter or Face book are it and are good for our type of business . They could of have been good but unfortunately a element seem to thing it is okay to be rude , hurtful and speak or deal to people in a manner that is very unsuitable especially in a business profession are any other.
It seems as if we have forgotton it is rude to answer your phone , check your twitter facebook when you are at a meeting or in anyone's company. Turn off your phone. If I was a client I would be pretty annoyed if you were doing this with your smartphone or computer during my time. This seems to be common place now for people to do.
The client might never say their annoyed , but I bet they are thinking it and will be looking for an excuse to leave you as a client.
You can keep everything Generic but that gets pretty uninteresting in Twitter after a while .
Edited at 30 Apr 2012 01:28 AM GMT
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Hi Sarah,
I think it's incredibly simplistic and perhaps a bit disengenuous to suggest that town centres are dieing because of CCTV. This doesn't take into account years of a lack of funding by local authorities, poor planning for parking, lack of attraction of the right mix of shops, high rates, the large number of out of town shopping centres and lot of other factors.
I disagree that we need more police. We have more officers that ever right now, that we really need is better, more effective deployment of the resources and this is what technology like CCTV, ANPR and shoplink radios do. You can have as many police as you like, but they need to sleep, write reports, deal with nonsence (yes beleive it or not people want police to be some kind of referees in their personal lives). Also when police officers go to court and explain the circumstances it's difficult to accurately get over the picture of the scene. CCTV does this with ease. It is the best evidence you can have, and often used to assist police from officer and public safety point of view. I know you'd love to think Glasgow is better policed than anywhere else, but this just isn't the case, there are less police per capita in Glasgow than elsewhere, it's just because it's a compact city centre that it appear differently.
With regards to ICB passing income details to HMRC, where do they get these details? To be honest, I really don't mind. I genuinely believe you are an honest person Sarah, but you must realise that not everyone is. We do the taxmans job with our clients, it was only a matter of time before they had professional bodies doing the same with us.
I agree with you about twitter, it's rubbish for business. Especially bookkeeping which is mainly locally based. I no longer use it due to the dross I get from others. Facebook I do find very useful for business. I have even used paid ads which have shown a better ROI than anything else I've used.
Kris
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- Fellow PM.Dip
- Practice Licence
- 17 posts
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I think this is where things vary from area to area. I find lots of local businesses, in my area, use Twitter to raise awareness of their businesses, they have lots of conversations and build up client relationships and relationships with other businesses. I have had two enquiries via Twitter but it is just another form of networking so can take time to become known. I only follow local businesses and skim read them to enter into conversations. I rarely tweet about bookkeeping, just let my name be my advert. I do not put any personal information in Tweets, nor do any of the other local businesses, it is more about what is happening locally.
As with any marketing, you need to do your homework - where do potential clients 'hang-out'. It is going to be very different for every area, a mix of methods should get results but it takes time.
Sylvia
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