Why do UK accountants in practice run blogs?

Hi Mark,

This is an interesting topic. I think that there are very many different shades of blogging and that some are successful because they're interactive and some because they're informative (and of course some both). You could view a successful blog as one with the most page views or, alternatively, as one with the most comments.

Both do go hand in hand, but I think that a truly successful blog is one that is interactive. One that gets page views and a good amount of comments. So, to whether accountants can ever garner both...

If a blogger uses their blog for its initial intended purpose, i.e. to act as a diary of that aspect of their life (in this case their work within the accounting industry), then, yes, it could work very well. Imagine a newly qualified female Chartered Accountant authoring an anonymous blog about her trials and tribulations in working her way up the industry ladder, for instance. That would probably work very well. The keyword there, though, being 'anonymous', because I think that's the main stumbling block for industry professionals. People are generally not confident enough to be able to blog freely without suspicion, scorn and even potentially damaging their careers.

You only have to look at the success of thelondonpaper's 'City Boy' to see that the veil of anonymity is a good thing in the delivery of open and honest views and debate.

Users of IT Counts and other ICAEW communities have the option to post anonymously and I hope that this will eventually be a force for good on here, rather than the nervousness from members about the opposite. I'd encourage everyone on here to put their views forward and to use the anonymous function if in any doubt about how the comment might be perceived.

Kind regards,

Mark