The use of social media by accounting practices in Malta

Abstract

PURPOSE: Social Media (SM) is a phenomenon that revolutionised the way we interact with each other and with organisations worldwide. These platforms have affected the way organizations market themselves, the way they engage customers and also the way they interact with employees and job seekers. This dissertation will seek to get a clear understanding of how social media is being used to interact with the different social actors present in the accounting profession and also at the same time explore its challenges, effectiveness, and management. DESIGN: The researcher took a multi-method qualitative approach, to accomplish the objectives. The first approach included sixteen semi-structured interviews with representatives of Maltese accounting practices. The practices were classified as large, medium and small/sole practitioners. The second approach included a process where the researcher executed an online research to get an indication of the actual social media presence of the various accounting practices found locally. In this case, the Malta Institute of Accountant’s (MIA) Directory was used as a sample. FINDINGS: Findings show that SM now is also playing a role in the accountants’ business strategies. In fact, the majority of accounting practices have some SM presence. However, this is far from ideal as there are still numerous practices that do not use SM at all or are inactive. The interviews conducted verify this use of SM and also give some deeper insights. In fact, they confirmed that for many of these practices, SM forms part of a wider digital presence strategy. The top SM platforms are Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The larger firms are the most prominent users with the most extensive SM strategy, which extends to multiple platforms and the partners. Medium practices follow suit with a similar but less extensive strategy. In contrast, SM use amongst sole/small practitioners is limited to non-existent. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that SM are now offering accounting practices invaluable opportunities. The main areas of opportunities identified are; branding and marketing, business development and customer relationships, recruitment, and employees and partners participation and collaboration. Despite these opportunities, rewards are not guaranteed, and most of the accounting practices, in fact, establish policies and procedure that ensure an ongoing engagement and minimize the risks. IMPLICATIONS: The revolutionary characteristics of SM in our life and the business environment is something that industries cannot ignore. To get the most out of their SM strategy accounting practices of any size need to establish a formal and comprehensive SM strategy that set the base to measure performance dedicates resources and provides training and guidelines that ensure the participation of partners and employees.