Social media continues to amaze me. It is quickly becoming less of a fad and more of a foundational reality of succeeding in business. From Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter (yes, we now have a twitter account!) to QR Code, to Foursqaure…the boundaries between private and public, friends and “friends” continues to be pushed. Our dependency for information now breeds the sense of entitlement that many of these tools promote. Don’t get me wrong, I am not in anyway saying that these social and technological advances are bad, but rather stating the need to be careful that we do not blur the lines between good business practices and increasing accessibility for our family, friends and clients. Maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of our clients remains one of our core beliefs at JMA, and although tools like twitter may help give others some structured insight into who we are, our commitment to the client remains as strong as ever.
QR Code is best explained HERE, but simply uses the code many of you have seen before through your blackberry’s BBM app to point people to companies, ad’s and website that promote their product or service. By bringing print media to the digital world, QR Code has allowed beverages, magazines and others to offer digital content within the parameters of their offline products.
Square Inc. is one of the major players in the digital payment industry. Square allows businesses to use mobiles devices to receive payment…anywhere. More information can be found HERE. It’s scary how this is even possible, but a sign of the times that business owners can not only work from home, but bring their bank account with them to meetings.
So what does all this have to do with accounting? Well, not a lot. I don’t think JMA will be using Iphones to received payments any time soon, nor will we be developing our own QR Codes to go on the side of a building, but we love seeing clients using innovative ways to grow their business and create opportunities for development.
