Plug Into the Media Circuit.

California's electrical flow may shut down now and then, but a new business pipeline is flowing for CPAs who take advantage of CalCPA's public relations programs. Members have found that media training, an ear to the ground and sustained effort can reap some astounding rewards for their firms while significantly enhancing the profession's image.

AN L.A. STORY

Mitchell Freedman, who has a Sherman Oaks-based financial planning practice and is a CalCPA media training graduate, knows first hand the rewards of serving as a spokesperson for the profession.

"When I think of marketing in California, I think of CalCPA as an extension of my own firm," says Freedman, who often appears in the Los Angeles Times as a financial makeover specialist and as an expert source for stories about investing and personal finance for entertainers and affluent individuals. "The communications staff has developed relationships with many journalists throughout the state and nation, and members like me can tap into that. I have gained countless clients both directly and indirectly from working with my professional associations."

Freedman explains that by being quoted in newspapers and on the Web, radio or TV, his name pops up automatically in databases and search engines. When potential clients look for CPAs or financial planners via major search engines, Freedman's name appears again and again. "When someone sees you more than once or twice in a database search, your credibility rises quickly," he says.

Freedman's richest source of new business to date was a brief sidebar placed by CalCPA in Los Angeles Magazine this past tax season. As one of two quoted member sources, Freedman has gained six new clients, including one who garners a significant amount of revenue for the firm.

MEANWHILE UP NORTH

In Northern California, Terry Seiberlich, East Bay Chapter past president, also got a taste of the bottom-line power of public relations last tax season.

After completing CalCPA's half-day media training course along with his East Bay Chapter colleagues, Seiberlich subscribed to CPASources, an e-mail community of CalCPA members who are interested in working with their local media. Last February, through CPASources, Seiberlich hooked up with Peter Sinton, the San Francisco Chronicle's small business columnist. Seiberlich gave such great commentary on small business tax issues that he was featured in Sinton's Wednesday column two straight weeks.

Seiberlich says that while these articles were running, a number of potential clients contacted him at his Walnut Creek office referring to the piece. He landed one client worth many thousands of dollars a year in fees. Not surprisingly, the experience made Seiberlich a believer. He subsequently has participated as a source for more newspaper stories and Web sites, as well as spearheaded the East Bay Chapter's effort to enlist a team to work the phones during a televised tax season call-in show.

Not every member who participates as a media resource is guaranteed to gain business directly from the experience, but it happens.

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

"CPAs who make themselves available to the press as a business and financial resource benefit from publicizing their expertise," says Pamela Thompson, Communications Advisory Committee chair and founder of Show Your Stuff, a strategic planning firm that specializes in value-added service strategies for CPAs. "Marketing is an integral component of strategic planning, and public relations can be an effective marketing tool. CalCPA provides excellent resources for educating members about public relations and connecting them to the media in California."

To help members develop positive, ongoing relationships with journalists, CalCPA has a number of programs designed to initiate and maintain productive contact between members and media:

Media Training--These half-day sessions (three hours of CPE) usually are conducted for chapters or state committees in the fall and include training by local journalists.

CPASources--This e-mail listserve includes a community of CalCPA members who are media training graduates and interested in developing or maintaining relationships with reporters. Listserve members are notified regularly of media opportunities.

Media Background Sessions--Special meetings between members and journalists to educate media on technical or hot topical areas within the profession.

For more information on CalCPA's media training opportunities this fall, contact Bill Spaniel, CalCPA public relations manager, at [phone] or [e-mail].

Curtiss Olsen is CalCPA's director of communications.