Top Social Media Resources for CFOs

Finance executives tend to use the social web only when they’re looking for a job. For the gainfully employed, spending time on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn networking with other CFOs can seem absurd when there are reports to produce and board meetings to prepare for.

“CFOs are the last bastions of invisible people,” says Cindy Kraft, a CFO coach who keeps a blog of the same name.

But being invisible on social networks is a mistake, Kraft argues. Not only does it make searching for your next job harder, it opens up a gulf between you and younger finance executives who are already harnessing its power for cost-effective marketing.

Fail to understand the social web and you’ll also fail to find and hire the best available financial talent, Kraft says.

If you’re just getting up to speed on the social web, here are 10 resources that mid-sized company finance executives can use to meet peers, ask questions and find management tips.

The FENG – Shorthand for the Financial Executives Networking Group, this online “circle of friends” is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It’s also known as a hunting ground for recruiters looking to fill executive jobs. Sound enticing? The good news is that it costs nothing to join. The bad news is you can’t join without a sponsor. Online, FENG runs a members-only forum for posting questions and responding to job openings. Offline, the group has dozens of U.S. and international chapters, including outposts in Cairo, Mexico City and Tokyo.

Proformative – Launched in September 2009 by four-time CFO John Kogan, this free online network now hosts more than 100,000 finance executives seeking help getting work done. That help comes in a variety of forms. Members can consult peers in an informal discussion area, ask the experts or tap into a directory of financial service providers. Member-authored blogs provide analysis of common issues. Because all conversations and posts are public to members, observers learn alongside participants. “CFOs come to ask questions of peers and subject matter experts so they can learn what they need to make it through the day or the project, and move quickly and efficiently on to their next task,” Kogan says.

The CFO Coach’s blog – Cindy Kraft is a career coach for financial executives and her blog reflects that. In it, she recommends getting on LinkedIn. “It has become the place that everybody sees, because everything else on the web points to LinkedIn,” Kraft says. Executives testify to this point. LinkedIn’s finance chief, Steve Sordello, has publicly credited the service for helping him hire a controller. According to a March 2010 article in Fortune, Oracle found its current CFO Jeff Epstein through the service.

CFOZone – Calling itself the first and only “pro-social” network for finance executives, CFOZone.com offers a rich array of services. The site’s discussion area organizes advice into topic areas such as compliance, risk analysis and career management. Member blogs offer news and analysis, while a video center provides case studies and expert interviews. Membership is free with registration.

Lew's List – Catalyst Repository Systems CFO Lew Visscher started Lew’s List in 2003 as an email list for Colorado finance executives to talk about careers. Today, the list has more than 3,000 members. Visscher now manages it through Google Groups, but he’s still the only one who can post jobs and information requests.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Network on LinkedIn – Created and run by Recruiter.com CEO and founder Miles Jennings, the CFO Network is a LinkedIn discussion group with more than 32,000 participants. The network focuses on questions and observations on running a finance department. Although Jennings approves members, they aren’t all finance executives so the group occasionally suffers from posters advertising their services or point of view.

The CFO Roundtable – This peer networking organization meets face-to-face monthly and is known for attracting premium speakers. Flybridge Capital Partners’ Jeff Bussgang, author of Mastering the VC Game, keynoted a recent gathering. While the site doesn’t include a blog or online message board, recaps of its event are usually available, along with links to presentation material. The downside? Annual dues are between $100 and $200.

Blog CFO – This active blog written by four contributing authors and led by consultant Matt Murphy targets small and mid-sized company finance executives and is best known for its weekly news roundup. The blog’s list of related links is especially noteworthy.

The CFO Alliance and AchieveNext.com – Like FENG, The CFO Alliance is a face-to-face networking organization with regional chapters that host bi-monthly breakfast roundtables. AchieveNext.com is the group’s online version. The site offers discussion boards and a knowledge center, plus an interesting kicker: members can use the site’s tools to survey their peers.

#CFO on Twitter – On Twitter, finance executives who post about issues that would interest other CFOs can add the hashtag “#CFO” to their tweets. The threads that result attract relevant links and people worth following, along with some spam. Other CFOs who tweet about corporate finance can be found in this Twitter list at Listorious, created by The CFO Network’s Jennings.

Have a Plan Before You Engage
Regardless of which social web resources you use, the choices have never been greater – and that could be a problem.

“It’s easy to get saturated with this stuff,” says Mike Hart, a long-time finance executive and current chief operating officer of Bolder BioTechnology in Boulder, Colorado.

Hart frequents the CFO Network on LinkedIn, reads RSS feeds related to his industry and business needs and writes the blog CXO Footnotes. He fits it all in by budgeting time for social media during his workday. “If social media and blogging isn’t integrated into your daily job function, you’re going to end up doing it during family time,” he says.

In other words, even though most financial networking sites are free, there’s as much a cost for participating as there is for not participating. Kraft, the CFO coach, says finance executives have no choice but to balance the equation. “You either need to get with social media, or you’re going to be replaced,” she says.