Viralogy

Contact: tips [at] danielhoang.com
Twitter: @danielhoang
Websites: http://www.danielhoang.com/
Career: Senior Consultant for a top California CPA firm in the consulting division
Passions: “I’m passionate in competition, self improvement, and constantly growing. In addition to my day job, I enjoy learning about social media and developing new blogs.”

Daniel has been on the FD radar for a long time.  He’s been in touch with the company since we launched FD Career last year and was one of our most active members.  So I knew the moment that I started Awesome Bloggers that I needed to get Daniel as a guest.

The thing I love about Daniel is his work ethic.  I ask him how he’s able to work a full-time job, keep his wife happy, and blog at the same time.  His answer: “I just suck it up.”

I mean seriously, this is the mentality you need to have in order to become successful.

I’m sitting right now in SF waiting for the morning because the Web 2.0 Expo is going to be glorious!  Just tweeted with Daniel and it looks like unfortunately we’re not going to be able to meet up this time.  Daniel, if you’re reading this, you’re missing out on some good times!

Enjoy the post and make sure to reach out to Daniel after watching the video!

Conversation Breakdown:

1:47 - What came first: Your blog or your career?

Daniel started his blog in 2000.  He started in the super early days, when you had to write everything in pure html you didn’t have Wordpress or Blogger to help you out.

2:28 - What caused your blog to evolve from a purely personal blog to now providing content for a community?

Daniel started out as doing video game reviews as a 14 year-old kid.  In college, his blog evolved to a dear diary that he could share with his family and friends.  Now his blog is focused on a broader audience and focused on appealing to the masses.

3:07 - Where does your passion for public policy come from?

Daniel is just naturally interested in the economy and where public policy is headed today.

3:42 - When I hear the words “public policy,” my eyes glaze over.  How do you make it fun for me?

Daniel wants to use social media as the communication tool to really start reaching a broader audience and inform them of the things that are going on in public policy.

5:37 - What kind of policies should companies create in regards to social media?

Companies should create a social media guideline that specifically tells their employees what they can and cannot do with social media at the work place.

6:45 - In the future, do you think social media will be accepted in the work place or will there still be a clear distinction between work and online?

Daniel feels that companies will eventually move to using social networks as a communication tool within the work place.

7:47 - You’re working 12 hour days, have a wife, and keep your blog up to day, how are you balancing everything?

Daniel jokes by saying, “My wife and I sit in front of the TV every night and I blog.”  I like Daniel’s style.  He realizes that he’s young, and right now is the time for him to be working before he decides to have children.

8:38 - What do you want to see in the future of blogging?

Daniel feels the future is a “search engine” of some sorts that organizes all of the data online.  There is just an incredible amount of scattered information that can be valuable if it is harnessed in one place.

9:28 - Looking back is there anything different you would have done as a blogger?

If Daniel could start it all over, he would have started writing for the mass market much earlier rather than just writing for himself.

11:28 - Are there a lot of accountants who have their own blog?

Nope.  There are very, very few people on Twitter who are accountants.  However, Daniel’s firm has started to ask him what Twitter is and what blogs are, so he expects more and more companies to begin to adopt them.

12:45 - How can people who use Facebook or Twitter for personal use avoid getting bombarded by companies?

Daniel feels that SPAM is a fact of life.  When email came out, companies eventually found a way to find you and spam you.  The same thing applies to Twitter and all other social tools; people will spam, and others will develop platforms to protect you.

14;30 - For 2009, what is in store for Daniel Hoang?

Daniel wants to work on maintaining a work/life balance and also work on finding more time for his blog.  He wants to focus on quality posts, maybe 2-3 posts per month.

15:30 - What advice can you give to professionals who feel like they just don’t have the time to start a blog?

Suck it up and do it!