Trading Tweets with the tax man

The IRS is continuing to move into social media.

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the agency's YouTube video page.

Last week at the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum in Dallas, the IRS was continually touting its Twitter presence, @InternalRevenue.

Will the IRS get personal and chatty as is the Web 2.0 way? Nah. But that's understandable.

While
the agency and its employees would definitely like folks to think more
positively about them (who doesn't?), that's not the IRS and IRS
employee goal.

They've
got to focus on getting out correct and timely information to the
public. Twitter and YouTube and probably an eventual Facebook page are
just more ways to do that. A good example was during a recent hearing on the soon-to-be-proposed tax preparer regulations, during which @InternalRevenue live Tweeted the session.

If you're a little skeptical about IRS proclamations, the agency's
social media outlets probably won't change your mind. And with the 140
character limit and typically short video formats, you're only going to
get a taste of tax news.

But
you've got to give the IRS credit for taking this step. These new media
options can serve as alerts and then I and my personal
finance/tax blogging colleagues will do our best to put the info into
context and readable language!

And don't forget to follow me, @taxtweet, on Twitter, too!