On a Friday morning in early December, some 150 accountants and staff boarded a Manhattan-bound R train. It's doubtful any of their fellow commuters guessed they were all from the CPA firm of WithumSmith+Brown.

That is, until the dancing started.

Even then, the "CPA" part might have been suspect, were it not for the subsequent YouTube posting of this "flash mob" (a sudden assembling of a group for a brief public performance) by the Princeton, N.J.-based Top 100 Firm the following January.

Further investigation would also reveal that this was not the firm's first Web-friendly video. The previous January, WS+B struck viral gold with its lip-synced performance of the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," which reached an audience of 13,000 and was named the best small-business video of the year by Accounting Today columnist Gene Marks in The New York Times small-business blog.

But shooting had only just begun on this follow-up, as WS+B managing partner and CEO Bill Hagaman, senior marketing coordinator of interactive marketing Sarah Cirelli and their colleagues began jumping around the train in unison to LMFAO's popular song, "Party Rock Anthem."

When the train reached Times Square Station, members of the firm, still dancing, flooded up the steps to what has since been revealed as a significant location following the merger of WS+B with New York firm EisnerLubin, which had headquarters on that block of Broadway and 39th Street.

There the dancing only expanded, causing curious passersby to stop and watch, some ducking around the firm's eight hired camera people to take their own cellphone videos.

"We wanted to make a real statement about New York, and have a presence in New York," WS+B director and management committee member Jim Bourke hinted at the time. The firm, ranked No. 35 on Accounting Today's 2011 list of the Top 100 Firms, will add the New York office to its 13 other locations, primarily in New Jersey but also in Florida, Colorado, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Between the merger (since formally announced) and the "Party Rock" video's YouTube viewership hitting roughly 9,000 at press time, it's safe to say: presence achieved.

But what about other progressive firms looking to launch their own online campaigns to bolster staff recruitment and morale? There are a few lessons to be gleaned from WS+B's success:

1. Don't set out to make a viral hit. WS+B's "I Gotta Feeling" video was shot for internal purposes, as a way to open the firm's 2011 state of the firm event. In previous years, the firm used photo montages set to music to kick off the meeting, but after partner Dan Vitale saw a "lip dub" (lip sync) on the Today Show, he found it interesting enough to e-mail to Hagaman and Rhonda Maraziti, director of marketing and practice growth.

Maraziti was intrigued and thought Hagaman and the staff could pull it off, so she contacted Cirelli and creative manager Jin Young Park. They decided to create their own video set to that particular hit because it was a "catchy, feel-good song" and, as a bonus, its huge popularity made it a hot Google search. "Sarah found the right videographer, and it turned out surprisingly well after only four takes," Maraziti remembered. "I can't believe how well it turned out. The true flair and culture of the film came out in it."

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