Mark Lee shares ten tips to help busy accountants get more value from LinkedIn
As I explained in my last article on this subject, LinkedIn is, by far, the largest and most important online business networking site. As such it is an invaluable tool for accountants who recognise the value of networking and are interested in winning new clients.
What follows builds on that summary from January 2015, (LinkedIn for accountants: 2015 update), in which I distinguished passive and active users of LinkedIn. The short cuts below are intended for those busy accountants who have yet to sort out their LinkedIn profiles.
In a subsequent article I will share further short cuts for those who want to take a more active approach to LinkedIn without investing a lot of time in the process.
Google yourself
Ensure you are not logged into Google and then search for yourself online. If your LinkedIn profile doesn’t show up, you probably don’t have one. If it does show up, take a look and see what others see when they Google you.
Are you satisfied that this gives a good enough impression?
If you had been recommended to a professional adviser would you use one whose profile looks like that? Does your LinkedIn profile enable the casual surfer to find out more about you?
Login to LinkedIn
If you’ve not done this before, just go to LinkedIn.com and register to create your profile. You can ‘get started’ in a couple of minutes and then refine your profile later.
These days, when you login, you get taken to your ‘home page’ which includes news and updates from all/any of your connections. To save time, ignore it all! Your only interest at this stage is in the top box which references your profile.
Tighten up your privacy settings
LinkedIn announces to your connections that you are updating your profile – unless you turn that setting off. I’d encourage you to do this before you start any editing.
Move your mouse to the top right of the screen and click the tiny photo or grey box to reveal a drop down menu. Towards the bottom is the ‘privacy and settings’ link you want; click on this. You may be asked to confirm your password again.
Choose the options to turn off your broadcasts (for now at least). And select the ‘anonymous’ option for ‘what others see when you’ve viewed their profile’.
Update your headline
Your headline is the line beneath your name. It appears on LinkedIn (and in search results) whenever your name appears. ‘Accountant’, ‘Sole Practitioner’ and ‘Owner’ are 3 of the most common headlines I see on accountants’ profiles.
Instead of your ‘title’ use the facility to stand out by promoting yourself with a headline (which you can change at any time). Perhaps something like: Saving tax for business owners and entrepreneurs.
Upload a current photo
Even if you manage to avoid ever meeting clients most people would like to get a feel for who you are. A photo is a great way to show this. It’s also helps people feel that they are getting to know you even when they have only communicated with you online.
And, of course, a blank profile photo stands out on LinkedIn for all the wrong reasons. John Cassidy shared some great tips here on this topic in 2012: Does your headshot give the right impression?
Update your contact details
My preference is to include an email address and a phone number but if you don’t want anyone to contact you, then don’t bother. It all depends on your objectives.
You can also provide a link to your website if you have one, as well as to your twitter account and blog. And you can edit the description of those links so that they clearly lead to, for example: My firm’s website and Tax Saving blog.
Check out a few local competitors
Look up your competitors on LinkedIn and see how their profiles look. What can you learn from this review as regards what looks good and what looks bad?
No one will know you checked them out if you followed my advice in point 2 above, to go ‘anonymous’ while you’re updating your profile.
Update your summary
If you’re in a hurry, simply copy here the text from your website that describes YOU. Not your firm. You, and your approach. What do you do? Why do clients like dealing with you?
Another way to get a good summary written is to ask someone else to do it for you.
Either way you can take account of the good and bad examples you found when you checked out a few of your local competitors’ profiles.
Join local business groups (on LinkedIn)
Although these tips are focused on accountants who do not intend to be active on LinkedIn, I still think ‘groups’ could be useful here. Belonging to local business and client sector specific groups helps increase the prospect of you being found by prospective clients and collaborators.
Click on the drop down list to the immediate left of the LinkedIn search bar at the top of the screen. Choose ‘Groups’. Then search ‘Groups’ for something like: ‘Harrow business’. The results will show how many members and discussions there are in each group. Only bother joining relevant groups which have between 50 and 500 members and where there are more than a few discussions.
Review your settings
If you want to know who looks at your profile in future, you’ll need to remove the ‘anonymous’ setting you selected under point 2 above. You can leave the other privacy settings as they are for now.
While in the ‘Privacy and settings’ area, click on the ‘communications’ tab so you can choose the frequency of emails etc to suit your style. The key ones to amend are ‘Updates and news’ and ‘Group digests’. You’ll probably want to set these to ‘no email’ or ‘weekly digest email’.
By all means post any questions or requests for clarification below and I’ll do my best to reply.
Mark is consultant practice editor of AccountingWEB and a speaker at conferences and in-house events, helping accountants who want to STAND OUT from the pack. He also facilitates The Inner Circle group for accountants and is chairman of the Tax Advice Network of independent tax specialists who provide support to smaller practices.
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I provide NED-style mentoring and business development support to sole practitioner accountants who want to overcome feelings of isolation, frustration and overwhelm - being the only decison maker in their practice.
I am also Chair of the Tax Advice Network - a highly ranked online resource for anyone seeking indepdent tax advisers....
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keep at it Mark
it will eventually sink in, just like that!
Profile tips for accountants
By the way if you would like some more details on how to create or enhance your profile on Linkedin, please follow this link to access my free Linkedin profile tips>>>>
Mark