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What is LinkedIn?

31st Aug 2016
Brought to you by
ICPA

ICPA is a professional organisation for accountants in practice.

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Nick Lewis continues his series on how social media can benefit your business by explaining how LinkedIn can work for you

The social network that I feel would be of most use to accountants is LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com). The reason why is that LinkedIn, unlike the other social networks, is one that is specifically and unapologetically tailored for businesses and business people. It always makes sense to fish where the fishes are, and for the accountant LinkedIn is an ideal tool to find new clients and to main professional relationships with existing ones.

LinkedIn in many ways resembles Facebook, in that all users have a profile of their own which they can extensively populate, through which they can connect with acquaintances and to whom they can post updates and links of interest. Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows companies to have a Company Page (which can be edited and managed by registered Linkedin Users) and has a vast network of LinkedIn Groups, discussion boards set-up and managed by LinkedIn users on every (and any) subject under the sun.

Of course, the big difference is that Facebook is professional in its outlook and function, and there is an expectation that users will use the network as such; no family holiday or baby snaps here. It is through LinkedIn that you can project a professional ‘brand image’ for yourself or your firm (or both).

LinkedIn is also acts an incredibly powerful search engine to find individuals and businesses by any criteria that you can think of. Whereas Facebook actively encourages users to post personal information for the benefit for Facebook advertisers, LinkedIn does so as well but also for the benefit of other LinkedIn users.

The power of ‘search’ on LinkedIn has long led to it being mistakenly dismissed as just a place where people go to look for jobs or for employers looking to headhunt without incurring expensive recruitment agency fees. While it can be used in this fashion, that is really only skimming the surface of what is an incredibly powerful (if occasionally cumbersome) business tool.

For me, the main power of LinkedIn is it allows you to keep in touch and broadcast to your professional contacts in a ‘light touch’ manner. Think of it as a Rolodex crossed with both a Christmas card and public noticeboard. I make a point connecting with all business people I meet at networking events and other environments on LinkedIn – it ensures that LinkedIn acts as a defacto CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system and it also allows me to find out more about those people and their businesses.

This is why having a professional LinkedIn profile is so important. In many ways, it is an online CV that allows you to show off all your professional and educational qualifications, as well as providing a forum to post a potted history of yourself and of your skillset. However, unlike a traditional CV, you can get other LinkedIn users to write recommendations and give endorsements for your skills, which is incredibly powerful psychologically as it only other LinkedIn users can do this and they do so publicly (their LinkedIn profiles are publicly linked to their recommendations and references for you).

Out of the two, LinkedIn Recommendations are the better as they take the form of written statements. You can either request recommendations from other users or they can offer them to you unbidden. Recommendations can be linked to a specific job role, and it is always good to encourage referees to write in terms of specifics (“Joe helped me with X on Y project”) rather than just generalities (“Joe is exceptionally courteous and reliable”).

50 skills or qualities

LinkedIn Endorsements are far simpler in both concept and in process and therefore of less value (although I would still not turn any away). Reminiscent of the card game Top Trumps, you can list up to 50 skills or qualities, and other users can tick a box on your profile to vouch for them (again, their endorsement is linked to their own LinkedIn profile). Because these are so easy to dish out and lack the in-depth context of a written recommendation, I feel LinkedIn Endorsements are rightly viewed as having little impact although en masse they can be psychologically useful in attracting new clients.

Apart from posting into a news feed where all your connections can see your posts (and you theirs), LinkedIn Groups can be fantastic forums in which you can discuss issues of concern with professional peers in a neutral forum or in which you can get engage with business people in your locality.

As already mentioned, there seems to be an infinite number of subjects on which LinkedIn Groups are based, and I know clients of mine have found new business in sport forums as well as more traditional channels.

As you can probably tell, I have only superficially touched the surface of what LinkedIn can do. As an accountant, it should really be your primary social media channel.

• Nick Lewis is a communications professional with 15 years’ experience of working in the private and public sectors. He offers social media support via www.nicklewiscommunications.com

This article is taken from “Accounting Practice” the ICPA quarterly magazine. Dedicated to supporting and promoting the needs of the general practitioner. You can find us at www.icpa.org.uk or email [email protected] or by phone on 0800-074-2896.

The ICPA have a number of LinkedIn groups that you may want to join:

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