LinkedIn Tips for CPAs

LinkedIn can serve as a useful tool for accountants to grow their businesses and stay on top of industry trends, whether they are sole practitioners or part of a large CPA firm. This and the next article provide tips and examples from firms that have achieved success using this social media outlet as well as instructions on how to get started using it. * Read basic tips for all professionals. Learn how to start an account, grow your network, join groups and get recommendations.  Beef up your profile and attract clients. Identify keywords by asking yourself, "What is my client prospect looking for?" or "What search words might he or she use to look for me?" Take your lead from your firm's marketing materials and firm profile and incorporate some of that language.  Use the Follow feature. This feature lets you target clients, referral sources, or companies you'd like to know more about. You also can track new hires and watch general industry trends.  Join accounting-specific groups and groups that represent your ideal client, reflect your practice specialty and/or your professional and personal interests. All of these groups help you connect with people you want to meet, do business with, and with whom you share common interests. Once you are a group member, you can ask and respond to questions, make a comment or take a position on a topic.  Say you run a small accounting practice but are not a marketing expert What can you do to build your business that's easy, quick and inexpensive? The answer is LinkedIn. The LinkedIn platform is designed specifically for business use. It is the social media of choice for more than 90 million users around the world. Executives from virtually every Fortune 500 company are represented. But LinkedIn is not just for the big guys. Sole practitioners and small practices can leverage its power, too, to reach a wider audience. Following are 10 tips accountants can use for accelerating connections and achieving new business successes via LinkedIn. (Those less familiar with LinkedIn's basic functionality can refer to "Are You Linked In?" in this issue on page 48.): 1. Make your profile complete using accounting language derived from your firm's marketing materials, brochures or company profile. The more detailed and descriptive your summary and specialty profiles are, the easier it will be for someone searching for your expertise to find you. Identify keywords by asking yourself, "What is my client prospect looking for? What search words might he or she use to look for me?" Take your lead from your firm's marketing materials and firm profile and incorporate some of that language. For example, if you are a forensic accountant, you will certainly want to include that term in your profile. In my case, I include keywords that are likely to be searched on when describing my services as shown in the screenshot below.  2 Search for CFOs or tax directors by title to research new business targets. Save time searching for new business targets by using the Advanced People Search feature, which you access by clicking on the word Advanced next to the search box in the upper-right corner of any page. You can find almost anyone by entering a job title, keyword or phrase. For example, you can enter "CFO" or "Tax Director." You can narrow your search by adding a city, state, country, industry, company or school, as shown in the screenshot below.  If you want to win new clients in the international import/export trade, for example, you might use "CFO import export" as your search term. Can't find what you are looking for? More extensive searches for categories such as seniority level, years of experience and company size can be done with a premium membership. …

Field of study: Business