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Get Leads Using LinkedIn to Market Your Accounting Practice

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Editor's Note: Today accounting professionals can pick and choose from both old school and new school tools to market their practices. Here Sandi Smith looks at one of the leading new school social networks, LinkedIn.

Many accountants have gained jobs, clients, and deals from participating in social media web sites. LinkedIn is one of the easiest platforms to get started on and is the most business-focused, with participants who are more educated, wealthier, and older than people on other social media. Here are some in-depth tips and tricks on how accountants can use and profit from LinkedIn.

The Basics - Your Profile

If you don't already have a profile on LinkedIn, you can add it for free. If your resume is up to date, this will be a quick copy-and-paste job for you.

For best results, enter current and past jobs, nonprofit positions such as board of directors, officers, and committee chairs, and schools where you earned degrees.

Tip: Listing more positions will allow you to see who else in those firms are on LinkedIn so you can build your connections.

Throughout your page, and especially in places like Interests, Summary, and Experience descriptions, use keywords so your page will be search-engine friendly and more people will find you when they search.

LinkedIn allows you to see how many times people have viewed your profile and who has viewed your profile (the latter requires a paid account). These could be a source of potential leads.

Contacts

If you haven't already done so, begin building your contacts. Import your email lists and find people you know from companies, associations, schools, and groups you joined. You can also enter people's names via search.

As you collect business cards at networking events, look these individuals up and send them an invitation to connect. It's more effective than a "nice to meet you" email and won't get caught in spam because it's from LinkedIn. Customize the invitation to remind the person where you met them.

Tip: Use search to locate prospects at companies you'd like to target for business. Find people via your connections and do research on their background by viewing their profiles.

Recommendations

Recommendations are the cornerstone of LinkedIn. Get all of your clients, former employers, and mentors to write a recommendation for you, and reciprocate for them when it's appropriate.

Tip: When hiring vendors or employees, you can review their LinkedIn recommendations to gain additional bits of information about them.

Groups - Don't Be a Loner

Although you may pride yourself on your independence, getting involved in group discussions is a very common way to get business. As of this writing, there were 23 QuickBooks-related groups. Look for professional associations, CPA societies, AICPA, Rotary, Lions, and Toastmasters groups that you can join. You can read and post discussions and network with peers.

"With a little effort, LinkedIn is an extremely effective catalyst for starting conversations," says Kip Gregory, founder of The Gregory Group in Washington, D.C. and a coach for financial service providers. "One contact in particular, who found my profile through a LinkedIn group we both belong to, ultimately turned into a significant contract to do business."

To find prospects, join a group where they would hang out. As an example, if you are an accountant who specializes in restaurants, search for restaurant groups.

Tip: Don't find the group you are looking for? Consider starting your own group.

Questions and Answers

Answering questions that have been posted in LinkedIn is a great way to get involved.

Browse the Finance and Accounting Questions and Answers section of LinkedIn or enter "QuickBooks" in the advanced search to pinpoint questions that you may be able to answer.

Tip: When you answer questions, the search engines will give your LinkedIn profile a better ranking.

This is another top area where accountants have gained new clients.

Status

Update your status to keep your name in front of your connections.

Tip: This doesn't have to be empty bragging; small facts about you and your practice are entirely appropriate.

Examples include:

• Posting the URL of your company newsletter,
• Broadcasting speaking engagements, trade show dates, or conference plans,
• Listing job openings or new hires, and
• Publicizing company or individual awards, new contracts, or other news that people can respond to or even participate in.

Events

LinkedIn has an events section you can search for conferences you might be interested in. I found the "Scaling New Heights" conference for advanced QuickBooks users. You can list yourself as an attendee, speaker, or just interested. You can set up international or local events, such as your local monthly CPA society meeting.

Companies and Jobs

You can now add a profile for your company, a Beta feature as of this writing. In addition, there is an entire section on Jobs where you can post positions that are open in your firm or look for a job via search.

Promoting Your Profile

Add your LinkedIn profile link to your blog and your website bio, so that people will know to find you there.

For increased visibility, add your LinkedIn URL to your email signature, just under your company web site.

My profile page says I have indirect connections with over four million professionals. That's a few more clients than I can do business with in my lifetime.

"I've lost count of the doors that have opened up by simply tending my network," says Kip, author of Winning Clients in a Wired World.

Editor's Note: Also interested in marketing in the old school mode? See Sandi's article on Seven Tips to Promote Your Accounting Business with Postcards.

Sandi Smith, CPA, is a soft skills trainer and business coach located in Silicon Valley, California. She is a frequent contributor to Intuit ProConnection. Her web site is www.sandismith.com.

Last Updated: 06/19/2009