11/05/2020
Back To All InsightsLinkedIn for Professional Services
Do you believe in referrals to grow your accounting firm? Pre pandemic 70% of prospects say they are influenced by your online profile before meeting you.
One of the key questions being asked now is "how can I win new clients?"
If you are serious about business development for your accountancy firm or legal practice it's important to take LinkedIn seriously. Now more than ever is critical that you ensure you have the right profile for your target audience.
I frequently ask this question when presenting at conferences or to in-house groups.
"Hands up if you are LinkedIn?" Many hands go up. Then I ask "Hands up is you actually use LinkedIn" Very few hands in the air.
So what do you do with your LinkedIn profile? Do you accept the invitations to connect you receive or do you actively issue invitations, post updates, comment in group discussions? Is your organisation leveraging LinkedIn to build brand or recruit?
In my experience working with B2B organisations LinkedIn is very useful if:
You believe in referrals or WOM (word of mouth / referrals)
Your target audience include businesses
You have a desire to build profile - personally or professionally
You have message
You need to recruit or would like to be recruited
In my experience my top tips for a professional profile on LinkedIn are as follows:
Professional photograph - without cutting most of a bridal veil out of the photograph please. We all have cameras on phones, please don't use your wedding day photograph.
Good profile description with your experience listed, very concisely.
Full contact details – include a phone number, website, email, try to make it very easy for third parties to make contact with you.
Updates & Publishing – decide on what your goal is and post updates to support that strategy. Update regularly but keep it short, relevant and professional. Try to link directly to a relevant website's appropriate landing page.
Build connections - the name of the game. Search via company pages, groups, alumni, colleagues past and present, personal and professional contacts, prospects, competitors.... etc.
Follow companies of interest and join relevant groups.
Keep it professional, LinkedIn is not Facebook, no need for pictures of cute kittens.
If the organisation you work with is posting on their company page, it's good citizenship to share and like updates to assist build the business or organisation's brand.
As with anything online, ensure you are using a two step verification process to access your account. This simply means that if your account is accessed from a new device you will need to input a short code that was texted to you to verify you are the correct user. Check under settings and security to set up.
As with most initiatives, be consistent for best results.
If you would like to discuss in-house training please contact me - mary@marketingclever.com or (01) 9081611.
Join me with CPA Ireland for a lunchtime webinar on Friday 15th May where we share best practices on how to best use LinkedIn as a professional services firm. To register please see the CPA Ireland linked below