When you look at the number of accountants in the UK that are on LinkedIn it can be quite daunting to think about how you and your firm can stand out from the crowd of over 365,000 of your peers.

If somebody was looking for an accountant on LinkedIn how would they pick you out from the multitude of profiles that would appear when they did a search? Would you stand out from the top accounting companies on LinkedIn that can quickly be found by using the search functionality on LinkedIn?

Let’s start by looking in a little more detail. Below is a diagram of the top 5 accountancy firms on LinkedIn in the UK based on the number of staff actually on LinkedIn:

The diagram below is the top 5 accountancy firms in terms of the number of partners listed on LinkedIn in the UK, which is slightly misleading as there are two joint placed 5th:

Isn’t it interesting that the top 5 changes so much when you compare partners as opposed to volumes of staff. From looking at a sample of the profiles we suspect this is influenced by a couple of significant factors.

Firstly, some firms have obviously ‘helped’ or mandated that partners appear on LinkedIn and indeed they do appear. But they merely appear. Their profiles, networks and activities on LinkedIn are not reflective of those people in real life as they are merely present. We don’t feel that this actually helps the firms as the more elegant clients are well aware of how to use LinkedIn and consider such things.

Secondly, the newer generation or more forward thinking accountants who are already stepping up their branding both of themselves and the business via the largest network of professionals on the planet with activity and good profiles which reflect well on the partners in terms of good people to work with, engaging and ultimatly driving work into the firm.

If you are not sure how to make LinkedIn work for you or your firm here are some simple tips you can follow to make your LinkedIn profile stand out from the crowd:

• Make sure you have a profile on LinkedIn! Ok it’s an obvious one, but you might have thought you set up a profile years ago when LinkedIn first started when in fact you hadn’t.
• Ensure your profile is complete – a half finished profile or one with little information in it looks like you can’t be bothered and think how that would reflect on your professional standing.
• Include a professional photo of yourself – don’t include any of these types of photos found here.
• Make sure your headline includes some stand out feature about yourself and about the service you offer, rather than just stating your job title, In reality clients rarely care about your title, but do care about your focus and outcomes.
• Include your contact details – email address, phone number, website address and twitter name in your LinkedIn profile in the contact information section. It is more difficult for clients to engage with you if you don’t include them!
• Make sure your summary includes information about you, not just your company. This needs to reflect you, why you, your outlook, your approach to accounting and your value.
• Share regular updates on LinkedIn to keep in touch with your network, remind them of what you do without being pushy – this keeps you in the forefront of their minds so when someone asks them if they know a good accountant they will immediately think of you.

We hope these tips are helpful, but if you’d like some assistance to help you and your firm stand out from the crowd why not contact us here for an informal chat.

We have helped over 5,000 accountants with their LinkedIn use over the last 8 years and some of the firms we have worked with drive over 50% of their billable income from within LinkedIn each month – why not let us help you understand, leverage and drive more fees from this vital tool for the modern accountant.

PS If you want to see what your existing LinkedIn profile is like you can try our free profile test here.

Note: Search was done using standard LinkedIn search 10/1/18 located in the UK from the Accountant industry segment.

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