You’re on LinkedIn, but you aren’t getting much from it. You’re connected to more accountants and bookkeepers than you are to potential clients, and you find yourself wondering how “everyone else” is getting new business from it, and you’re not.
LinkedIn will work better for you when you know why you’re using it, you’re connected to the right people, and your profile makes it clear why they would choose you.
It also works better when you don’t just post – you comment and engage and make connections – but that’s the topic of another post (coming soon).
You want LinkedIn to be useful without turning it into a full time social media job.
Here’s our practical guide to where to start – real, actual steps you can take today. If you need help or want to talk to one of our team, you can request a call.
Feel free to jump to a section that interests you most:
- Confirm your goal
- Connect to the right people
- Fix your headline
- Write your About section
- Add assets to your Featured section
- Use an intro post
Confirm what you actually want out of your LinkedIn efforts
It’s tempting to start “doing more on LinkedIn”, but if you haven’t stopped for a minute to be sure what you’re doing on it and why, you may simply be doing more marketing activity.
You’ll feel good about it for a while, and then come full circle to being frustrated and wondering why you bother.
If you’re using it to get more leads that’s a perfectly acceptable goal… but the question is, what kind of business? What kind of clients do you want to connect to? Is it only new clients, or do you also want to connect to referrers (who will send you new business) or new team members? Do you want to be known as an authority in a specific industry or niche area?
Based on what you actually want to achieve, you can then connect to the kind of people you want – new clients, potential team members, and referrers.
Connect to the kind of people you actually want to reach
Simply “posting on LinkedIn” isn’t going to do you much good. You need to think about it as the world’s biggest networking event. And you have the ability to go into a breakout room which is filled with the right kind of clients for you.
But to get to that breakout room, you need to go through a lot of other rooms first. Big ones, full of all kinds of interesting people. Many of them are other accountants, and you keep getting distracted by catching up with them. What’s new in the accounting industry? How’s their firm going? Are you doing better or worse than they are? What did they think of your last article?
If you want to reach the room of your people, you need to be laser focused on finding it. And that means waving to the other accountants, but carrying on relentlessly. (Because if your LinkedIn feed is full of accountants talking accounting things, your activity is telling LinkedIn to send you more accountants, which it does, and the cycle continues.)
Just like at a networking event, it won’t be effective to hand round business cards to everyone you pass. “Hi, I’m an accountant, and we provide accounting services,” you say. “We work with small to medium sized businesses with revenue between 500k and 2 million, who value my advice and are willing to pay my fees and want more than just compliance.”
That’s not a focus. Or a niche. It’s not even an audience.
You need to figure out who exactly you want to connect to – because your next step is to connect with them. That’s it. You don’t have to sell to them, or offer them anything, or stalk them. Just start by getting connected.
Practical LinkedIn steps to train the algorithm and curate your audience:
- Connect with all your existing clients.
Get your list of existing clients. Search for each one on LinkedIn (or have an assistant or AI tool do it), and send a connection request to each one.
NOTE: Make sure to connect with good clients, those you want more of. If they’re not an ideal client, and you don’t want more like them, don’t connect. - Connect with referral partners.
Every time you think of someone who has referred a client to you (again, a good client), connect with them on LinkedIn.
Include a short note with every connection – nothing salesy, just a reminder of how you know or met them. “Hi Danielle – really appreciated your connecting us with x client – we love working with them.” - Make aspirational connections.
You can also follow, or send a connection request, to people you want to be connected to. This could include:– Complementary business owners (financial advisors, lawyers)
– Local business owners you know or admire
– Software or app providers (for apps you actually use)
– Thought leaders in your chosen sectors, if you have them (creative agencies, veterinarians, hospitality, etc)
- Don’t actively connect with more accountants.
You don’t need to remove your accountant connections, but unless they’re one of your referral partners, focus more on your ideal audience.
To help make these connections (and ensure that they will accept your request), it’s time to improve your LinkedIn profile. If you’re like many accountants who aren’t getting the LinkedIn results they want, your profile is most likely dated and vague.
Fix your headline so people instantly know who you are and what you do
LinkedIn works like a search engine. It has literally billions of pages available for search, and both the app itself and the people using it are searching by terms they actually use.
And people see your headline when you comment on others’ posts, not just when they visit your profile.
Therefore, how you set this up matters. The formula for a good headline follows this order:
– Who you are/What you do
– Who you do it for
– What you do for them
– (If there’s space): How you do it
As in our example of the world’s biggest networking event, simple and clear is best. If someone asks what you do, and you use a title that feels clever, like “Numbers Wizard” or “Chief Number Ninja”, it’s unlikely they will be fascinated and want to hear more. They might ask out of politeness, but what they wanted was to get the answer quickly.
(The same applies to websites: there is a standard operating procedure to the names of website pages, and if you use “Clarity” instead of “Services” or “How we Work”, you’re – ironically – being quite unclear.)
Think again about your goal audience on LinkedIn, and tailor your headline to them.
How to create your LinkedIn headline:
- Follow the formula. Put the most important part first (because the words at the end can get cut off when someone sees your headline), then use pipe lines to separate the rest. Examples:
– Accountant for Hospices and Nonprofits | Advisory, Tax, and Bookkeeping | Coach and trainer
– Accounting & CFO for NY Dentists | Practice acquisition due diligence | Assessing risks and earning potential
– Bookkeeper for female entrepreneurs | Helping you reach your next million | Books & Reporting Health Diagnostic
- Use the word accountant (or similar). It’s tempting to use Advisor, or Growth Specialist, or a more lofty title. But remember LinkedIn is a search engine, so the simpler your title is, the easier it is for the right people to find you. You can use all those other words within your posts, if you wish.
– Accountant, not Growth Advisor
– Bookkeeper, not Numbers Guru
– CFO, not “Your Partner in Profit”
Good LinkedIn headline examples:
Write your About section like a personal website, to help the reader trust you
Now that your headline is easier to grasp, your ideal client or referrer may actually visit your profile. You need to rewrite your About section like it’s a personal website.
The person visiting your profile is not reading it for entertainment. They’re genuinely curious about how what you do applies to them. Answer the “So what?” questions. Why would they care? What can you do for them?
This means using client language, not internal or clever-sounding language. Avoid (as always) overly AI-polished wording and phrases you wouldn’t say aloud. Acronyms are fine as long as they are understood by your industry or audience.
A suggested structure for your About section includes (in order):
– Who you help
– What problem they usually have
– How you help
– What changes for them
– What to do next
How to rewrite your About section:
1. Read it aloud: Before you even start changing it, read aloud what’s there already. This will highlight words, phrases, and sentences that simply don’t make sense. If you find yourself getting bored reading it, flag it. That’s your starting point for change.
2. Follow the structure: Explain who you help, and the problem they usually have, and so on.
3. Tell your origin story: Why did you become an accountant in the first place? How did you get started on the path you’re on, or running the business you now own? Do you have a business partner, or a team? Why is this vocation important to you?
You don’t need to tell your whole life story: tell the part you’ve repeated over and over, to clients and prospects and in presentation. Think about the questions you often get asked about why you started your firm.
4. Use “I” instead of “we”. This is your personal LinkedIn profile. People do business with people, and you’re helping them connect with you as a person. Yes, you’re a leader or owner or you might have a significant team: but this profile is about you. Some of your stories may refer to “us” or “we”, but keep that to a minimum.
5. Explain what you appreciate about your ideal clients: One of the best ways to establish trust is to show you really like the people you work with, and explain why. You can integrate this into other sections, such as:
Connect it to who you work with and their issues: “I work with the owners of multi-office dental practices, or those looking to form a group practice. I particularly appreciate helping younger dentists, who have debt and are reluctant to open their own practice.”
Combine it with your origin story: “My dad was a farmer, and seeing him run his farm year after year gave me an appreciation for the agricultural and farming industry.”
6. Include real-world outcomes: Whether it’s a specific client or a composite, tell the transformation story. If you can, share numbers or averages. “On average, our clients get 15 hours per week back – from working on admin and bookkeeping – to focus on their business again.”
7. Read it aloud (again): Once it’s complete, read it out loud as if you were standing on a stage introducing yourself. Is there anything cringe worthy, or confusing? Cut it out or change it.
If you’re using AI to help write your profile, look for specific AI tells. These will not build confidence with your reader. Think about what you say when you’re asked the standard question by a prospect, in a networking event, or anywhere really. Someone you meet on a train. “So, what do you do?” Start saying that into your AI tool and use the voice notes/transcription to build a much more human profile. Otherwise you’ll find yourself reading “I quietly built three businesses in seven years. And honestly? I grew from that experience.”
Good LinkedIn ‘About’ section example:
Add assets and links to your Featured section to help people take the next action
Directly beneath the About section of your profile is the Featured section. Since your About section now encourages a call to action, this is your opportunity to showcase it. They can download a guide, read an article, watch a video, buy a course. If you have any of these assets, the Featured section is the place for them. (If you don’t, now is a good time to start building them.)
Think of your Featured section as the “where next?” part of your profile. You’ve already told them who you are, who you serve, and why they would work with you. Now they can go deeper.
Click the + sign to add different kinds of featured items.
Specific examples include:
- Post: One of your most popular previously shared posts. Choose one with the most comments or greatest engagement, or one that you want more people to notice.
- Article: This will be a LinkedIn article, not your own blog or website, so if you haven’t written any yet there won’t be any options available.
- Link: Send them to a link on your site for one of these. If you don’t have a landing page for your asset yet, you can use this as an opportunity to create one.
– An asset full of helpful information for your ideal client – a PDF guide to cash flow for a specific industry, a spreadsheet template, a profitability assessment
– A call booking link, or calendar link, if you offer this
– A case study page
– Your pricing page
– A services page (could be for a specific industry – ie veterinarians, creatives, architects)
- Video: Use the ‘link’ option to share a YouTube, Loom, or Vimeo video link. This could be an introduction to you, a clip from a podcast (perhaps sharing your origin story), an educational or authority piece, or another video which has proved popular.
- Document: Upload a PDF or other document directly onto your profile. This is best to use when you’re not gatekeeping the content.
Note: If you don’t have any of these, now is a good time to start creating at least one!
Good LinkedIn ‘Featured’ section example:
Use an intro post to quickly explain who you are
Now that you’ve improved your connections and your profile, it’s time to re-introduce yourself to any of your new followers. Don’t assume people already know who you are and what you do: or that the “you” they knew is the same one you are today.
People may find you from a comment, a connection request, or a shared post. An intro post gives them context while they’re scrolling – and could lead them to go to your profile and see these items you’ve featured.
Ideally you’ll repeat an intro post every six to eight weeks, especially if your focus, services, or audience has changed.
Here are suggested ingredients for your intro (or re-introduction) post. Think of it less like a structured recipe and more like items that will go together well in varying amounts. One intro post might focus more heavily on the kinds of people you work with and why you love working with them. Or a type of work you enjoy doing, and why.
- Who you are – Imagine you are introducing yourself on stage or to a new prospect.
- Who you help – You could borrow some of the work you’ve done on your headline and about sections which you worked on previously.
- What you do – How do you help these people? What do you love about it? What outcomes do your client see?
- What you care about – This could be work related or personal, or both. Remember to keep this post personal enough that someone reading it starts to feel like they know you, even if they haven’t met you yet.
- What you enjoy working on – This could be across all time, or a recent point in time. “Lately I’ve been rediscovering how much I enjoy running cash strategy sessions.” (And then explain why.)
- A small human detail – This is an introduction post, so, let them meet you. Whatever you’re comfortable with – it could be about your location, or pets, or a hobby. Maybe one of those ‘fun facts’ (although if that fills you with dread, just pick something simple you’d tell just about anyone). Ideally it reads in a way someone can say “me too!” rather than a dating site. Less of “I like long walks on the beach” and more “I drink copious amounts of black coffee.”
- A photo of yourself – This is a must. If you were introducing yourself at a networking event, you wouldn’t be wearing a mask (at least, a physical one) or hiding your face. People do business with people. Let them meet you. Pick a photo you feel comfortable with, but it doesn’t have to be overly business-y or corporate. Make sure it’s clear, sharp, and ideally pleasant (although goofy faces are welcome if they fit your brand).
Because the intro post is not the same as your profile, you don’t need to be in any way salesy here. It’s either a reminder to people that you exist, encouraging them to go to your profile and read it; or, it’s a follow-up which appears in their feed after they’ve visited your profile.
Your profile helps people who click to read more about you. Your intro post helps people who are scrolling past to remember who you are and what you do.
Good LinkedIn intro post example:
Once your profile is clearer and you’re connected to the right people, posting becomes much simpler. You can start thinking about what to post, how often, and what kind of content helps people remember you. We’ll cover posting, commenting, and engaging in the next LinkedIn blog resource!
