Should an Accountant Clean Up His/Her Online Network?

Should an accountant clean up his or her online network?  Answering this question has been puzzling me since reading Jenn Herman’s blog post “When Was The Last Time You Cleaned Up Your Connections?”

Jenn Herman told me she was referring to Twitter and Facebook networks, not to LinkedIn.  She says that with regards to LinkedIn, it is desirable to collect connections.  Is that always true?  Is that true for accountants?

I suspect the answer to my questions is that it is better to be in growth mode with respect to connections and your LinkedIn network.  Here’s why.

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Top 100 Most Influential People Use LinkedIn

Most of us know LinkedIn, the most popular and best social media platform for accountants.  Yet, not very many accountants, accounting professors, accounting students and accounting aficionados use it well.

Would it help to know that the most influential people in accounting (according to Accounting Today) use LinkedIn and are heavy users?  If they have invested serious amounts of time in it, then perhaps so should you.

I use LinkedIn heavily.  Over the past year, I pretty much have shifted my social media efforts from blogging on The Summa to interacting with accounting types through LinkedIn.  So much so, I might be called Mr. LinkedIn amongst accounting professors.  Oh, I think that blogging is still my raison d’être.  But LinkedIn is le futur. [Perhaps I can be called Professor Social Media}

You remember the Accounting Today list of the Top 100 Most Influential People in accounting? Published in September of each year, it is Accounting Today’s attempt to capture what’s happening in the industry.  Look carefully, and you’ll notice that those savvy in digital era and social technologies get the AT nod as to who should be influential.

80 of the T100 Most Influential People use LinkedIn. 53 use it heavily with 500+ connections.  The other 27 have small networks. That’s the scale in online social networks.  Large networks are >2,500. Medium sized network have at least 500 contacts.

I categorize the Top 100 Most influential people into those who made the list primarily for (1) blogging/media, (2) audit firm leadership, (3) consultants and vendors, (4) regulators, (5) association leadership, and (6) lobbyists.

Here is my tally of the T100 Most Influential People who use LinkedIn.  I provide links to the profiles for the heavy users.  You must be signed into LinkedIn to fully see the profiles.

Bloggers. All four who make the T100 list for blogging are on LinkedIn.  Heavy users are Dave Albrecht (The Summa), Paul Caron (Tax Prof Blog) and Rick Telberg (CPA Trendlines).  Caleb Newquist (Going Concern) also uses LI.

Accounting Firm Leadership.  10/14 who make the T100 list due to their accounting firm leadership are on LinkedIn.  Heavy users are Jason Blumer (Blumer & Associates), Jim Bourke (WithumSmith+Brown) , Stephen Chipman (Grant Thornton) and Jody Padar (New Vision CPA Group).  Small LI network users who make the T100 list are Rick Anderson (Moss Adams), Ken Baggett (Cohn Reznick), Joe Echevaria (Deloitte), Tom Marino (CohnReznick), Kris McMasters (CliftonLarsonAllen) and Robert Moritz (PWC).  Echevaria is barely on LI, with a short profile and a network of zero.  What’s the point?

Consultants & Vendors.  40/41 who make the T100 list because of their service to accounting firms/professionals are on LinkedIn.  Heavy users are August Aquila (Aquila Global Advisor), Ron Baker (VeraSage Institute), Gary Boomer (Boomer Consulting), Jim Boomer (Boomer Consulting), David Cieslak (Arxis Technology), Gale Crosley (Crosley+Co.), Chris Frederiksen (The 2020 Group), Michelle Golden (Golden Practices), Jeff Gramlich (CCH Small Firm Services), Angie Grissom (The Rainmaker Consulting Group), Pascal Houillon (Sage North America), Randy Johnston (K2 Enterprises), Rita Keller (Keller Advisors), Allan Koltin (Koltin Consulting Group), Taylor Macdonald (Intacct), Jeff Pawlow (The Growth Partnership), Kevin Robert (Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting), Marc Rosenberg (The Rosenberg Associates), Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (BBR Marketing), Rebecca Ryan (Next Generation Consulting), Joel Sinkin (Transition Advisors), Doug  Sleeter (The Sleeter Group), Brad Smith (Intuit), Jennifer Warawa (Sage North America), Troy Waugh (The Rainmaker Companies), Geni Whitehouse (Even a Nerd Can Be Heard), Sandra Wiley (Boomer Consulting), Jennifer Wilson (ConvergenceCoaching), Joe Woodard (Scaling New Heights) and Diane Yetter (Yetter Tax Consulting).  Other LI users are Erik Asgeirsson (CPA2BIZ), Jon Baron (Thomson Reuters Tax and Acct), Chandra Bhansali (AccountantsWorld), Jim Buttonow (New River Innovation), George Farrah (Bloomberg BNA), Zach Nelson (Netsuite), Jay Nisberg (Jay Nisberg and Associates), Brian Peccarelli (Thomson Reuters Tax and Acct), Terry Putney (Transition Advisors), Jill Ward (Intuit).

Regulators.  Only 5/18 who make the T100 list because of their service as regulators of accounting are on LinkedIn.  Heavy users are Orrin Hatch (U.S. Senate) and Mitt Romney (presidential candidate). Other LI users are Karen Hawkins (IRS), Terri Polley (FAF) and Leslie Seidman (FASB).

Professional Associations.  19/20 who make the T100 list because of their leadership in professional associations are on LinkedIn.  Heavy users are Richard Caturano (AICPA), Richard Chambers (IIA), Calvin Harris (NABA), Marie Hollein (FEI), Tom Hood (MACPA), Erinn Keserica (AAM), Mark Koziel (AICPA), Lana Kupferschmid (NCCPAP), Barry Melancon (AICPA), James Metzler (AICPA), Clarke Price (OSCPA), James Ratley (ACFE), Ralph Thomas (NJSCPA) and Jeffrey Thomson (IMA).  Other LI users are JoAnne Barry (NYSSCPA), Parnell Black (NACVA), Loretta Doon (California Society of CPAs), Edward Karl (AICPA) and John Sharbaugh (Texas Society of CPAs).

Lobbyists.  Two of the three who make the T100 list because of their leadership of important lobbying organizations are on LinkedIn.  Neither Ken Bishop (NASBA) or Cindy Fornelli (Center for Audit Quality) are heavy users.

In the world of accounting, influential leader and LinkedIn go hand in hand.

Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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Up All Night, Working on LinkedIn

[Bowling Green, OH. Friday, July 24, 4 a.m.] It is 4:00 a.m. I am still up, working. That I am still up is not unlike some of my students. That I’m working is very much unlike them. After all, who stays up until 4:00 a.m. to study accounting if there is no test later in the day?

So what is an accounting professor working on during the summer? I’m glad you asked. I’m becoming better acquainted with some features of LinkedIn.

At the current time, I have about 900 first level connections. 300 are former students, 300 are professors. Then there are practicing accountants, regulators, social media experts, friends, a nephew and my older son.

Right now I’m growing and maintaining my network.

ProfAlbrecht’s LinkedIn Network

In the network map above, you can see the student connections from the schools at which I’ve taught: BGSU, Concordia College, and USC Upstate. A small cluster is forming already for La Sierra. Also, there are large clusters for professors and bloggers (and heavy social media users).

LinkedIn is a great network managing system, and in this digital technologies era I need a good network. For months I’ve been lamenting that I’m only connected to 140 former students from BGSU. There were thousands, and I’m sure at least a thousand of them are on LinkedIn.

A couple of days ago I got the bright idea to do an advanced search on LinkedIn inputting BGSU for the school and accounting for the industry. Suddenly I had hundreds of accounting grads to search through to see if they took a class from me. If they graduated between 1992 and 2010, probably they took at least one course from me. So I stayed up late and sent out about 20 invitations to connect. All of them accepted!

That was the easy part. I now have to start working on establishing a relationship. When they were sitting in my class, forming a teacher-student relationship was expected. I learned most student names, most students learned my name, and I helped them learn accounting. But years later we no longer have a relationship. But I want one.

I send a thank you note to everyone who joins my network. For these twenty students, I can also ask if they remember anything about the course (or courses) they took from me. I ask if they liked the accounting program. Later on, I’ll send out an occasional e-mail.

Sometimes a former student will e-mail me. In the past few months, a couple students volunteered to write a LinkedIn recommendation for me. Yes, yes, yes!

I’m also trying something new. I’m headed off in the fall to a school in California. I did a similar search (industry and school), and sent off a half dozen invitations to connect. Five accepted. From these students I hope to learn what it is like to study accounting at that school. I’ll also learn if they’ve stayed in touch with the school. Later on in the fall, I’ll invite them to attend the grand opening of the new business building and I’ll get a chance to chat face-to-face.

Once I get good at LinkedIn networking, I’ll start researching it and writing about it.by.

Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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Please Update Your LinkedIn Profile

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time reviewing the member profiles for those in my LinkedIn network.  For the most part, it has been a wonderful journey to memory lane.  Most of the nearly 800 are in my network for a good reason–I appreciate them for our shared experiences and I greatly respect them.

About 100 have asked me to join their network, and I agreed.  I suspect many of them know me through my blogging efforts.  I am hopeful that some day I’ll be able to contribute positively to their network.

In addition, I’ve been reviewing profiles of people with whom I’ve come into brief contact.

I’ve come to several conclusions.

The first and foremost advantage to LinkedIn is how you describe your self, skills, work experiences and education.  I am appalled at how many people, both in and out of my network, list where they work and possibly from where they received the most recent degree.  And that’s it.  I meet many, many people from day to day. In this information available age, I turn to the Internet and LinkedIn to find out more about them.  I seldom am satisfied.  When I shop, I do so on the Internet.  When I research something, I do so on the Internet.  When I want to information about a person, I do so on the Internet.  If you aren’t adequately describing yourself, now is the time to join the 21st century.

CPAs should be listing the skills that give them both identity and competitive advantage.  But more than a list of skills, CPAs should be providing descriptions.  Too much verbiage is bad, but I’ve only seen 1 or 2 cases where too many words were used.

Academics are worse.  Many accounting professors never even mention the word accounting. Professors don’t, but should describe their program of scholarly pursuits and highlight key accomplishments.

I have two contacts on LinkedIn without their full name.  One is listed as “Dr. firstname,” the other by initials.  Neither wants to release too much personal information. Well, in this day and age we expect a minimum of a person’s name.  How else are we to find that person?

One of the basic advantages to LinkedIn is how it enables network assembly and management in the Internet and social media ages. I’m amazed at how many professionals (and academics) have small networks of less than 100.  In this day and age, accounting professionals should be LinkedIn connected to all of their clients and work colleagues, both current and from the past.  I think it’s possible to be both selective and inclusive.  If you have a beneficial relationship with another professional, then why wouldn’t you include them in your LinkedIn network?

Once a LinkedIn network is built up, then you have a responsibility to it.  Use it to stay in contact.  Also, endorse those in your network.  Endorsements should be handed out sparsely, only when it is deserved.  But if you respect someone enough to add them to your network, then what prevents you from endorsing them?

LinkedIn endorsements for skills are valuable because they provide affirmation and validation from those who best know the professional.  Professors especially miss the boat here.  Many do not list accounting (or tax or auditing) as a skill.  If the professor has professional skill, then the professor’s network will validate it.  I am surprised at how many professors don’t list college teaching as a skill.

And finally, why not put up a nice professional picture.  I’ve seen pictures of dog and owner.  I certainly hope I don’t meet the dog.

Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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LinkedIn Endorsements and Accountants

Is there a fit between accountants and social media?

My first thoughts go back to some old accountant jokes.  How do you identify the party goer who is an accountant?  He/she wears a lampshade.  How do you tell if an accountant is an extrovert or introvert?  The extrovert looks at your shoes, not his.  What is the favorite form of accountant birth control?  Personality.

So maybe we shouldn’t expect non-social accountants to be at the cutting edge of social media.  Never-the-less, surveys have repeatedly shown that for those accountants who use social media, LinkedIn is overwhelmingly the favorite platform.

LinkedIn has for six months been letting users endorse their 1st degree connections for skills. Viewed by some with skepticism, the endorsement feature is being used at an increasing rate.  Over the past few months I’ve received a few e-mails alerting me to a new endorsement I’ve received.  Finally reaching a critical mass, my curiosity is piqued.

ProfAlbrecht is endorsed for accounting, college teaching, and blogging.

I’ve received 70 total endorsements, with 52 in the most popular categories for the 14 skills I list.  The skills for which I am most frequently endorsed seem to describe me well.  I am an accounting professor who writes about accounting, so being endorsed for accounting knowledge is appropriate.  I’m very good at helping students learn, so an endorsement for college teaching fits.  And because my two blogs (The Summa and Pondering the Classroom) have totaled more than a half million reads, being endorsed for blogging seems right.

Receiving an endorsement is a good thing, I think.  And I appreciate every one.  They can only come from people who know you the best.  Most LinkedIn users seem to be stingy in issuing endorsements.  If the endorsements come from a large enough group, they are reliable measures (in a similar fashion to IMDB film ratings).

Ever keen to understand how my world actually works, I did a bit of research.  Although I could have selected professors or bloggers as a reference group, I decided to select professional accountants.  I’m a member of Social CPAs, a LinkedIn group.  I fairly randomly selected 20 members of the group.

This group seems to be active in LinkedIn usage.  11 of the 20 have more than 500 connections in their network. Six have between 250 and 500 connections, and three have less than 250.

Only 14 out of the 20 list any skills.  The groups of 14 with skills and 6 without seem similar in terms of number of connections.

For the 14 who show skills, the median number of skills listed per person is 14 (minimum = 8, maximum = 49).

For the 14 who show skills, the median number of endorsements is 102 (minimum = 6, maximum = 330).

For the 14 who show skills, the most endorsed skill has received a median value of 19 endorsements (minimum = 2, maximum = 104).

I think the LinkedIn endorsement feature has enormous potential to validate your brand.  It seems to have done a fine job in validating who I am. Please leave a note if LinkedIn endorsements seem to be working for you.

For more information on LinkedIn endorsements, Forbes writer Susan Adams has written an article, “Everything You Need to Know About LinkedIn Endorsements.”

How often are different subgroups of accountants using LinkedIn endorsements?  What do the accountant users of endorsements think of the new feature?

Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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Architects More Social than Accountants

I’m an accountant.  I prefer numbers over people.  I look at my own shoes while walking and talking.  When talking with HR specialist Julie Brown, I had not a clue about what is meant by, “The human side of accounting.”  And, hey, I’m social.

Well, maybe not, after using pronoun numero uno five times during the preceding paragraph.

But accountants are social, correct?  Tom Hood and Bill Sheridan keep writing about the need for Maryland CPAs to get more social.  Michelle Golden has directed her career toward helping CPAs and firms to become more social.

Apparently not.  A recent infographic by Brian Leman of Hinge Marketing compares a few social media usage statistics:

The long and the short of it is that architects not only use more social media, they think it’s more important.

Accountants, rate more highly the effectiveness of LinkedIn.  This makes sense, as LinkedIn is the most data oriented social media platform.

What is this infatuation with infographics, anyway?  The accountant’s aptitude test has two items on it:

1. Do you prefer numbers over words? [Correct answer = numbers]
2. Do you prefer words over graphic images? [Correct answer = words, but it’s close]

Debit and credit –  – David Albrecht

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Miscellany

Miscellany — interesting items that caught my eye during the week.

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Jonathan Weil shows why he is one of the premier journalists writing about accounting in, “Goldman Sachs Envy Gains New Meaning at Big Four.”  Weil shows several examples of the revolving door between the large accounting firms and their regulators on the PCAOB.  There are stinky conflicts of interest.

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Adam Jones, accountancy correspondent for the Financial Times, writes about new KPMG International chairman Michael Andrew in “KPMG vows to remain a multi-disciplinary firm.”  In this interview, Andrew ridicules all non-Big 4 accounting firms,

He also lashed out at a Commission proposal to force the Big Four to share some audits with smaller rivals. “Can you imagine a second-tier firm auditing a global bank at a time when there is already a lack of confidence in the marketplace?”

He added: “They simply don’t have the skills or the market expertise.”

He also accused some smaller rivals of being “quite lazy” about investing in their businesses.

Mr. Andrew is a jerk.  But Steve Martin was funnier at it.

Jones has another story on the issue, “Auditing has moved into the realms of sitcom.”  It’s worth a read.

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Stephanie Sammons, of Social Media Examiner, writes about, “5 Simple Steps for Improving Your LinkedIn Visibility.”  Read it.  Do it.

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Tom Selling is terrific when he writes about IFRS adoption issues, as he does in, “Will the SEC Sneak IFRS in Through the Back Door?”  Selling is sounding more pessimistic about how the nefarious SEC might sneak in IFRS, despite all reason and common sense (as well as almost every accountant and investor) being against it.

I have little faith.  The commissioners of the SEC are political appointees, and Mary Schapiro has been a willing accomplice to Obama administration policy.  She has her marching orders to install IFRS, and she is loyal to the hand that feeds her.

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Mark Schaefer of {Grow} has another post out on Klout, “Kould Kare Less.”

His Klout score is high, but he doesn’t care.  Mine isn’t, and I don’t care either.  Yet, many do.

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Debit and credit – – David Albrecht

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LinkedIn for Accounting and Business Students

This article has been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Business Education.

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[Abstract]

LinkedIn is a social media application that every accounting and business student should join and use. LinkedIn is a database of 90,000,000 business professionals that enables each to connect and interact with their business associates.

Five reasons are offered for why accounting students should join LinkedIn. This is followed by 11 hints for use.

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How College Students Should Use Linkedin

My day job is being an accounting professor.  I teach financial accounting and cost/managerial accounting in equal measure.  This fall, I’ve had the most unusual teaching assignment, a class titled Social Media, Blogging and Business.  Having to teach the class has made me more aware of potential social media uses by students.

I recommend that students use Linkedin to professionally present themselves via social media.  Simultaneously, I recommend that students don’t use Facebook (or use Facebook only under a pseudonym).

Why?  As future professional and possibly future leaders, students should be concerned with their brand image.  There is no way to control it with the informality and personal revelations of Facebook.  However, it can be proactively managed on Linkedin.

Once a student has signed up for an account at Linkedin.com, the fun can begin.  Here are ways to take advantage of Linkedin’s many features.

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