One of the goals for any professional (e.g., accountants and lawyers) in any online marketing campaign should be to gain “expert status.” Because we as tax professionals deal in the intanigible — information and knowledge — it is crucial to “package” ourselves in a way that relates to current and potential clients.

One of the best ways to do this is to provide guidance, or as I would prefer to express it, “shed SOME ligt on the subject without giving away the complete answer.” After all, knowledge is power money. You, after all don’t want to give away the cow, just some milk.

LinkedIn has provided an opportunity to do just that with their Questions and Answers area

You can browse through Open Questions as well as through different categories — One of which is Finance and Accounting. It is important to note that many of the questions are asked by folks who are already in your general industry. However, the questions usually focus on some specific area within that industry … an expert’s area.

Some of the questions include:

• If annual reports contained EEOC statistics, what would we learn about most companies?
• Know a good accountant in St. Louis, MO who has experience working with early-stage start-ups?
• I would like some information on how to do accounting for businesses out of my geographic reach, can i log in onto the client’s computer to update / maintain their accounting records?
• Can you help me to connect with CPAs or other financial services professionals in the New York metro area or Florida that service small business clients?

By participating in such an envoronment, you are connecting with othe like-minded people, creating a network of contacts, and perhaps getting some great information for your own website (see 8 Reasons Why Client Questions Make Great Blog Content by the Blog Squad).

Wendy Maynard @ Kinetic Ideas makes an excellent point:

“People don’t buy things. They buy solutions to problems; they want to fulfill a desire or meet a need. To market your business effectively, you have to KNOW your target audience and what problems they face. In your marketing efforts – whether written, online, or in person – you should be able to provide your audience with a solution that is specific and directly benefits them…AND you should care about their problem.” — Hat Tip to Michele Golden at Golden Marketing for pointing Wendy’s article out.

I recently joined Facebook. It has now become part of my daily routine to check out what friends are up to, try out new Facebook applications, and just generally grow my online presence and community. They constantly push the boundaries – and no one can say they’re boring. Facebook is the only pure social network I actually use regularly.A year ago they were a hot startup, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted just how much they were to grow (in size and mindshare) in 2007.

 If you come across a story you like, you can “Digg” it, by clicking a link at the end of the story. The power and popularity of Digg comes from the fact that the more people who “Digg” the same story, the higher that story will rise in the popularity. Other Diggers can read and comment on it. While comments can often becomje rants and self-promotion, they still serve as an excellent barometer of the issues Web surfers are most interested in. It was announced recently that Digg and Facebook will collaborate.

LinkedIn is not a cute or sexy site …. what it is is a business-oriented network. LinkedIn has over 12.5 million users and is growing at a rate of approximately 200,000 per week. Being “uncool” may be the way to go for professionals such as accountants, lawyers, architects, etc. With nearly half of LinkedIn’s users are over 34, the target is sometimes classified as the “non-myspacers.” Check me out at:

Thanks to Matt Homann for this tip …

Extra credit

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.

LinkedIn is an online network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 130 industries.