Philip Calvert, founder of Social Network, explained the importance of making the most of LinkedIn and social media at the IFP Accredited Firms Conference on Thursday.
Mr Calvert, a professional speaker who helps Financial Planners with their social media skills and strategy, told delegates that LinkedIn is "not a job site".

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He said: "LinkedIn is all about identity and reputation, networking, connecting people, building a network.
"There's all that data sitting on there now, it's a phenomenal service to use. These (social media) tools, and in particular LinkedIn, are there to help facilitate relationships with people. It's about building the perception of trust and professionalism. You get leads if you have got a decent online profile on LinkedIn."

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Some 98% of his consultancy work comes through LinkedIn rather than his own website, he revealed, saying this illustrated what a vital tool it can be if used efficiently.
Among the statistics he used to demonstrate the significance of LinkedIn, was that there were 5,300,000,000 searches on the site in 2012.

LinkedIn is visited by more computers at home than at work and more than 40% of Linked in users earn more than £100,000, he said. He stressed that a fully completed profile is vital. He also emphasised how useful writing blogs on LinkedIn can be for generating interest, saying it had "spectacular effects".

Among the key pointers he suggested Financial Planners follow were:

- Writing 12 key words summing up expertise
- Putting these key words into a top 5 and then placing these into each every section of the LinkedIn profile to immediately make a dramatic difference to visibility
- This includes putting keywords under name
- Anyone with an unusual name should put the common misspellings of their name in their profile
- Put LinkedIn address in business email signature
- Put a great photo on the profile
- Make use of the awards section of the profile to show visitors all relevant awards
- When someone has looked at your profile send them a message to thank them for looking and say something like 'I hope something caught the eye'

Talking about social media more generally, he said that visits to these websites have risen to the same levels as search engines, again illustrating their importance. His message, he said, was that social media is at heart of finding professional connections on the internet.
He told delegates: "Social media is just software powered by people. We have got to take this stuff seriously. Some people will say Twitter is nonsense and trivial but it's not, it's serious now."