The use of LinkedIn by the Top 100 Accountancy firms in the UK

1. LINKEDIN PARTICIPATION BY THE TOP 100 ACCOUNTANCY FIRMS IN THE UK
At the end of last year, we carried out a review of the use of LinkedIn by the top 100 firms of
accountants in the UK as listed by Accountancy Age. The purpose of this research was for our
own internal use but we feel it is now worth sharing with a wider audience.
We set out to answer three questions:
1. Do accountants participate on LinkedIn?
The majority of the Top 100 has a strong and increasing presence on LinkedIn. Few have no
individual or company profiles.
2. Are accountants using LinkedIn Company Pages?
There is a disappointing lack of use of the Company Page feature with limited summary
information and almost no use of images and pictures
3. Is there an understanding of company Following?
The numbers show that companies do not understand the concept of following on LinkedIn.
This is not limited to just the accountancy profession.
DO ACCOUNTANTS PARTICIPATE IN LINKEDIN?
The starting point in our research was to look at the number of employees with LinkedIn profiles
linked to the largest 100 companies. A summary of the numbers is set out in the table below.
The largest 6 companies with over 10,000 employees have been separated out as their numbers
bias the band averages. The remainder has been grouped in bands according to their numbers of
employees.
As at end Nov 2010 As at end July 2011 No. of firms in Group
Average number of LinkedIn profiles
Largest 6 firms 39,714 53,126 6
Percentage of employees on LinkedIn No. of firms in Group
1,001-5,000 25% 31% 4
501-1,000 18 21 5
201-500 27 27 18
51-200 25 33 45
11-50 35 39 10
Alterra Business Consulting Ltd Registered office: 40 Lemsford
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Registered in England & Wales No.5355720 Welwyn Garden
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2. There are 7 companies with Company Pages but no employees on LinkedIn and 5 companies
which have employees with profiles but no LinkedIn Company Page. The figures mask some
omissions where employees have connected themselves correctly to their company and also
where Company Page administrators have failed to remove rogue employees and leavers have
failed to remove themselves from their previous company.
In addition, there are firms of accountants with several company pages, particularly the larger
firms who have an international presence and firms with subsidiaries and complex corporate
structures.
So, broadly speaking about a third of all employees in the Top 100 have a LinkedIn profile and
there has been a 16% increase in the number of employees in this population in line with the
14% in LinkedIn membership in the UK in the same period. 11 firms have doubled their
numbers on LinkedIn and only 6 have seen a fall.
ARE ACCOUNTANCY FIRMS USING LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGES?
At the beginning of 2011, LinkedIn introduced the section on the LinkedIn Company Pages call
Products and Services. This offers the opportunity for companies to create a ‘website-like’
profile with descriptions of all their services, supported by images, videos, and links back to web
pages. The profile can be tailored to 3 different audiences depending on the characteristics of
the person visiting the company page.
The main move by LinkedIn is in recognizing that companies want to have ‘corporate’ as well as
individual recommendations. It is also the only place on LinkedIn where a company can have a
free advertisement. Take a look at the Dell’s company page for an example. Company pages are
searchable and are therefore indexed by the search engines forming another strand to SEO.
Looking at the Top 100, 72 companies had NO products and services on their LinkedIn Company
Page. The table below shows the details:
No. of Products & Services on No. of Companies with No. of Companies with
LinkedIn Products & Services Banners and no. of banners
1 6
2 1 1 with 1 banner
3 2
4 1
5 5 1 with 1 banner
6 2
7 4 1 with 2 banners
8 2
9 2
11 1
17 1 1 company with a video
Alterra Business Consulting Ltd Registered office: 40 Lemsford
Village
Registered in England & Wales No.5355720 Welwyn Garden
City
Herts AL8
7TR
VAT Registration number 994 6462 64
01707 373138 | 07947 502760 info@alterra-
consulting.co.uk

3. 21 1
Clearly, there are missed opportunities for companies to promote themselves further. This part of
LinkedIn also gives companies an opportunity to have a changeable area on the internet where they
can display events, special offers and news.
ARE YOU FOLLOWING YOUR COMPANY FOLLOWERS?
There is often a misunderstanding of the difference between ‘connecting’ and ‘following’ on LinkedIn.
When you ‘connect’ with an individual you see their update stream and can view details of their profile.
‘Following’ happens either in Groups or Companies. Following a company means that the LinkedIn user
sees company updates but not employees’ updates. You can follow 1,000 companies.
Clearly, if someone is following your company, it is sensible to visit their profile to assess if someone
should connect with them. Set out below are the statistics for the 88 companies with Company Pages.
Number of LinkedIn Company followers Number of firms
Over 100 11
76-100 5
51-75 8
26-50 39
0-25 25
The key piece of advice here is to share your company page with all your connections and to ask them to
follow the page so they are kept informed about news in your Company.
And finally….
We will be carrying out further research in the coming months to support the LinkedIn strategy and
training Alterra undertakes and this will include an analysis of the LinkedIn Activity of the largest firms.
Feel free to get in touch with comments and suggestions.
Amanda Brown BA MSc DIC
Director
Alterra Business Consulting Ltd Registered office: 40 Lemsford
Village
Registered in England & Wales No.5355720 Welwyn Garden
City
Herts AL8
7TR
VAT Registration number 994 6462 64
01707 373138 | 07947 502760 info@alterra-
consulting.co.uk

4. August 2011
Alterra Business Consulting Ltd Registered office: 40 Lemsford
Village
Registered in England & Wales No.5355720 Welwyn Garden
City
Herts AL8
7TR
VAT Registration number 994 6462 64
01707 373138 | 07947 502760 info@alterra-
consulting.co.uk