There is no more essential tactic for growing a CPA firm than networking. Most accounting professionals already recognize this and have already sharpened their networking skills. Sadly for numerous accountants there is still a bit of a break between these businesses and the benefits of using a selection of online tools. Though there are benefits from every social networkon the web, from Facebook to Twitter, you won't find one more marked than "LinkedIn", a business-centric, "professional" social networking website, founded in 2003 by Reid Hoffman.

LinkedIn is not unlike Facebook in many ways in that it offers profiles, status updates, and groups, but stresses less on your "social" and more of your "professional" life. Instead of your connections sharing pictures of their cat, the focus is on employment, networking, references, and virtually anything else you'll need in the business world.

This is reflected in your profile, which is dominated by your current employers, and expanded on further down by descriptions of your experience, past and present, recommendations from clients and coworkers, and a personal "summary" where you can highlight your specialties. You can also include your website, Twitter, and even any instant-messaging handles you may have at the bottom.

Once you have all this filled in (LinkedIn will give you a percentage-to-completion box on the right side, indicating how ready you are to get out and start networking), you're free to start connecting with contacts, requesting recommendations, and joining groups. One of the nice things about LinkedIn is that it's like a dynamic resume—constantly updating and showing up-to-date progress, while providing an ever-changing face for potential clients.

LinkedIn provides many opportunities, but it requires your involvement to work.

The key, says Barry Macquarrie, "is participation". Macquarrie, who is director of technology at the KAF Financial Group, recently posted a blog on CPA2Biz outlining seven essential LinkedIn activities. His first four activities are fairly straightforward. They basically cover the process of setting up a complete profile, keeping your status updated, and connecting with your clients and employers. The other three are more involved, such as joining groups, which will allow CPAs to interact with those they share interests with, sharing links, and following other companies and competition.

In addition, Macquarrie has also provided a list of the sort of groups CPAs should join, such as those maintained by their company, competition, and practice. His own group, SocialCPAs, as well as those of AICPA, the State CPA Society, and the International CPA Association, are also good bets.

You already see the significance of social networking. If you want to compete in the current market you shouldn't let the benefits proffered by online networking sites slip by, and LinkedIn is very likely the appropriate place to start. There's no telling how far it can take you, and like most new technologies it's the people that adopt it first that will benefit the most from it.