I met one Allen Blue, one of the founders of LinkedIn, at the Association Digital Now Conference last April and was fascinated with how he was positioning the company to help professionals. He said they had identified five universal needs of business professionals. I think he is right.

Here are the top five things every CPA needs to be good at:

1. Staying up to date in your profession.
2. Managing your career (yep, you have to take charge of your own career).
3. Doing the work (research, productivity, communication).
4. Interacting with your peers and colleagues.
5. Becoming a leader in your field.

So what?

Allen will tell you that LinkedIn can help you in all of these areas. I think social media tools, including LinkedIn, can greatly enhance your productivity in these five areas. Start learning today at our self-guided learning site, www.cpalearning2.com,

You can watch Allen's presentation here,

Want to learn more? Join us for our webcast Web 2.0, Less Hype, More Help on Friday, Aug. 14 from 12:30 to 2:20 p.m. ET featuring our own Bill Sheridan.

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