Social media was a key theme on the final day of the IFP Conference on Wednesday with a popular session by Philip Calvert from IFA Life.

The session in the ‘All About Your Brain’ track was focused on the power of usin LinkedIn – described as “Facebook for business people” - in Financial Planning.

Introduced by Financial Planner Tina Weeks, whose profile appears on the LinkedIn Financial Planning section front page,  Mr Calvert said the most important thing Planners could do to utilise LinkedIn was the use of keywords.

Users should select 10-12 keywords such as Financial Planning, tax, inheritance and IFA which they should then spread around their profile.

They should also use a professional photograph and even change their name from the automatically-designated one to maximise their keywords.

Another tip was interacting with other users of the site. This could be done by sending personal messages thanking people for looking at your profile and answering questions asked by other users.

He gave the example of Martin Bamford’s firm Informed Choice as a firm who had built up a significant online presence by answering user questions.

He said a major negative on the site was to promote products or services as users don’t want to be sold things.

For all users, the most important thing to remember was that “people want to buy you not your products and services.”

LinkedIn is an online networking resource which enables users to make professional connections.