This article actually covers a piece of research we did here at Passle and talks about accountants being baffled with social media.  Professionals are often told that they should "be using" social media.  So they set up a LinkedIn account and upload their CV and they connect with a few university friends and colleagues; maybe the odd client.  They then set up a Twitter account and really struggle to know what to do.  They tweet about their stale pain au chocolat and then let the account lie dormant.

That is where the importance of content comes in.  If the accountant has a piece of content they have written themselves about their area of expertise then they have something relevant to share to their networks and they feel very much empowered to do so.  What then happens is that people interact with the content.  They retweet it, like it, comment on it.  The accountant can then reply to those comments and all of a sudden they are leading the conversation, the debate.  They are being seen as the thought leaders.  When that happens, then you get invited to talk at the event, you get quoted in the newspaper and ultimately you start winning new business.