Many leaders in business valuation have resisted belonging to an “industry”—foremost among them Shannon Pratt (SPV) (who scolded the BVWire editor, back in 2006, for putting BV in an industrial category). As Pratt once wrote, in one of the very first issues of BVUpdate: “All readers of this newsletter can contribute to a mission that I view as very important: make the legal profession more aware and appreciative of the business valuation profession. Compared to many other professions such as law, accounting or even real estate appraisal, business valuation is both a relatively young and relatively small profession.”

Have times changed? “I have noticed that many of my fellow BV practitioners select accounting, management consulting, or financial services” as their industry affiliation on LinkedIn, says Sean Hayes in a current group posting (membership required). That’s not accurate, he believes, because “we are not auditors, nor McKinsey type C-level strategy management consultants; nor are we financial advisors (i.e. stocks, bonds, retirement planning, college planning, 401(k), etc.).” To make up for the omission—and bring BV current, at least in terms of social media—Hayes suggests following his lead and emailing LinkedIn to request that it add a new industry, "business valuation." Just go to your LinkedIn homepage and at the very bottom, click on "send feedback" to convey the request.