Do you want to influence people who read your profile? Those people could be hiring managers, recruiters, potential employees, or colleagues. They all read your recommendations to learn what others think about you and your work. Today, many employers can use these statements and assessments instead of formal references. That’s how powerful they are.
I repeatedly hear what Susan, a director at a large Tech company, said to me: “I always look very closely at LinkedIn recommendations. It can be quite enlightening. In fact, I like to see a pattern about someone with several comments, which can confirm that this is an excellent person to hire.” Most people overlook this essential section, forget about it, or have not had anyone recommend them in recent years. Do pay attention and ensure these postings make you shine when anyone reads them.
I was working with a career client named Michael, a Marketing Director who had never seen a need to be on LinkedIn until he was given a severance package and laid off. He began his job search and realized he needed a good LinkedIn profile highlighting his personal brand and accomplishments. However, he made a common mistake. When it came to recommendations, he had none. Michael asked, “I heard it was important to have recommendations posted on LinkedIn. I don’t have any, so how would I get one?” Excellent question. What Michael didn’t ask me was if there was an easy way to get these recommendations. The answer is yes. And it is equally important to shape what the person says about you.
Formula To Get An Excellent Recommendation
Everyone who comes to your page pays attention to your recommendations. These come from people who have worked with you and outline your performance and abilities. Recommendations are pure gold, as they live forever on the profile. You want to acquire these and keep some recent ones on your profile. Many people who set up LinkedIn years ago need to update these. Others have none at all. Recommendations are crucial to your career. It’s critical to note that only your LinkedIn 1st connection can write and post a recommendation about you.
LinkedIn’s built-in tool only allows you to formally request one recommendation at a time. You don’t want to get stalled waiting for someone to respond to that LinkedIn request. Here is the most effective way to get several excellent recommendations.
Start with your top connections. Identify bosses, coworkers, clients, people you supervised, or vendors who will say great things about you. Since these are tied to when they knew you, seek a few at your current job level. The goal is to get at least five recommendations up on LinkedIn. This is a case of the more the merrier. Decide on seven to eight connections to ask since not everyone will follow through.
Write a recommendation on their profile page first. Everyone is happy to get a recommendation. The system automatically tells the connection they have a new recommendation and asks if they want to return the favor. This nudges the person to write one for you. Cover your bases. Be sure to tell the person yourself that you posted it and ask them to return the favor. Ask correctly. Email is the better choice, but LinkedIn messages may be your only option to reach them. Either way, make this process easy for your connection to do.
The objective is to get a more influential recommendation that discusses some results you delivered or a key strength you used and how the organization benefited from it. You don’t want a generic or typical comment such as “Dan is a great guy” but says very little else. Shape your request by saying: “Sarah, could you take a couple of minutes to write me a recommendation? I’d really appreciate that. Can you mention XYZ?” Then write two to three sentences Sarah can copy and quickly paste on your LinkedIn profile adding a few words of her own. The more specific you are, the better the recommendation will be. Ask different people to write a recommendation targeting various accomplishments and talents. This way your LinkedIn profile provides a much more rounded picture of who you are.
By making the process easy, Sarah is highly likely to comply. If you ask for a recommendation with no “help,” meaning she needs to craft it from scratch, that request is time-consuming and can go to the bottom of her to-do list or be forgotten.
A Choice
LinkedIn recommendations remain on your profile forever. Suppose you get a lukewarm, too generic, or irrelevant recommendation. You approve any recommendation before it’s posted. This allows you to control the quality of anything said on your profile. Also, review the ones you already have. Some may have been written years ago and are not relevant now. You can delete these. Use your best judgment to be sure these support a positive, impressive picture of you whenever someone reads them.
Be Sure To Thank Them
All favors should be acknowledged with a personal and private thank you—no posting on your feed. Instead, send an email or private LinkedIn message.
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