Linkedin Recommendations – How to Give and Get Them

Recommendations are similar to offline references and will give your Linkedin Profile credibility (as long as they are genuine). Another reason you need recommendations is that your Linkedin Profile is not 100% complete without at least 3. Here are some tips on giving and getting Linkedin Recommendations.

How to ‘Give’ a great Linkedin Recommendation

You only have to write 2 or 3 short sentences, but:-

1. Be concise, don’t waffle. Short and to the point, people are busy.
2. Be personal, include the contact’s name. Write the recommendation in third party as if you were talking to the proposed reader. Eg Bill Smith is a xxxx, he xxxx etc.
3. Be specific, detail why you are recommending them and include figures where appropriate eg ABC Pty Ltd contracted Bill Smith to implement sales and marketing strategies. Bill’s approach helped us increase our sales by xxx etc.
4. Be truthful, don’t do fake recommendations. Linkedin users aren’t push overs, they will spot an insincere recommendation a mile away.
5. Be relevant, stick to the contact’s area of expertise and add value to they professional profile. This means don’t go including details about how Bill Smith can eat a pie in under 10 seconds, unless his area of expertise is ‘gluttony’.

The recipient of your recommendation will be asked if they want to ‘recommend’ you in return. Now in theory this is great, however, don’t make all your recommendations a tit-for-tat, encourage people you work for to give you a recommendation, no strings attached.

How to Get a Great Recommendation

Now, most people you work for may be too busy to do the whole Linkedin Recommendation – fill in the form thingy, so, if you feel comfortable, you could forward them a ‘Request Recommendation’ and make a suggestion on the wording they could use. If you tell them that you appreciate they are busy and that you have completed this step for them, I am sure they will be very grateful for the assistance.

“Hi Bill, I am updating my LinkedIn profile, and I’d be honoured if you would post a Linkedin Recommendation for my work with you over the past 5 years. I know you’re busy so I have jotted down a couple of points that you could include. The recommendation only needs to be a couple of lines. I remember you saying that after I mentored your sales team of 20, their results had doubled in just one quarter. This is really great news and would be ideal to include in the recommendation. I really appreciate your time with this. Kind regards Jill”

Remember: Linkedin Recommendations are like fine wine, you don’t need a lot, it’s all about the quality and effect.

Sample of an effective Recommendation:-

Jill Jones has been contracted by Bill Smith Pty Ltd on 3 separate occasions over the past 5 years to conduct in house sales and marketing training for our team of 20. Jill has an uncanny ability to deliver her knowledge in a very effective manner. After her mentorship, our team doubled their sales results in one quarter. I would certainly recommend Jill for sales and marketing training.

Hope this helps… Feel free to send me a Linkedin Recommendation http://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyraiteri