Leverage Linkedin Recommendations to Boost your Reputation

After working on way too many Linkedin profiles over the past 15 years for entrepreneurs and professionals from a variety of industries, I found they all have one thing in common: they were not leveraging the recommendation feature on Linkedin to boost their credibility and reputation. They all had great work experiences but no one to testify in their favor, at least on their Linkedin profiles.

Imagine you are choosing between two different products or services you haven’t tried before. Wouldn’t you appreciate to find a couple of reviews that would help you make an informed decision? Wouldn’t it make it easier to choose among the different available options after reading two or three testimonials from previous “clients”. Something similar happens on Linkedin when we are able to see several recommendations on someone’s profile.

How many recommendations should you have on your profile?

Experts say you should have at least one recommendation per job experience you’ve held in the past. If you’ve had three different work experiences over the past 10 years, you should have at least three recommendations on your profile, one for each role.

However, if you have been for the past 10 or 15 years in the same company or the same role, I would suggest for you to get one recommendation for each three years. At the end of the day, it is really probable that you’ve met a lot of people within all those years and maybe you had different supervisors, managers, clients or colleagues that would be happy to put in a good word for you, especially if you’ve maintained a good relationship with them.

Asking for recommendation should become a habit

The same way certain companies continuously ask for our feedback, we should make it a habit to ask our clients, supervisors or even our colleagues to provide us with some feedback in writing, that would help us build credibility around our professional experience in the present and the future.

It is much easier to get a recommendation when someone is excited and happy to be working with you. When you are receiving praise for a job well done, that is the perfect moment to ask for that written recommendation. Do not wait until you’re about to start looking for new job opportunities or unemployed.

Tips to request recommendations on Linkedin

Tip #1: Remember to make a good impression

Update and make sure your Linkedin profile looks super professional. Remember about the importance of making a good impression online as well as in the offline world.

Tip #2: Identify the best candidates to request your recommendations

Lookup the profiles of the people that you would like to receive a recommendation from and make sure to select the “Request Recommendation option out of the dropdown menu that comes out of the More button from your contact’s profile.

Tip #3: Personalize the message of your request

After you establish the relationship you had with this person during a specific job role you held, make sure to personalize the message of your request to give this person a hint about what you’d like this person to focus on when they write the recommendation. This is crucial.

If you don’t provide any direction to your contact, they may find it difficult to know even where to start or they may write something so general that doesn’t support your professional objectives. Instead, make sure you provide them with some guidance about which areas out of your professional experience you’d prefer they’d focus on. Let them know what the recommendation is for, specifically what kind of new opportunities you’re looking for.

Tip #4: Follow up

Once you’ve sent your recommendation request, don’t just wait for it to appear someday magically on your profile. You must follow up. Sometimes the people you’ve sent the request to, don’t even see it after many days or even weeks later. Make sure you’ve talked to them about it and they’re expecting it.

Asking for a recommendation does not guarantee that you will get one. For this reason, my suggestion is for you to ask as many people as you could think of because chances are that out of five request you’ll receive just one, two or three perhaps. If you get five out of five you’re a rockstar!

Tip #5: Review your received recommendations

Once you receive the recommendation, you’ll have the opportunity to review it and decide whether you approve it to be shown on your profile. This is the next to last step in the process.

If you feel the recommendation is too general, and you feel comfortable asking, don’t be afraid to ask this person if they could be a little more specific about something in particular. I know this is hard but it’s better to ask than to stay with a way too general recommendation that you wouldn’t even want to approve to have it shown on your profile.

Finally, make sure to thank this person for taking time out of their busy schedule to write this recommendation for you.

Don’t stop there!

Whenever you sense an opportunity to ask for a new recommendation, go ahead and do so. It’s so much better to have plenty of recommendations to choose from. In addition, you may start replacing some old and vague recommendations with more recent and specific ones that would better serve your future career objectives as you continue evolving professionally.

My challenge for you

Challenge yourself to get at least one or two recommendations during the next week and start strengthening your profile and adding credibility to whatever you say about yourself on your profile by having others confirm and serve as living proof that you are everything you say you are.

If you’d like to receive feedback on your Linkedin profile and start getting better results on this platform, please go ahead and Schedule a FREE session to discuss your professional goals and share my observations about your profile.