Get More Recommendations on LinkedIn
If you’ve spent some time building up your LinkedIn profile and duly nourished the garden of your connections, it may be time to start reaping some benefits from your work.
One characteristic of a really great LinkedIn profile is recommendations. These are particularly valuable to potential employers cruising your profile, trying to get a sense of you are beyond what is written on your resume. Testimonials from current or former co-workers and supervisors about the kind of worker you are and the value of the work you do often speak as loudly as your credentials themselves.
Before you go too far you’ll want to learn what makes a recommendation good, better, and best. Read a few recommendations on the profiles of your connections and note what you like about them. While you are reading, make a mental note of who in your network has given and received more than a handful of recommendations. These connections are more likely to respond to your request for a recommendation using the LinkedIn platform since they have already been through it once. It isn’t difficult, but for people who are only occasional users it can be a hurdle to overcome.
Recommend Others
One of the best ways to get more recommendations on your profile is to go out and offer your recommendation to others. Now that you know what to include in a great recommendation, chose a few people in your network to recommend. You can do this without being asked, and the recipient will have to approve what you write so it is not at all intrusive. When you send a recommendation, remember to use the same care with spelling and grammar that you would with your own resume. You will often find that people you recommend are more than willing to return the favor.
Identify Connections and Ask
Once you are familiar with what you are asking others to do, choose a few connections to ask for recommendations. Remember that recommendations on LinkedIn can come from all levels – don’t rule out co-workers and people who have worked for you. Ideally you will want a supervisor’s perspective included as part of the whole-picture view of your work that your recommendations will represent. When you make the ask, explain how you are using LinkedIn and why you think recommendations are helpful in your profile. Identify a project or experience that you shared with this connection to help him or her direct their comments. Finally, consider reaching out to the person offline or some other method outside of LinkedIn before you ask. Not everyone is as well connected to their LinkedIn profile as you are!
Michelle St. Onge
