The importance of recommendations on LinkedIn

As a career coach, I work with clients going through transition each and every day. I also spend a lot of time on LinkedIn to ensure my clients can maximise their online brand by having an effective (and active) LinkedIn profile.

As I work with my clients, I note that they rarely have recommendations from others on their profile (or if they do, they are outdated and/or irrelvant).

The absence of recommendations means that literally everything written on our profiles is self-report...A professional autobiography if you will. Naturally enough, we present our 'best selves' on LinkedIn, largely without any external validation.

Yes, endorsements of skills provide some balance in terms of input from others about who we are professionally, however, it only involves a click of a mouse button, so it's hardly the strongest endorsement of who we are professionally.

Recommendations are literally written references on your LinkedIn profile. Most importantly they provide necessary 'balance'. Not only are we presenting our 'best selves', but others are validating this as well.

Furthermore, our recommenders have to take some time to write about us and to validate that we have certain skills, knowledge or expertise. In doing so, they are also putting their professional brand on the line!

Who can you ask for recommendations?

You can only ask for recommendations from your 1st-degree connections, or those you have formally connected with. Like references, they can be from people you have worked for, key stakeholders, external parties like customers and even staff if you have held senior roles. Very often, your recommenders and also your referees!

I generally advise my clients that the more renowned or respected your recommender, the better. For example, if you are a marketing professional and your recommender is a well-known, influential marketing professional, that likely carries more weight than a recommendation from your lunch buddy from your last organisation!

How can you ask for recommendations?

LinkedIn offers 3 ways to obtain recommendations:

1. Go to your 1st-degree connections profile page, and click on the 'More...' button underneath their headline.
2. In the recommendations section towards the bottom of your profile, click on 'Ask for a recommendation'
3. Click on the 'Add profile section' button beneath your picture on your profile page and select 'Additional information'

In each situation, you are then directed to the following screen:

Simply type in your 1st-degree connections' name and you are then taken to this screen:

Select the 'Relationship' (e.g. Worked in same group, client) and your 'Position at the time' (which are those listed on your LinkedIn profile). Then hit 'Next' and you are directed to the following screen:

Now, please don't rely on the verbiage helpfully included by LinkedIn! If I was to send this message unedited, (a) I would not be surprised if Paul did not respond ('Lazy sod could not even be bothered to personalise his note!'), and (b) I'm not helping him to craft a worthwhile recommendation. As LinkedIn says, 'Include a personalised message with your request.' Therefore, I'd would add something like this in the image below:

Clearly, this helps my recommender provide a suitable recommendation! I am helping them to help me. In the absence of this prompt, the individual is left to ponder what they can actually say. In other words, there is no harm in coaching or directing the individual about what you want them to say in the recommendation. It makes it easier for them, and also ensures you get a relevant recommendation with the impact and professional positioning you desire.

Once I've completed this bespoke request, I would then 'Send' the request to my recommender, and he would be notified of the request accordingly. He would then write the recommendation, send it back to me, and assuming there are no major grammatical or spelling errors (and they have included the item I've prompted them on), I can then 'show' the recommendation on my LinkedIn profile.

How many recommendations do I need?

At a minimum, two. Why? Well that's all that shows on your profile in the provided space. Viewers of your profile can click on 'Show more' to see more recommendations, but logically, given peoples' limited time (and inclination), only the most recent recommendations will be viewed. Recommendations will show on your profile per the image below:

So, how important are recommendations on LinkedIn? Very important! They provide balance to an otherwise unilateral view of ourselves as well as an online validation of who we are professionally by those who know us best.

#linkedin #recommendations #onlinebrand

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Paul Di Michiel is an experienced global HR executive and more recently career coach. If you would like assistance with your LinkedIn profile, either individually or for your team, don't hesitate to contact me. More information about me can be found on my LinkedIn profile, or my website.

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