Today, LinkedIn serves as a resume and as a lead generation, sales, marketing, and branding tool. When used consistently and proactively, it can be a key part of your brand and your personal brand’s digital presence. And when you get more recommendations on LinkedIn, you build your credibility and network.
Just to clarify, on LinkedIn, recommendations are personally written notes that talk about the author’s experience with you. They’re not to be confused with endorsements, another feature of this professional networking site. Endorsements are just a one-click sort of thumbs-up agreeing that you have a skill you claim on your profile.
Recommendations from people who’ve worked with you or bought from you are meaningful testaments to your trustworthiness and capabilities. They give other users insights into your strengths and offer the reassurances that come from social proof. In other words, they’re a compelling way to convince people to network with you, to purchase from you, or to hire you if you’re in the job market.
So, it’s well worth a little time and effort to get more recommendations on LinkedIn. It’s an important part of creating a profile that stands out in the crowd and that works hard in your favor.
How to Get More Recommendations on LinkedIn
- Directly ask current and former CEOs, managers, and other supervisors for recommendations
- Directly ask current and former co-workers or partners for recommendations too; posts from bosses are impressive, but often, the people you work alongside every day have the best insights into your strengths and the most to say about them
- Directly ask current and former customers, clients, or vendors for recommendations
- Don’t overlook those you’ve volunteered with when coming up with a list of people to approach
- Follow these instructions for requesting recommendations from your connections to reach out to a broader base of your connections, and always include a personal note
- Request that people address particular details so you don’t end up with a bunch of generic recommendations that don’t offer any insights, that all sound the same, and that aren’t compelling or even necessarily believable
- Space out your requests for recommendations, as they’re date-stamped when published; it looks more natural if you don’t get a lot of them at the same time
- Don’t overdo it; if you have dozens of recommendations, people are less likely to read them and the overall effect becomes diluted, so seek them out from those who will write something of value
- Try to get perspectives from a diverse group of professionals with varying relationships to you
- Write thoughtful, detailed recommendations for others you know
- Never ask anyone you don’t actually know for a recommendation on LinkedIn
