October 8, 2024

As the largest professional networking site in the world, LinkedIn is an essential tool for establishing your brand and growing your career. LinkedIn recommendations are one of the many features it provides and are important because they build credibility for your profile. These recommendations from coworkers, supervisors, or business partners help to provide others with an indication of your ability, work ethic, and professionalism. Today through this blog we will see why LinkedIn recommendations are important and how you can get more of them which helps in enhancing your professional portfolio. Why LinkedIn Recommendations Matter 1. Boosts Credibility and Trust A strong LinkedIn recommendation acts as social proof, validating your skills and traits with the voice of other people. A recommendation from a trusted source to future hiring managers, agency recruiters or potential clients will validate you are suitable for the role. Think of them as a testimonial or letter of recommendation that proves your success, for current job searches and future career advancement. Also Read: 10 Tips for Building a Strong LinkedIn Network 2. Boosts Visibility on LinkedIn Search LinkedIn supposedly considers recommendations in the algorithm for the search ranking of profiles. When employers, recruiters, or clients are searching for someone with your skills in your local area using LinkedIn Recruiter search, the top results will be the profiles most relevant to their interests. Profiles with multiple high-quality recommendations are prioritized when surfacing these results This kind of visibility can provide a massive advantage, especially in well-known industries. 3. Validates Your Skills On LinkedIn, you can note skills within your profile, but a recommendation provides proof. This gives the potential new employer some actual examples about where you demonstrated these skills in a professional setting. For example, if your profile says you are a good leader, then someone can post about a project where they saw those leadership qualities. Having this context makes you more concrete and credible to anyone reading your profile. 4. It expands your network of professionals Asking for and providing recommendations also creates and maintains relationships in your professional connections. Also, writing a relevant recommendation for another person could make that person feel more connected to you and it works the other way around too. You also may be able to keep yourself in the back of your network people mind so when opportunities arise in a year or two, you are first on their list. How to Get LinkedIn Recommendations on your Linkedin Profile? 1. Choose The Right People To Ask The first thing you do is decide who to ask for recommendations! These could be: This means you should pick people who have seen your work in person and can specifically list what your skills are exactly. Basically, you want people in your industry/profession who are weighty opinion-holders to recommend. Pro Tip: If you are relatively new in your field, try speaking with a mentor or someone who understands your work. You do not have to use your boss; use anybody who can speak on your behalf with authority. 2. Personalize Your Request Never send generic messages whether you are asking for a recommendation. By customizing your request, you demonstrate that you put some thought into it and can make the recipient more likely to say yes. Highlight which of your skills or projects you want them to emphasize, and how you worked together normally. People might write, for instance, instead of Can you write me a referral Consider this approach: “Hey [Name]– hope all is good with you. Right now, I’m going through my LinkedIn profile and I was wondering if you could write me a recommendation? It was fantastic partnering with you on the [specific project] and if you can note my competencies/specific contribution. Thank you for asking, realize it almost might!! This type of message contains more introspection and is, therefore, much more likely to get a positive response. 3. Make It Easy for Them Chances are pretty good that your fellow co-workers and bosses are busy, so help them out when asking for a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. You can mention that you are happy to draft an outline or bullet points for them to expand upon. This way you are more likely to get the type of recommendation that showcases your strengths, and it will be easier on them because they will know what you want. Don’t overlap and write the entire recommendation in a scripted way. Just offering to remind them of the main value you delivered may be beneficial without sounding like you are shaping the narrative. 4. Reciprocate the Gesture To Them A great way to get recommendations is to first offer them. If you’ve had a positive experience working with someone, take the initiative to write them a recommendation. Not only is this a kind gesture, but it also increases the chances that they will return the favor. When writing a recommendation for someone, focus on their strengths and provide examples of how they excelled in a specific situation. Detailed, thoughtful recommendations are always appreciated and more impactful than generic praise. 5. Send a Follow-Up Reminder In some cases, people will not respond back to you on the first attempt, and that is perfectly okay. A gentle reminder could then be sent two weeks later. A reminder of your request that shows your appreciation for the time they took to consider it. For example: Hey [Name], I understand you are a very busy person but wanted to follow up and if sometime in the week or two, will you be able to write that recommendation I mentioned earlier. Thank you so much for all your help! They recognize that you respect their time, but it also serves as a gentle reminder of what you asked for. 6. Be Grateful If someone has gone through the effort to write a recommendation for you then make sure you thank them, both privately but more importantly publicly too if it is appropriate. You can thank