How To Get Great LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn is the best social media platform to present your professional history along with endorsements.  No matter what line of work you’re in, having glowing recommendations throughout your profile will serve you well. For example, when a client or potential employer asks you for references you can point them to your LinkedIn profile.

All Recommendations or Endorsements Are Not Created Equal

The best LinkedIn recommendations are ones that offer specific results or tell a story of transformation. To request a LinkedIn recommendation you must be connected to the person you want to receive it from.

Also, that means, it’s not about getting large numbers of random recommendations. Rather, you ONLY want to ask for recommendations and/or accept recommendations from those people who have ACTUALLY experienced your services and/or quality of work in a positive way. In other words, please do not ask everyone you are connected with for a recommendation.

Manage Recommendations

From your profile recommendations section, you can use the request a recommendation link to send an email to an existing connection requesting they recommend you. This is your opportunity to turn your LinkedIn profile into what I call your power resume! LinkedIn has a great feature that allows people you are connected with to endorse you.

A stream of positive, glowing recommendations can be an excellent catalyst to new jobs, new clients, new traffic. It’s super-important to get them from your LinkedIn connections who also have great recommendations. So be selective… sure, recommendations are recommendations, but ones from people with credibility carry a lot more weight – so start with them!

And yes, you may have to summon up a little courage to ask for a recommendation. It’s the pinnacle of shameless self-promotion, asking someone to say nice things about you in public. But it has to be done!

How To Guarantee You Get A Great Recommendation

When asking for a LinkedIn recommendation, customize the message with specifics on how you want your contact to recommend you. In fact, make it easy and write it for them and let them know they can adjust it as they want. This will ensure you get more than just the “he/she did a good job and is very easy to work with.” In fact, you are guaranteed to get that killer recommendation only if you write it.

Not sure what to write? Do a short poll of your closest friends & colleagues – ask them first, and ask them to list what they view as your best qualities and strengths, or for brief examples of how you may have helped them. (There, you just got some testimonials, wasn’t that easy?)

Also, think about what you helped your client or colleague accomplish. After all, results based recommendations are the strongest endorsements.  Did you go “above and beyond”? Is there something you did for this client no one else in your industry does? Did they make a comment of praise along the way, that you can incorporate?

My Killer Recommendation Formula

When drafting your killer LinkedIn Recommendation, include these important keys:

1. Mention your positive character traits (friendly, high integrity, caring, listens well, great teacher, etc.)
2. Share specific results and/or a the change that your service or product produced
3. Mention a problem everyone looking for your product/service has, that your contact overcame by using your product/service

Format For Writing A Killer Recommendation

A great format for such recommendation includes:

1. The state they were in or the problem they had before using your service,
2. The positive experience they had while working with you,
3. The results they produced.
4. A statement “I would highly recommend ___ to anyone who wants ____.”

Sample of a Great LinkedIn Recommendation

Here’s an example of a great recommendation I wrote to endorse a professional organizer I worked with:

“Before working with Sandra Ateca, my office was truly chaotic and I was overwhelmed and struggling with how to keep track of all the papers and projects I regularly manage. With her calm objective perspective and expert knowledge, Sandra put together some simple, yet highly customized organizing solutions for me.

The most important benefit I’ve received by working together with Sandra over time has been the life long lasting organizing skills that I now use every day. Her words of wisdom influence my decisions daily, and as a result my office, projects, and corresponding paperwork are easy to manage.

Thanks to Sandra I never loose phone numbers or papers, and I know exactly where to find my most important project information. If you want to be more productive and cut out the clutter completely from your office, hire Sandra immediately. Her services are well worth the success you will achieve with her customized systems.”

How To Ask To Be Endorsed (with your pre-written recommendation)

When sending the recommend request include a statement like the following:

Dear ____,

I’m sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work that I can include in my LinkedIn profile.

It would be great if you could include examples of results you received as a result of working with me.

To make this easy for you, here’s a possible draft… feel free to edit this or create your own…

[insert your draft of the recommendation]

Thanks for your help.

To view more sample recommendations, feel free to view the various ones posted on my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurarubinstein

Share your killer recommendations and tips below.