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How to Get LinkedIn Recommendations

TLBurriss Recommendations

LinkedIn recommendations

Yes, some consider them better than silver and gold.

LinkedIn Recommendations are the new testimonials or reference letters. They are beneficial not only in career transition but also as a form of validation from peers for business opportunities.

Don’t misunderstand the benefits of LinkedIn Recommendations.,  use LinkedIn Recommendations properly and your Most Important Viewer, ie target audience (current and future) will get a better understanding of your potential from them.

Here are two things you should never do with LinkedIn Recommendations:

  1. Send out messages asking everyone you know to write a LinkedIn recommendation for you. You must be purposeful about this activity.
  2. Reciprocate to anyone who writes a LinkedIn recommendation for you, unless you can clearly and honestly recommend them for a specific reason, task or accomplishment.

I  recommend the following steps to get real and worthwhile LinkedIn recommendations:

  1. Create a list of business partners & clients who know you for a specific task, project or service you performed which created business value for them. These folks have to be your LinkedIn connections, so if they are not, work on connecting with them first.
  2. Write down the task or project that you performed which provided them a specific value or benefit. Consider areas of work that are relevant to what you do now, not in the past, except where relevant to what you do today. It’s a waste of time asking for LinkedIn recommendations for work that is irrelevant to who you are today.
  3. Write down as many specifics as you can. Try to be very clear.
  4. If at all possible, list the financial value of this work, product or service.
  5. Include the period in time and any other information that relates to the value of your work, product or service.
  6. Send a LinkedIn Recommendation request to each individual where you did a project, task or service that created value. Use your primary keywords in the request. Consider the recommendation request example below:

“Dear Steve, please think back to last month when we worked on the Sales Process design project together. When we finished you told me the work I provided your company thru managing and documenting all of the details of the processes helped you save nearly $3,000,000 in staffing costs because your staff’s productivity soared. You thought that my project management professionalism and documentation skills were key to this work. Would you honor me by recommending me on LinkedIn regarding this specific project and the savings your business created from the work I did?”

Repeat this step for each person on your list with the specifics of each business involvement.

The easiest way to start a LinkedIn Recommendation Request is from your LinkedIn Profile under Add Profile Section.

Follow the screen prompts to select the LinkedIn Connection you want to request a LinkedIn Recommendation from, your relationship to that person and then the message you want to use to request the specific recommendation.

 

Do not send out more than 1 or 2 each week. Maximum!

When you receive a LinkedIn Recommendation, via LinkedIn Message you are obligated to review it for accuracy and quality. If your recommender made a mistake you can “request a revision.” Be specific about the request for modification.

Mix it up when requesting and accepting recommendations so that you get a good mixture of different areas of your business and client types.

Providing LinkedIn Recommendations:

Don’t respond back to a LinkedIn Recommendation with a reciprocal recommendation. You will need to be confident you can provide an honest and meaningful recommendation for the other person.

LinkedIn no longer broadcasts new LinkedIn Recommendations in the newsfeed. The value of recommendations is to your LinkedIn Profile and the indexing of the keywords in the recommendations.

If you do want to recommend someone, treat them with the same respect you wanted to be provided. Ask what area of business would they like you to recommend them for, and if you can speak to this activity and want to provide them a recommendation do so. Otherwise, don’t.

You are not obligated to accept all LinkedIn Recommendations.

Manage your LinkedIn Recommendations from here: (Access from the recommendations section of your LinkedIn Profile.)

You can Show or Not any recommendation.

You can request a revision if spelling or grammatical issues. Rewrite it and send the revised text to help your connection with this process.

Treat your LinkedIn recommendations like Gold. You’ll get a great ROI from doing this task when you do it different & better than the average LinkedIn member.

If you want more help with your LinkedIn Profile, let’s talk  – info@BurrissConsulting.com or 336-283-6121

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