Use LinkedIn Recommendations to Build Credibility

Recommendations are some of the most powerful factors that influence a buyer or employer’s decision to do business with an individual or business entity. LinkedIn realizes this, and has created the LinkedIn Recommendations section to highlight a user’s existing connections that can vouch for his or her professional capabilities.

The people you have already worked with in the past can become valuable references to your professional skill and talents. LinkedIn Recommendations allows these references of yours to personally voice their experiences with you on your profile. This makes it a much easier for your potential clients or employers to verify your capabilities, since the contact details of your recommenders, as well as their feedback about you, are available on LinkedIn.

So how exactly does LinkedIn Recommendations work?

1) On the right side of profile you’ll see a link called “Manage my recommendations.” Click the tab “Request Recommendations.”

2) From the dropdown menu you must select the company where you worked with or for the person who is recommending you. If you were hired as a freelancer or as a consultant, you can select your own company

3) Select who will write the feedback for you. It doesn’t have to be one of your supervisors. LinkedIn Recommendations considers feedback from all directions of the corporate ladder. Consider getting some feedback from your peers on the job, as well as any other subordinates you have worked with in the past.

4) Send a personal note to your reference. Do not use the default text for requesting a reference. Adding a personal touch, such as reminding the person of your work together, is more likely to elicit a good recommendation.

Keep keywords in mind when formulating a personal note to your reference. If, for example, you’re a copywriter, you might request a recommendation about your copywriting skills in order to ensure your chosen keywords will pop up a few times in the recommendation.

Focus on quality, not quantity. LinkedIn requires a minimum of 3 recommendations for your profile to be picked up by the search engines, so have at least 3.

The recommendations of colleagues and business partners will carry more weight than what you say about yourself on your profile. So track down the best recommendations you can gather.  If you are not happy with what someone wrote for a recommendation, you can ask for  changes. If you are still not happy with it, you have the option of deleting it from your profile.

 

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