Key Features of Great LinkedIn Recommendations
27th Jul 2021
LinkedIn recommendations have the power to make a significant difference to your online reputation and personal brand. More importantly, great recommendations can make a positive impact on your prospects as a candidate. However, the value of those recommendations often depends on the quality of those recommendations and who writes them.
We’ve gathered a few helpful tips on how you can help boost your credibility and reinforce your professional reputation with great LinkedIn recommendations.
Timeliness
• When finishing a specific role, ask for LinkedIn recommendations from your manager, close colleagues or clients who can provide a positive comment about your contributions and accomplishments to the business, task or project.
• Harrison Knowles, Executive Consultant at Pivotal London says, “I typically approach candidates and clients that we have worked on a successful, or particular interesting project. If I have done my job well, and we have a solid, honest and mutual partnership with them, it usually isn’t a big ask.” Harrison recommends asking your chosen person on completion of a project. “So, that might be after a candidate has started, or a few months after settling in to the role. On the candidate side it is usually it is based on their own personal LinkedIn updates and when they are ready to publicly announce the move. I'd like to think it makes my profile stand out to other professionals in my field.”
Approach
• Harrison suggests keeping your request for a recommendation, short and to the point.
For example: “Thanks for all your hard work on the recent project. I was wondering if you would be able to write me a short recommendation? As I am sure you can understand, it goes a long way in our industry. Anything would be much appreciated.”
Quality over Quantity
• Be selective with who you choose to write a recommendation. Having too many LinkedIn recommendations can often dilute the power of each one. You should also take into consideration how many LinkedIn recommendations are shown on your profile. Depending on the device you’re on, sometimes only the most recent ones are immediately visible.
Detail Orientated
• Ask for an evidence-based recommendation. Some LinkedIn recommendations are often too vague. For example, “Sarah was a pleasure to work with and got the job done.” While this is a very positive recommendation, it has already lost its impact as it lacks detail. Recommendations that highlight specific achievements or how the individual has helped the organisation/other people holds a lot more value and gives prospective employers an idea of what the candidate would potentially be able to do for them.
• Make sure the reference is clear and isn’t too long, because the other issue has to do with the nature of information overload. Whenever you overwhelm someone with too much information, they often get lost in the details and don’t walk away with clear takeaways.
Return the Favour
• Finally, don’t forget to return the favour after receiving a recommendation, if you have an opportunity!
LinkedIn recommendations certainly stand out. If a candidate has a number of great recommendations, it shows that people enjoy working with them, and it’s likely that your future employer will like working with them, too!
If you need support with your job search and currently looking for a new job within the digital marketing and media space, Pivotal London would love to help you. Get in contact with our team here or browse all of our live vacancies here.