9/6/15 - The Best Way To Request And Receive LinkedIn Recommendations
by William Arruda
http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2015/07/14/the-best-way-to-request-and-receive-linkedin-recommendations/
We all know that testimonials can be powerfully persuasive. And we’ve all experienced the effect of one of the newest forms of testimonials – LinkedIn recommendations – but the protocols for obtaining them can be confusing. In this post, I’ll share my proven process for requesting and receiving recommendations on LinkedIn.
Let’s start by understanding why they are so important.
Your Digital Profile
Your virtual brand has become crucial as the world has moved online. Thanks to a concept called Digital First (coined by Mitch Joel in his book Ctrl Alt Delete) your online profile almost always delivers your first impression. So when someone wants to learn about you, they will put your name into Google (Google has 67% of the search engine market share) and see what comes up. That digital first impression of you is hard to change, even after they meet you in person.
Measures Of Online ID
Those who are researching you will evaluate your Google results based on the five elements of digital branding: volume (how much content is there about you?), relevance (is the content consistent with what they expect/need?), purity (can they determine what content is about you vs. others who share your name?), diversity (is all your content text-based or is there multi-media?) and validation (do others confirm your self-pronouncements?).
The Importance Of LinkedIn
Great news! When someone googles you, your LinkedIn profile will likely show up at the top of the search results. This is great because your audience will read your profile even if they don’t look for it directly on LinkedIn. And even better news! Thanks to recent significant feature enhancements, your LinkedIn profile supports all five measures of online banding.
Recommendations Are Powerful
Your LinkedIn recommendations support the fifth element of digital branding – validation. They confirm what you say about yourself in your profile. Most of your profile is you talking about you – who you are and what you have done. Recommendations give you the opportunity to have others reinforce your claims.
An excellent bonus is that your recommendation shows up on the profile of the person who provided it (under Recommendations: Given). Plus, the content of those recommendations becomes searchable text – connecting you to people who need what you have to offer.
The Four-Step Process For Requesting Recommendations
Now that you’re inspired to enhance your profile with recommendations, it’s time to strategize so that you can make the most of them. Because recommendations are so visible, you can’t afford to take a scattershot approach. Here’s my process for asking for recommendations and adding them to your profile:
1. Develop Your Plan
Before reaching out, you need to prioritize. Look at all the things you have accomplished, examining the roles you have had through internships, boards, and even volunteer work (essentially all the content blocks in your LinkedIn profile). Make a list of all the people who witnessed your work. Seek to identify those who meet these criteria:
They are thought leaders, known in your industry or function
They work for companies or organizations that are respected and revered
They have an impressive title (CEO, SVP, Founder, etc.)
Then prioritize. You will want at least one recommendation for each LinkedIn Experience entry – paying the most attention to your most recent roles.
2. Ask
When you are ready to reach out, don’t do so directly through LinkedIn. Instead, send a message from your email account asking if it is OK to request a LinkedIn recommendation. This will:
make it more likely that you will get a recommendation. Often people ignore the messages that come from LinkedIn.
give you the opportunity to influence what your reference says. In your email, tactfully include the words and concepts you would like them to include, and offer to supply a rough draft.
Here’s an example of what this email might look like:
Hello Ellen,
I hope all is great with you. I would like to reach out to you through LinkedIn to request a recommendation for the work I did when I was when I was on your team. The projects you assigned me allowed me to be the most creative I have ever been in my career. I am so appreciative of the opportunity you gave me to lead and manage others – it was a valuable growth experience for me.
I know you are really busy, so I’d be happy to send you a draft recommendation you can edit (or of course, just ignore).
Thanks in advance for your support.
Of course, be authentic. Don’t suggest phrases that are not accurate or that your reference would feel uncomfortable saying. As with all things related to personal branding – authenticity is essential.
3. Send The Request
When you receive a “yes” to your email, reach out through LinkedIn.
In your profile, scroll down to Recommendations and click on “Ask for a recommendation.”
Choose the role for which you want to be recommended.
Identify the person you want to recommend you (from your connections). You can add up to three people, but it’s best to only include one person, customizing each request.
Identify your relationship to them and what their role was at the time.
Write your message. In the message you send, include your draft for them to edit (unless they ask you not to send one). Even if they ultimately decide to start from scratch, reading your draft will likely influence their content.
After you receive the recommendation, you can decide whether accept it and add it to your profile. Repeat this process for the people on the prioritized list you prepared in step 1.
4. Send Thanks
For many recommendation providers, your request is a big ask, so it’s important to express big gratitude. When we sign our name to something that becomes public, we spend time on it. And many senior leaders are inundated with requests like these. I suggest going beyond an email thank you. Send a snail-mail note or an e-card, or a small gift that will be appreciated.
That’s all there is to it. When you get the right recommendations from the right people and add them to your profile, you’re putting yourself in good company – while sharing compelling evidence of your talent.