Choose wisely, grasshopper: Deciding whom to recommend

Go through your contacts and make a list of the people you want to recommend. As you build your list, consider recommending the following types of contacts:

• People with whom you’ve worked: We’re not going to say that personal references are worthless, but they tend to ring hollow next to specific recommendations from colleagues and clients. Business recommendations are much stronger in the LinkedIn context. Your recommendation is rooted in actual side-by-side experiences with the other party, you can be specific regarding the behavior and accomplishments of the other party, and your examples will probably be appreciated by the professional LinkedIn community at large.
• People you know well: You may choose to connect with casual acquaintances or even strangers, but reserve your personal recommendations for people with whom you have an established relationship (friends and family). Remember, you’re putting your reputation on the line with recommendations. Are you comfortable risking your rep on them?

Recommend only those people whose performance you’re happy with. We can’t say it enough: Your reputation is on the line. Recommending a doofus just to get a recommendation in return isn’t worth it! Here’s a great question to ask yourself when deciding whether to recommend someone: Would you feel comfortable recommending this person to a best friend or a family member? If not, you have your answer.

When you complete your list, you’re probably not going to write all the recommendations at once, so we suggest copying and pasting the names in a word processing document or a spreadsheet so that you can keep track as you complete them.

Look right here: Making your recommendation stand out

Keep the following in mind when trying to make your recommendation stand out from the rest of the crowd:

• Be specific. Don’t just write that the person you’re recommending is great. Instead, mention his specific strengths and skills. If you need help, ask him whether he can think of any helpful elements you could highlight in your recommendation.
• Talk about results. Adjectives and descriptions are fluff. Clichés are also useless. Tell what the person actually did and the effect it had on you and your business. It’s one thing to say, “She has a great eye,” and another to say, “The logo she designed for us has been instrumental in building our brand and received numerous positive comments from customers.” Detailed results make a great impression, from the scope of difficulty of a project to the degree of challenge the person faced.
• Tell how you know the person. LinkedIn provides only two basic overall categories to represent your relationship to the person you’re recommending: professional and education. If you’ve known this person for 10 years, say so. If she’s your cousin, say so. If you’ve never met her in person, say so. Save it for the end, though. Open with the positive results this person provided, or the positive qualities the person exhibited in your interaction; then qualify the type of interaction.
• Reinforce the requestor’s major skills or goals. Look at her profile. How is she trying to position herself now? What can you say in your recommendation that will support that? The recipient will appreciate this approach. For example, if you read her profile and see that she’s focusing on her project management skills as opposed to her earlier software development skills, your recommendation should reinforce the message she’s trying to convey in her profile.
• Don’t gush. By all means, if you think someone is fantastic, exceptional, extraordinary, or the best at what she does, say so. Just don’t go on and on about it, and watch the clichéd adjectives.
• Be concise. Although LinkedIn has a 3,000-character limit on the length of recommendations, you shouldn’t reach that limit. Make your recommendation as long as it needs to be to say what you have to say, but no longer.

Don’t be afraid to contact the requestor and ask for feedback on what you should highlight in your recommendation of that person. He knows his own brand better than anyone, so go right to the source!

Creating a recommendation

Now you’re ready to write your first recommendation. To create a recommendation, first you need to pull up the person’s profile:

1. Click the My Network icon in the top navigation bar of any page.

2. When your network page appears, click the See All link under the Your Connections header.

   Your list of connections appears.

3. Select the person you’re recommending.

   Your recommendation goes directly to that person, not to prospective employers. Any prospective employer who wants a specific reference can request it by contacting that person directly on LinkedIn.

4. Visit the profile of the person you want to recommend.

Before you write up your recommendation, review the person’s experience, summary, professional headline, and other elements of his profile. This helps you get a sense of what skills, attributes, or results should be reflected in your recommendation. After all, if the person you want to recommend is trying to build a career as a finance executive, your recommendation will serve him better if you focus on finance instead of his event planning or writing skills.

After you inform yourself a bit more about the person and have thought about what you are going to say, you can get your recommending groove on. Follow these steps:

1. Click the More button below the person’s profile picture, and then click Recommend in the drop-down list that appears.

   The Write X a Recommendation page appears, as shown in Figure 4-3.

2. Define your relationship:
   1. Under Relationship, define the basis of the recommendation. You have several options, including whether you were a colleague, client, or supervisor.
   2. Define the other person’s position at the time. Select at least one position that the other party held. You can enter only one recommendation per position, but you can recommend the other party for multiple positions.
   3. Click Next.

3. In the text box shown in Figure 4-4, enter the text for your recommendation.

   Throughout this chapter, we stress staying specific, concise, and professional while focusing on a person’s results and skills.

   The recommendations you write that are accepted by the other party appear also in your profile on the Recommendations tab. Believe it or not, people judge you by the comments you make about others, so read your recommendation before you post it and look for spelling or grammatical errors. (You may want to prepare your recommendation in a word processing program so you can use its spelling and grammar checks, and then cut and paste your newly pristine prose.)

4. Click Send.

   The recommendation is sent to the recipient.

   After you send your recommendation, the other person must accept it before it’s posted. Don’t take it personally if she doesn’t post it, or at least not right away. After all, it’s a gift, freely given. The primary value to you is in the gesture to the recipient, not the public visibility of your recommendation. And if she comes back with requested changes to the recommendation, by all means accommodate her as long as it’s all true and you feel comfortable with it. It’s a service to her, not you.

Choosing whom to ask

Request recommendations from the same people you might write them for: colleagues, business partners, and educational contacts. The only difference is that you’re looking at it from his point of view.

Relationships aren’t all symmetrical. For example, if someone hears us speak at a conference and buys this book, that person is our customer. Our customers know our skills and expertise fairly well — perhaps not on the same level as a consulting client, but still well enough to make a recommendation. We, on the other hand, might not know a customer at all. We’re open to getting to know him, and are willing to connect, but we can’t write a recommendation for him yet.

Creating a polite recommendation request

When you identify a person whom you want to write your recommendation, you’re ready to create a recommendation request. To get started on authoring your request, follow these steps:

1. Click the Me icon, on the top navigation bar, and then click View Profile.

2. Scroll down to the Recommendations header, and click the Ask to Be Recommended link (to the right of the header).

   The Ask for Recommendations box appears.

3. Enter the name of the first-degree connection:
   1. Below the Who Do You Want to Ask? header, start typing the name of the first-degree connection, as shown in Figure 4-5.
   2. When the name appears in the list, click it.

4. Define your relationship with the person in the drop-down boxes provided, as shown in Figure 4-6, and then click Next.

   Similar to the process of writing a recommendation, LinkedIn asks you to define the basis of your relationship with this person (Professional or Educational) and your position during the time when the other person is basing her recommendation of you.

5. Type your message in the field provided.

   The same etiquette is recommended here as in other requests: Don’t just accept the boilerplate text that LinkedIn fills in, but rather customize it to create a personal note, as shown in Figure 4-7. You can customize only the body of your message.

   Don’t forget to thank the person for the time and the effort in leaving you a recommendation!

6. Check your spelling and grammar.

   You can write your message first using a program such as Microsoft Word, run the spelling and grammar check, and then cut and paste your message into the space provided, if you like.

7. Click Send.

   The recommendation request is sent to the intended recipient.

Giving people some context as to why you’re making the request helps motivate them, especially if they’re nervous about or don’t know how to use LinkedIn. Let them know you’re available for any technical or follow-up help. Also, even though you should be asking only people who would be comfortable recommending you (you are, aren’t you?), you still want to give them a gracious way to decline. After all, you’re asking a favor. The person you’re contacting is in no way obligated. Don’t expect anything, and you won’t be disappointed.

There’s no such thing as too many recommendations as long as the quality is good. However, if you start accepting mediocre recommendations (on the assumption that “something is better than nothing”), people will start to think that a lot of them are fluff. LinkedIn doesn’t give you control over the display order, either, so you have all the more reason to make sure that the recommendations displayed are good quality.

Editing or removing recommendations you’ve made

To edit or remove a recommendation you’ve made, follow these steps:

1. Click the Me icon, on the top navigation bar, and then click View Profile from the drop-down list that appears.

2. Scroll down to the Recommendations header, and click the pencil icon (edit) to the far right of the header.

   A Manage Recommendations window appears, containing all the recommendations you’ve received or given as well as pending requests.

3. Click the Given tab.

   All the recommendations you’ve made are listed in reverse chronological order, as shown in Figure 4-8.

4. To change the visibility of a recommendation:
   1. Click its Visible To X link. The screen updates and displays three options you can assign for the recommendation’s visibility, as shown in Figure 4-9.
   2. Make your selection. You can choose Only You, Your Connections, or Public. If you change to Only You or Your Connections, you’ll be limiting who can view the recommendation.

5. To delete a recommendation, click the Delete button.

   LinkedIn will display a message box asking you to click Yes to confirm the recommendation removal.

6. When you’re finished, click the Save button to save your changes.

Handling new recommendations you’ve received

When you receive a recommendation from someone, you see it on your Recommendations page, under the Received tab, with the You Have X Pending Recommendations link. Click that link to read the full text, as shown in Figure 4-10.

When you receive a recommendation, you have these options:

• Add it to your profile. Click the Add to Profile button to add this recommendation, as stated, to your profile.
• Get rid of it. If you aren’t happy with the person’s recommendation or aren’t interested in having the recommendation in your profile, click the Dismiss button. If you want, you can send the person a brief note explaining why you’re not adding the recommendation to your profile or requesting changes.
• Ignore it. Until you take action, the recommendation is pending and will not appear in your profile. Perhaps you don’t want the recommendation to become visible until a certain event happens, such as applying for a different job. You can return to this screen at any time to add the recommendation or ask for changes.

Removing or requesting to revise a recommendation

To remove a recommendation you’ve received or to request a revision, do the following:

1. Click the Me icon, in the top navigation bar, and then click View Profile in the drop-down list that appears.

2. Scroll down to the Recommendations header, and click the pencil icon (edit) to the far right of the header.

   The Recommendations page appears.

3. If necessary, click the Received tab.

   Doing so takes you to the Recommendations You’ve Received page.

4. Scroll down the page to find the recommendation in question.

5. To remove a recommendation, change the slider (on the right of the recommendation) from Show to Hide, as in Figure 4-11.

   Your recommendation will be hidden after you complete this process. At any time, you can come back to this window and change the slider from Hide to Show, to return the recommendation to your profile.

6. When you want changes made to your recommendation:
   1. Click the Ask for Revision button (just below the recommendation you want to revise). A message to the other party appears, as shown in Figure 4-12.
   2. Write your message. Detail what revisions you would like the person to make, such as adding specific details, including or removing a certain project, or highlighting previously unmentioned skills you now need to help make a career change.
   3. Click the Send button to send the message.
7. To save your choice, click the Save button at the bottom of the box.

Negotiating the social graces concerning recommendations might feel awkward at first, but with practice you’ll quickly become comfortable. By both giving and receiving good recommendations, you’ll build your public reputation, increase your social capital with your connections, and have a good excuse for renewing relationships with people you haven’t contacted recently.