Have you ever received a request for recommendation on LinkedIn from someone that you barely know? What did you do? How did you respond? Have you ever asked for a recommendation in the same manner?Recommendations are an exceptional way for an individual to gain credibility based on the integrity and advocacy of another individual. Think of the recommendation like references that you might use in a job search or when promoting your company, a past employer or a customer agreeing to promote you if someone calls.
How many recommendations are best? Well how many references do you offer to a prospective employer or customer? More is not always better. Often the more references that you offer the more your really good ones will be diluted. Since LinkedIn does not give a cumulative rating such as the star system on Amazon and Yelp a few really good recommendations will always trump 100 mediocre recommendations.
Who should you ask for a recommendation? Only people who know you well. It is critical that any tool that you use to promote your credibility be trustworthy. The world always discovers the pretenders. One challenge of social media is that users can mistakenly assume a different set of etiquette than they would use in person. Just think about who you would ask to be a reference.
Helpful tip. The best way to get recommended is to recommend others. Don’t wait to be asked. Be an advocate for the people who you know well and who have WOW’d you.
While it is great to be recommended by many people and LinkedIn certainly makes that easy, it is important to seek quality over quantity.
No comments:
Post a Comment