Let’s Talk About LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn is one of the best places for you to showcase the professional that you are.  I often tell my audiences that one of the reasons that LinkedIn is so important to your success is because Google is so twentieth century.  When someone Googles your name they see a lot of information and some of it may not show you the way you would prefer.  By creating a robust LinkedIn profile you can present yourself in the most favorable light while increasing your visibility, showcasing your credibility, gaining clients or locating and securing your next position. 

You have the ability to allow people to write Recommendations for you on your LinkedIn profile.  This is a good thing.  A very good thing.  Of course you paint yourself in the best light when you create your LinkedIn profile.  You’re biased because you’re you.  By having people who have done business with you write testimonials regarding their experience of working with you, your credibility and viability increase dramatically.

Having trained thousands and thousands of people and hundreds of companies on the most effective uses of LinkedIn since 2004, I have seen a lot of LinkedIn profiles.  Most people are not leveraging the Recommendation section of their LinkedIn profile anywhere near what they could be doing.  I actually had someone bring to my attention recently that I have more Recommendations on my LinkedIn profile than anyone else on earth.  I didn’t believe them so I did a little research.  I found out that not only do I have more Recommendations than anyone else; at 740+ Recommendations I actually have more than double the number of Recommendations of any of the other 75,000,000 people on LinkedIn.
This serves me very well and I’m suggesting that adding Recommendations to your profile will result in greater success for you.  This is also another reason why you should connect with current and former coworkers, clients and networking partners.  These folks are in a position to comment on their experiences of working with you.  And you control what gets posted on your profile.  If for some reason you would like them to modify their Recommendation you can request it.  You can also delete the Recommendation completely if you choose. 

In a more and more competitive business world, having the ability to have other people describe the positive outcomes they have had in working with you can be a game changer for you, your career and your business.  All things being equal, people do business with and refer business to people they know, like and trust.  By having Recommendations on your LinkedIn profile you significantly increase your “know, like, trust factor”.  Most people spend inordinate amounts of time trying to realign the planets and solve business Rubik’s Cubes when in reality their businesses would be transformed if they increased their Know, Like, Trust Factor.