This article was prompted by a connection who was wondering what else they could be doing with the great recommendations they get on LinkedIn.
There was some concern that although this person is a very genuine person and not one for exaggeration they feared it was going to be seen as bragging.
It got me thinking.
I certainly think from a personal branding perspective recommendations are underutilized and I would offer probably rarely read because they are so way down the profile.
So what can be done in an authentic way to get some more mileage from these?
Here are some thoughts;
1. I always recommend taking the best one or two and pasting them into the Summary or as its called now the About section. With so many, you could rotate two new ones every month and then add new ones as they come in.
2. Take a recommendation each week and make it a post in your newsfeed with some context to the type of work you were doing. Use the recommendations first that are most relevant to the work you want to attract or be known for. Tag the person who recommended you in the post. Rinse and repeat.
3. Take a recommendation each week (in different order to the above so all your social media posts are not the same in the same week) and make them posts on your other social media in a similar way, linking people back to your LinkedIn profile, perhaps inviting them to connect or if you don’t want a huge network to follow up on LI. On other social media, you could make the posts more interesting with an image, perhaps the recommenders headshot from LinkedIn for example.
What do you do with your recommendations?
Related articles that might be of interest;
How to get great recommendations in the first place – Finally, Building Your Personal Brand Through Great Recommendations – Problem Solved
Think in a similar way with honours and awards – Why Displaying Honours and Awards is Not Bragging, It’s Good Personal Branding
Gratitude goes a long way – 3 Ways to Say Thanks on LinkedIn, Any Time