At some point, an employee, coworker, or contractor is going to ask for a LinkedIn recommendation. After all, with LinkedIn becoming increasingly important in the recruiting and hiring process, having recommendations on your profile is important. LinkedIn recommendations are a natural evolution of references and letters of recommendation. However, they often are more credible than these traditional documents because it is harder to fake a recommendation on LinkedIn than it is to forge a letter. Since many companies are restricting reference checks to verification of title and dates of employment, a LinkedIn recommendation from a supervisor, coworker, or customer carries weight.
Writing LinkedIn Recommendations
Before you write anything, take a look at your contact’s LinkedIn profile. Align your recommendation with the individual’s LinkedIn profile. Tie in what you write with their headline, summary, and/or experience — reinforce the qualities they want to emphasize in the recommendation you write. Look at the existing recommendations they’ve received too.
Some things to consider:
What are they good at?
What did they do better than anyone else?
What impact did they have on me? (How did they make my life better/easier?)
What made them stand out?
Is there a specific result they delivered in this position?
What surprised you about the individual?
In general, you will want to showcase transferable skills, because these will be the most relevant for your contacts when they are using LinkedIn for a job search or business development.
Here is a simple formula:
Start with how you know the person (1 sentence). For example, “I’ve known Amy for 10 years, ever since I joined XYZ Company. She was my lead project manager.”
Be specific about why you are recommending the individual (1 sentence). What qualities make him or her most valuable?
Emphasize what the person did that set him or her apart. What is his work style? Does she have a defining characteristic? To be effective, recommendations should focus on specific qualifications.
Tell a story (3-5 sentences). Back up your recommendation with a specific example. Your recommendation should demonstrate that you know the person well — so tell a story that only you could tell. And provide “social proof” in the story — give scope and scale for the accomplishments. Don’t just say the individual you’re recommending led the team — say he led a 5-person team, or a 22-person team. Supporting evidence — numbers, percentages, and dollar figures — lends detail and credibility to your story.
End with a “call to action” (1 sentence). Finish with the statement “I recommend (name)” and the reason why you would recommend him or her.
For the storytelling section, you can choose a “Challenge-Action-Result” format to describe the project:
Challenge: What was the context for the work situation on the project? What was the problem that the project was designed to tackle?
Action: What did the person you’re recommending do? What was their specific contribution?
Result: What was the outcome of the project — and can you quantify it?
Length is an important consideration when writing LinkedIn recommendations. Keep your recommendations under 200 words whenever possible. Some of the most effective LinkedIn recommendations are only 50-100 words.