LinkedIn Profile Optimization For Dummies. Donna Serdula
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу LinkedIn Profile Optimization For Dummies - Donna Serdula страница 23
Название: LinkedIn Profile Optimization For Dummies
Автор: Donna Serdula
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
Жанр: Поиск работы, карьера
isbn: 9781119651468
isbn:
The other reason I suggest writing the recommendation yourself is to ensure the recommendation is written with all the points you want covered. Just because you think your leadership ability and unwavering commitment to customer service is what sets you apart, the person writing your recommendation may instead focus on something else entirely.
In addition, by writing the recommendation yourself, you can infuse the recommendation with keywords that help optimize your profile’s searchability. All those keywords can be infused into recommendations to make your profile rank even better. (Refer to Chapter 2 to find out even more about how to get found on LinkedIn.)
If my arguments to write the recommendation yourself failed to persuade you, at the very least provide the person with some criteria as to what you’d like stated in the recommendation. Consider including language similar to this:
Dear Dave,
I have enjoyed working with you. Would you be open to providing me a recommendation of my work that I can include on my LinkedIn profile?
When you write the recommendation, I would love it if you’d mention my strength in social selling and how I often acted as a trusted advisor to my clients. Perhaps you can even mention how I saved the Wiener deal using my extensive knowledge of widgets and ended up renewing them for an extra two years, which resulted in a $2M uptick in revenue?
Thanks so much! I appreciate it! —Hal
WRITING THE PERFECT RECOMMENDATION
When writing a recommendation for yourself, the best thing to do is list your qualities you want highlighted. If you aren’t quite sure what qualities you want highlighted, ask yourself the following questions:
How does this person know you?
How long have you known each other?
How did you work together?
Detail a singular experience in which you exhibited a high level of leadership as it fits within his or her knowledge of you.
What one quality of yours proved beneficial to this person? What was the result?
Did you mentor or work alongside this person? What impact did you have on him or her?
Use the answers to these questions to craft a powerful recommendation.
When requesting a recommendation, it’s important that you request the recommendation from within LinkedIn’s interface. Whatever you do, don’t send the request for a recommendation via an outside email address. Emailing the request makes it difficult for your contact to figure out how to provide the recommendation. By sending the request from LinkedIn’s recommendation page, your contacts can easily click the link that LinkedIn provides, making it easy for them to give you a recommendation.
Here’s how to request a recommendation from within LinkedIn:
1 In the LinkedIn search bar, type the name of the person you want to recommend and click the search button.A list of profiles matching the name appears.
2 Open the profile of the person you want to recommend by clicking the search result.
3 Click the More… button located in the intro section.
4 Select Request a Recommendation.A dialog box appears, asking, “How do you know [this person]?” as shown in Figure 3-10.
5 Choose your relationship to the person.You have numerous options. Read through the list carefully and choose the relationship that most closely echoes yours. Unfortunately, there is no “other” option, so you must determine the best fit. Luckily, the other person has a chance to make changes, so if he or she doesn’t feel you used the proper relationship option, he or she can change it for you.
6 Choose your position at the time from the drop-down list.The drop-down list contains a listing of your experiences as listed on your LinkedIn profile.
7 Click the Next button.
8 Provide a personalized message to send with your recommendation request.LinkedIn provides a simple, pre-written message: “Hi, can you write me a recommendation?” As I have stated, it is best to add the recommendation for the person or at the very least, guidelines to what you want covered in the recommendation.
9 Click the Send button when you are ready to send your request.
FIGURE 3-10: LinkedIn’s recommendation request form.
Your request for a recommendation is sent as a LinkedIn message. Depending on your LinkedIn settings, you may also receive a notification alert via email.
Ditching the default request text
When requesting a recommendation from a connection, LinkedIn provides a pre-written request for you to send. Rather than use LinkedIn’s default text, personalize the message instead. Try something like this:
Dear Fran,
It’s been a pleasure working with you and accomplishing so much together. It would be an honor to include a recommendation from you on my LinkedIn profile. I know how busy you are so I took the liberty of writing the recommendation for you. Please feel free to make any edits, and if you would prefer to write your own recommendation, please do so. Thank you in advance and I hope we can do lunch together soon. <insert pre-written recommendation> —Ollie
Once the recommendation request is sent, rather than wait for the other person to respond, I highly suggest reaching out to the person directly to let them know that you requested a recommendation. Give them a call and walk them through the steps of providing the recommendation. Let them know how appreciative you are of the help they are providing.
Accepting a recommendation
One of the perks of writing the recommendation for the other person is how quick the recommendation is usually accepted and posted. My clients who accepted this advice have reported back that most people, when provided with a pre-written recommendation, post it almost immediately. You’ll know when the person responds because LinkedIn sends an email notification. In addition to the email, you also get a LinkedIn message from the person giving the recommendation. This message contains a preview of the recommendation and a link to manage your recommendations. Here’s how to accept it:
1 Go to your messaging screen by clicking the Messaging icon on LinkedIn’s main navigation bar.In your list of messages on the left is the recommendation the person wrote for you along with a link to review it.
2 Click СКАЧАТЬ