If you’ve followed any of my blog posts here or on LinkedIn, or read my book, then you know that I highly recommend requesting and giving recommendations on LinkedIn, so I’m not going to get on my soapbox about that in this post. Today, I’m going to cover what to do with them once you start collecting them.
Not all LinkedIn recommendations are created equally
It’s true. Not all LinkedIn recommendations are created equally, which is why it’s so important to maximize the limited space available for showcasing them on your LinkedIn profile. And, honestly, if you’re not making the most of this very limited amount of “real estate” available, you need to reconsider why you’re bothering to collect them in the first place.
As most of us know, you’re able to request and then post (or not) any recommendation someone writes for you on LinkedIn. And there are also ways you can control where the recommendations you write for others show up on your profile as well, but that is a post for a different day or maybe a future Making Connections Matter eLearning webcast.
Some recommendations carry more weight than others
Currently, the most recent recommendations you receive for a specific position appear in the first and second positions on your profile at the very end of that position’s description. See below:
Sometimes, though, you receive a new recommendation that just doesn’t pack as much punch as the previous 2 you had displayed. Perhaps it’s too generic or didn’t emphasis the things you had hoped they would and don’t know the person well enough to ask them to spruce it up. Well, reordering is the answer!
The 2 ways I know of to reorder your recommendations
The 1st way you can reorder your recommendations is:
Under Profile in the top navigation bar click on the Edit Profile option. Then scroll all the way to the bottom of the of your profile — usually below your Organizations and Honors & Awards, but before you see the bottom navigation for the page (Help Center, About, etc). On the left side of your profile, you will see a series of black/gray title blocks, one of which will say Recommendations. Then look immediately to the right of Recommendations and you will see a pencil. Click the pencil to enter edit mode for Recommendations. Once you’re in edit mode on Recommendations, you will see all your Recommendations listed by your career position. On the right side of each recommendation will be a double-sided arrow. Simply click and drag this up/down arrow to reorder your recommendations.
This will allow you to ensure your two preferred recommendations appear on your profile page when others view it. See arrows below.
And the 2nd way:
If you want to reorder and/or move a recommendation to a different career position, there is another way to manage almost everything else related to your recommendations on LinkedIn. Get into Privacy & Settings via the drop-down menu under your very upper-right avatar image and then look for “Manage your recommendations” and follow the instructions below. You’ll want to poke around and see what else you can do once you see what’s possible.
Have fun with this new knowledge!
After writing this post, I’m absolutely certain I need to do an entire webcast on all the other things that popped into my mind that I should share about LinkedIn Recommendations.
So, be sure you register to get the invites to my Making Connections Matter eLearing series! Here’s the link again, just in case you have images turned off—-> http://bit.ly/mcmsjk1
And please feel free to send comments or questions via my Contact Us page (been having some spam issues with Comments lately). Thank you!