You go to an online retailer and check out a product that you’re interested in. You check the price, the images, the model number and most importantly, you check the reviews. In the same way that you check product reviews, potential employers and clients are checking your LinkedIn profile and LinkedIn Recommendations (endorsements) to see if you’re someone they want to work with. The problem is that most people only have 1 or 2 LinkedIn Recommendations, how do you get more?
The most effective way to get more endorsements on your LinkedIn profile is to know when & how to ask, make it quick and make it easy.
When to ask for LinkedIn Recommendations
Here are some common times to ask for recommendations:
When you get an email from a client or customer gushing over the quality of your service
When you’ve finished a contract for a client and they’ve mentioned that they’re happy with your work
After they’ve paid their invoice for your services (this seems counterintuitive but ties into our tendency towards confirmation bias. They are affirming their good choice to offset their large investment)
When you’ve finished a workshop, having delivered extra value through bonus materials and you ask for a recommendation
How to ask for LinkedIn Recommendations
The biggest tip here is to make the ask as human as possible, give prompts (to set expectations) and make it tailored to the stage of your professional relationship. Some examples, with [LinkedIn link], might be:
“I’m glad you love the website Bobby! Any chance you could copy & paste what you’ve written here into a [LinkedIn Recommendation]? It would really help my business”
“Thanks Bobby for paying your invoice, I’m glad you liked what we delivered. Any chance you could help our business by writing a few lines about your experience on [LinkedIn]?”
“Thanks Bobby for attending my XX workshop, use this link to download your YY checklist. Would you have a second to write me a quick [review on LinkedIn], explaining what you got out of the workshop? This would be worth gold for me!”
In terms of prompts and wording, you want to start with a thank you, reinforce gently what you’ve given, ask for the recommendation and explain how the gift will help you. You also want to add in some wording about the length of time or the length of writing required. Finally, you might want to prompt people on the content so the ask doesn’t seem too open-ended i.e. let people know about your thoughts on your coaching experience, let people know about what you got out of the workshop, let people know about how our service completely changed your life (ok, maybe too far).
How to make it quick and easy
People are busy and will only give you the beautiful gift of a LinkedIn Recommendation if they feel like their value cup has overflowed and they want to right the scales and give something back. If you’re not overdelivering, it will be hard for them to justify the investment of their time. Their cup might only be slightly overflowing so let’s make this as simple as possible for them and for you.
Have the wording saved for ease of use
The easiest way to make asking for LinkedIn Recommendations a part of your workflow is to save your ask wording as email templates. Let’s look at how to set up saved email templates in Gmail and Outlook.
Setting Up Gmail Email Templates
If you’re a Gmail user, click on that Gear/Settings Icon at the top-right > See all settings > Advanced tab > Enable Templates
When you go to Compose a new message in Gmail, you’ll see the Templates option when you click on the three dots on the right
By writing your Recommendation ask and then saving the draft as a Gmail email template, you’ll be able to quickly add your ask to emails on the fly.
Setting Up Outlook Email Templates
Looking for more ways to use Outlook email templates? View this article to see how to use templates, quick parts, autotext and shared email templates.
How to find your LinkedIn Recommendation Link
You’re got your recommendation ask wording and you’re ready to insert your link but you’re now asking, where do I find my LinkedIn Recommendation link?
By default, LinkedIn has a button on your own profile to Ask For A Recommendation but this is used when you want to select a specific LinkedIn user and send the ask through LinkedIn. If you want a speedier process, you want to have the ask link ready to go in an email template and not need to go into LinkedIn, click on your profile, click on the Ask For A Recommendation button and request a recommendation manually. You want to create your own link so let’s look at the structure you’ll need (note, this link structure could change in the future but works as at 2021).
To create your own LinkedIn Recommendation link, go to LinkedIn > click on your profile image at the top-right > click on View Profile > Copy the website URL from the address bar to replace with the red text above (ensure you don’t have a double // after your profile name in the middle of the link)
You’re done! Once you have this link, add it to your ask wording in Gmail or Outlook (or your help desk software) and you’re ready to go when the time is right.
Automatically asking for LinkedIn Recommendations
A quick side note to the above article. The above process is slightly manual and does yield the best results but you do also have the option to automate this process using email marketing software, CRM software that includes automated workflows or through triggered workflows that send an email to your client. These can still be effective but you need to ensure you can personalise the messaging without sounding too automated. If you need help to automate this process or want to chat about setting up better processes in your business, get in touch.
Illustration Kits, Builders & Bundles If you’re looking to add illustrations to your website or business marketing materials, you’ve got the option of hiring a local designer, looking on a freelancing website or creating your own illustrations from scratch using illustration software. Another option that is becoming popular is to use simple design software like …
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How to get more LinkedIn Recommendations
You go to an online retailer and check out a product that you’re interested in. You check the price, the images, the model number and most importantly, you check the reviews. In the same way that you check product reviews, potential employers and clients are checking your LinkedIn profile and LinkedIn Recommendations (endorsements) to see if you’re someone they want to work with. The problem is that most people only have 1 or 2 LinkedIn Recommendations, how do you get more?
The most effective way to get more endorsements on your LinkedIn profile is to know when & how to ask, make it quick and make it easy.
When to ask for LinkedIn Recommendations
Here are some common times to ask for recommendations:
How to ask for LinkedIn Recommendations
The biggest tip here is to make the ask as human as possible, give prompts (to set expectations) and make it tailored to the stage of your professional relationship. Some examples, with [LinkedIn link], might be:
“I’m glad you love the website Bobby! Any chance you could copy & paste what you’ve written here into a [LinkedIn Recommendation]? It would really help my business”
“Thanks Bobby for paying your invoice, I’m glad you liked what we delivered. Any chance you could help our business by writing a few lines about your experience on [LinkedIn]?”
“Thanks Bobby for attending my XX workshop, use this link to download your YY checklist. Would you have a second to write me a quick [review on LinkedIn], explaining what you got out of the workshop? This would be worth gold for me!”
In terms of prompts and wording, you want to start with a thank you, reinforce gently what you’ve given, ask for the recommendation and explain how the gift will help you. You also want to add in some wording about the length of time or the length of writing required. Finally, you might want to prompt people on the content so the ask doesn’t seem too open-ended i.e. let people know about your thoughts on your coaching experience, let people know about what you got out of the workshop, let people know about how our service completely changed your life (ok, maybe too far).
How to make it quick and easy
People are busy and will only give you the beautiful gift of a LinkedIn Recommendation if they feel like their value cup has overflowed and they want to right the scales and give something back. If you’re not overdelivering, it will be hard for them to justify the investment of their time. Their cup might only be slightly overflowing so let’s make this as simple as possible for them and for you.
Have the wording saved for ease of use
The easiest way to make asking for LinkedIn Recommendations a part of your workflow is to save your ask wording as email templates. Let’s look at how to set up saved email templates in Gmail and Outlook.
Setting Up Gmail Email Templates
If you’re a Gmail user, click on that Gear/Settings Icon at the top-right > See all settings > Advanced tab > Enable Templates
When you go to Compose a new message in Gmail, you’ll see the Templates option when you click on the three dots on the right
By writing your Recommendation ask and then saving the draft as a Gmail email template, you’ll be able to quickly add your ask to emails on the fly.
Setting Up Outlook Email Templates
Looking for more ways to use Outlook email templates? View this article to see how to use templates, quick parts, autotext and shared email templates.
How to find your LinkedIn Recommendation Link
You’re got your recommendation ask wording and you’re ready to insert your link but you’re now asking, where do I find my LinkedIn Recommendation link?
By default, LinkedIn has a button on your own profile to Ask For A Recommendation but this is used when you want to select a specific LinkedIn user and send the ask through LinkedIn. If you want a speedier process, you want to have the ask link ready to go in an email template and not need to go into LinkedIn, click on your profile, click on the Ask For A Recommendation button and request a recommendation manually. You want to create your own link so let’s look at the structure you’ll need (note, this link structure could change in the future but works as at 2021).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich1peterson/detail/recommendation/write/
To create your own LinkedIn Recommendation link, go to LinkedIn > click on your profile image at the top-right > click on View Profile > Copy the website URL from the address bar to replace with the red text above (ensure you don’t have a double // after your profile name in the middle of the link)
You’re done! Once you have this link, add it to your ask wording in Gmail or Outlook (or your help desk software) and you’re ready to go when the time is right.
Automatically asking for LinkedIn Recommendations
A quick side note to the above article. The above process is slightly manual and does yield the best results but you do also have the option to automate this process using email marketing software, CRM software that includes automated workflows or through triggered workflows that send an email to your client. These can still be effective but you need to ensure you can personalise the messaging without sounding too automated. If you need help to automate this process or want to chat about setting up better processes in your business, get in touch.
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Looking to build an intranet or knowledge base for your company? See these options for modern, user-friendly intranet solutions. Intranet & Knowledge Base Software Communifire – Looking to manage your company’s documents and knowledgebase with an intranet solution? Check out Communifire for an intranet portal that includes doc storage, blogging, wikis, photo sharing, polls & …
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📅 Client Scheduling Apps Timely – great for salons & businesses with ongoing retail appointments. Acuity Scheduling – our top pick for scaleable appointment scheduling tool with booking calendar. Cost-effective for teams. Bookstream – a simple alternative to Setmore for booking client appointments SavvyCal – modern, simple scheduling app with all the basic features and …