You are biased. Other people saying you are a genius is more convincing than you saying it.
What you say on your LinkedIn Profile is biased.
You will always praise yourself. I can't really believe your claims, because I don't know you. Yet. But all the same, I know you are going to be biased.
However, when I see a photo of your customer telling me how your service or skills specifically benefited them, and I see what they do, where they are, what their name and job title is, and can follow a link to their profile, THEN I can really believe it.
Well, they don't often come out of the blue in LinkedIn.
Try this - ask for them from your customers or colleagues. Say “I want to add a credible recommendation to my online profile so that people can see the real benefits that I deliver. Would you please add your recommendation?”
The worst that might happen is someone might say no, or just ignore you. So you can ask someone else.
Of course, a great way to get recommendations is to give them first. It depends on the dynamics of your relationship, but it's good practice as an involved LinkedIn member to give as well as receive.
Visit the profile of the connection to whom you want to give a recommendation. (You have to be connected to a member on LinkedIn to give or receive a recommendation.)
Click the little three-dots [More...] menu to the right of their profile picture, and select 'Recommend (name)' - it's self explanatory after that.
The step above also leads you to where you can ask for a recommendation.
The process to give, or ask for a recommendation, is self-explanatory, and you can keep a record of people you have asked for recommendations, and send them little reminders if needed.
You can also visit their profile, or click on 'Ask for a recommendation' when managing your recommendations.
The power of recommendations is that it's not you talking about yourself — it's what other people are saying. In a word, it's credibility, because it's someone else's opinion. It is social proof, like a hundred Twitter/X reposts or a thousand Instagram likes. Just without the 'bots.
It's worth asking people to be very specific and precise in their recommendation, and to do the same when you give recommendations.
Remind them of the project you worked on and see if you can get them to focus on the results - the benefits.
"David is a great guy to work with, and gets great results: I'd recommend him to anyone."
That's pretty vague. It's not half as impressive as this —
"David is super friendly and efficient, and explains the technical stuff effectively. He over-delivers on what he promises. His PPC strategy allowed us to lift our click-through-rate by 129% in a month, reduce spend by 39%, but still increase website traffic by 28.7%. Sales revenue went up 34.2% within 90 days and CPA went down by 47.3%. Highly recommended."
So be specific about the impact working with someone has had, and include measurable facts and figures in your recommendation if you can.
Ask them to do the same for you when you request a recommendation. You can even write them a suggested recommendation and give them some hard numbers to prompt them.
It's easy to start - fire up LinkedIn, and go and recommend someone who impressed you today.
What goes around, comes around.
Would you rather start working with someone you know very little about, or work with someone that you know has delivered the goods for others consistently in the past?
I know what my answer is - what's yours?
Can't use them for legal reasons
Rarely
Often
Can't give them for legal reasons
“92% of respondents reported that a positive recommendation from a friend, family member, or someone they trust is the biggest influence on whether they buy a product or service.”
