LinkedIn recommendations allow you to endorse and recognize your connections for their skills, accomplishments, and work experiences. Recommendations posted on LinkedIn profiles serve as social proof and validation for that member’s capabilities.
However, once you’ve written and published a recommendation, you may later realize you need to make edits or additions. Perhaps you initially provided a short recommendation and want to expand on it. Or there may be a typo or inaccurate detail you want to correct.
So can you edit a LinkedIn recommendation after posting it? The short answer is yes, it is possible to edit a recommendation on LinkedIn after publishing it, with some limitations.
What LinkedIn Recommendations Are
Before getting into how to edit posted recommendations, let’s quickly go over what LinkedIn recommendations are and how they work:
– LinkedIn recommendations are endorsements written by LinkedIn connections to vouch for someone’s skills, work, or character. They appear on a member’s profile under the “Recommendations” section.
– When writing a recommendation, you can choose which of the person’s skills to endorse. Your recommendation then appears as an endorsement for those skills on their profile.
– Recommendations can be brief paragraphs or multiple detailed paragraphs explaining your experience working with the person.
– You must be a 1st-degree connection to provide a recommendation on LinkedIn.
– The person receiving the recommendation must accept it before it appears on their profile. They can also hide recommendations if they choose.
– Recommendations are mutually beneficial. They help showcase the abilities and strengths of the person recommended, while also reflecting positively on the recommender as someone who provides valid endorsements.
So in summary, LinkedIn recommendations allow you to validate your connections, add credibility to their profiles, and strengthen your own reputation as an endorser.
Editing Recommendations You’ve Written
Now onto the main question – can you edit recommendations you’ve published on LinkedIn?
The answer is yes, you can edit recommendations you have written for your connections after initially posting them. However, there are limitations:
– You can only edit recommendations you have written for others, not recommendations written for you.
– You can edit recommendations at any time, but the person you recommended must approve the edited version for it to update on their profile.
– There is no time limit on editing recommendations. You can go back and update recommendations years later if needed.
To edit a recommendation you’ve published on LinkedIn:
1. Go to your LinkedIn profile and click the “More” tab along the top menu.
2. Select “Manage recommendations” under the Accomplishments section.
3. This will take you to a page showing all the recommendations you’ve written for others. Click the three dots next to any recommendation and choose “Edit” from the dropdown menu.
4. On the editing page, make any changes or additions to your recommendation text. You can edit the written content, change the endorsed skills, or modify any other part of the recommendation.
5. Once you’ve finished editing, click “Send” for the member to review the updated version.
6. The person you recommended will get a notification that you wish to edit a recommendation for them. They must then actively accept the edited recommendation before it will appear on their profile.
So in summary – you can edit any recommendations you’ve written, but the individual must approve the edits before they go live. Both parties are involved when editing an existing recommendation.
Things to Consider When Editing
When editing a posted recommendation on LinkedIn, keep the following considerations in mind:
– Focus edits on making the recommendation more accurate, expansive, or up-to-date. Don’t make substantial changes to the overall sentiment.
– Avoid removing positive endorsements or qualifications you previously included, as this may look bad. Add to the recommendation rather than subtracting.
– Check that skills you’re endorsing align with the person’s current role and capabilities. Adjust endorsements if needed.
– If you need to correct major errors like job titles, be tactful in the edits. Don’t remove incorrect details but rather append the updated info.
– Consider if the person really needs an edited recommendation. A few minor typos or old job titles may not warrant updates.
– Be respectful of the other person’s time when editing old recommendations. Don’t expect replies to outdated endorsement requests.
– Offer to reciprocate if you request substantial edits like adding paragraphs. Edit their recommendations in return.
Overall, make edits with care and consideration, focusing on improvements not major changes or removals. The updates should benefit their current profile and skills rather than revising history.
Removing Recommendations You Wrote
In some cases, you may want to remove a recommendation entirely from someone’s LinkedIn profile, rather than just editing it. Reasons could include:
– The work information is outdated and no longer relevant for their profile.
– Your professional relationship with the person has changed.
– You incorrectly endorsed skills they don’t actually possess.
– You feel the recommendation reflects poorly on your own brand and reputation.
– The person requested you remove the recommendation for some reason.
As the author of the recommendation, you can remove recommendations you have written for others by following these steps:
1. Go to the “Manage recommendations” page in your LinkedIn account settings.
2. Click the three dots next to the recommendation and choose “Delete” from the dropdown menu.
3. LinkedIn will ask you to confirm deleting the recommendation. Click “Yes” to confirm.
4. The recommendation will be removed from the person’s profile and will no longer appear as one of your written recommendations.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind when removing a recommendation:
– Consider if editing or updating the recommendation may be better than removing it entirely. Don’t remove just because it’s outdated.
– The person may have valued the recommendation even if the specifics were incorrect or irrelevant. Don’t remove without their consent.
-suddenly removing a recommendation you wrote may reflect poorly on you or damage the relationship.
– Recommendations, even outdated ones, are difficult to rebuild from scratch. Don’t remove unless absolutely necessary.
In summary, exercise caution when considering removing recommendations you authored. Preserve the credibility and trust of your connections by removing recommendations only with consent or absolute necessity.
When Recommendations Are Removed
There are also some cases where LinkedIn may automatically remove recommendations from profiles:
– If the author of the recommendation deletes their LinkedIn account, any recommendations they wrote for others will also be deleted.
– LinkedIn may remove recommendations if they detect fraud, abuse, or plagiarism associated with the content.
– Members can report recommendations to LinkedIn for removal if they violate policies or contain prohibited information.
– Recommendations may be removed when merging LinkedIn accounts belonging to the same user.
So in some cases, recommendations can disappear without notice. As the recipient of recommendations, it’s a good practice to periodically archive or save recommendations you value, in case the publisher removes them later on.
Editing Recommendations Written For You
The ability to edit only applies to recommendations you have written for others. For recommendations written for you by your connections, you cannot directly edit the content.
However, you do have some options if you wish to update recommendations written for your profile:
– You can reach out to the author and politely ask them to edit or update their recommendation for you. Most connections will be happy to oblige requests like fixing typos or adding new skills.
– Rather than editing, you can instead add a comment to the recommendation thanking the author and providing any clarifications or updates on your current role and skills.
– If the recommendation is significantly out of date or you have concerns about the content, you can simply hide the recommendation so it no longer appears on your profile.
– As a last resort, you can report recommendations written for you to LinkedIn and request their removal. But this should only be done in cases of policy violations, abuse, or fraud.
So while you don’t have direct control over recommendations you receive, you can take steps to improve their accuracy and relevance by coordinating updates with the author. Focus on cultivating great recommendations instead of extensive editing after the fact.
Examples of Editing LinkedIn Recommendations
To make these concepts more concrete, here are a few examples of how one might appropriately edit LinkedIn recommendations:
– Updating the job title and company the person worked at when you knew them, if they have changed roles since.
– Correcting minor typos or spelling errors in the recommendation text.
– Adding additional skills you can endorse based on projects you’ve worked on together since writing the original recommendation.
– Expanding the recommendation with additional detail on significant accomplishments you didn’t initially mention.
– Removing endorsements for skills that the person has indicated are no longer relevant to their current role.
– Refining vague, exaggerated language that may weaken the credibility of the recommendation.
– Adding context around how you worked together if the original was short and lacking detail.
– Removing company-specific information that shouldn’t be publicly shared per their request.
– Deleting the recommendation if you learn that the person has fabricated credentials or engaged in unethical conduct.
The key in each case is to make edits with care and integrity, upholding the spirit of the original recommendation while ensuring it remains accurate and relevant.
Conclusion
In summary, while LinkedIn recommendations are meant to be enduring professional endorsements, the ability to edit them allows you to keep them current, honest, and optimized over time. By making thoughtful edits when appropriate, you can keep your recommendations meaningful and valuable for years to come.
The editing functionality maintains the flexibility and usefulness of recommendations as an ongoing representation of someone’s skills and qualifications. Just be sure any major edits or removals are handled with care and consent to preserve the trust between connections.
With some tactical updates over time, your library of recommendations maintains its integrity and continues to showcase your network’s ever-evolving capabilities. The flexibility to edit is what makes LinkedIn recommendations such a powerful long-term endorsement tool.
