LinkedIn endorsements and recommendations are a great way to build your professional brand and credibility. Endorsements validate your skills and recommendations provide written praise of your work and character. Having a strong LinkedIn presence with lots of endorsements and recommendations can help you stand out to potential employers, clients, and business partners.
Endorsements
Endorsements are LinkedIn’s way of having your connections validate your skills and expertise. When you add skills to your LinkedIn profile, your connections can endorse you for those skills if they feel you are proficient in them. Each endorsement acts as a “vote” to confirm you have that skill.
For example, if you list “Social Media Marketing” as a skill, a connection who has worked with you on social media campaigns can endorse you for it. The more endorsements you get for a skill, the more it signals to others that you have that skill.
How to Get Endorsements
Here are some tips for getting more endorsements:
- Add at least 5-10 key skills to your profile that you want to be endorsed for. Focus on skills related to your industry or job title.
- Connect with colleagues, clients, managers, etc. who can endorse you for those skills based on their experience working with you.
- Endorse connections for skills that you have first-hand experience with. This encourages them to return the favor.
- Engage actively with your network by liking and commenting on content. This raises your visibility and keeps you top of mind.
- List your most desired skills first. The top 3 skills appear on your profile so you want the important ones visible.
- Update your skills as you gain new ones. The more relevant your skills, the more endorsements you can acquire.
It’s fine to politely ask close connections to endorse you for skills they are familiar with. But avoid requesting endorsements from people who don’t know you well or can’t authentically endorse your abilities.
Benefits of Endorsements
Here are some of the key benefits of having lots of endorsements:
- Validates your skills – Endorsements act as social proof that you have the skills listed on your profile.
- Shows expertise – Getting endorsed for specialized or advanced skills demonstrates your experience level.
- Builds credibility – Endorsements make your profile seem more legitimate and authoritative.
- Improves visibility – Profiles with more endorsements tend to rank higher in search results.
- Boosts hiring potential – 82% of employers say they consider candidate endorsements very or moderately important.
The more endorsements you accumulate over time for various skills, the stronger your LinkedIn presence becomes.
Recommendations
LinkedIn recommendations are written statements from your connections that highlight your qualities, work, and character. Recommendations are more personal and detailed than endorsements.
For example, a former colleague may write a recommendation praising your leadership abilities, communication skills, and dependability on team projects you collaborated on together.
How to Get Recommendations
Here are some best practices for getting quality recommendations:
- Provide great service or work product to colleagues, clients, etc. Recommendations should be authentic.
- Recommend connections first before asking them to recommend you. Reciprocity helps.
- Connect with managers, coworkers, clients, business partners, etc. who can speak first-hand about working with you.
- When requesting a recommendation, provide context by reminding them of projects you worked on together.
- Thank people for taking the time to write you thoughtful recommendations.
- Offer to reciprocate by providing recommendations in return.
- Aim for at least 3 recommendations from each employer or major client.
Avoid asking for recommendations from people who don’t know your work well. Focus on substantive recommendations that carry more weight.
Benefits of Recommendations
Quality recommendations provide many advantages:
- Supports skills and experience – Recommendations offer evidence that backs up your listed job skills and experience.
- Provides social proof – Third-party praise builds credibility through external validation.
- Shows well-roundedness – Different perspectives highlight your various strengths.
- Paints a picture – Recommendations give nuanced details about what it’s like to work with you.
- boosts Serach ranking – Profiles with more recommendations generally rank higher in search results.
- Influences hiring – 69% of hiring managers say strong recommendations increase chances of getting hired.
By cultivating multiple recommendations, you create a robust profile that leverages social proof to capture people’s attention and interest.
Who to Request Endorsements and Recommendations From
Certain types of connections make ideal endorsers and recommenders on LinkedIn. Focus on developing clusters of endorsements and recommendations from:
- Former managers – They can endorse leadership and other skills. Recommendations can detail your performance and impact on the team.
- Coworkers – Those you collaborated closely with can speak to specific skills and capabilities.
- Clients – Especially long-term clients who’ve seen your work product over time.
- Business partners – Partners who’ve worked with you on joint ventures or projects.
- Vendors/suppliers – Service providers who’ve gotten to know you and your work.
- Mentors/teachers – People who’ve coached you and seen your professional development.
- Industry leaders – Influencers and experts who can validate specialized skills.
Prioritize recommendations from people who carry credibility and visibility. For example, a recommendation from a CEO may influence audiences more than relatively unknown connections.
Tips for Getting Great Recommendations
Here are some additional tips to get stellar recommendations that impress viewers:
- Help recommenders by providing them with talking points or key accomplishments you’d like them to highlight.
- Send reminders if they haven’t finished recommendations you’ve requested.
- Recommend them back after receiving their recommendation.
- Thank them publicly by liking and commenting on their recommendation updates.
- Offer to write recommendations for them first before asking them.
- Connect recommenders to your other recommendations to increase trust.
- Suggest they include specific skills, experiences, or attributes you want highlighted.
- Provide context by sharing background on the work you did together.
- Ask clients for recommendations right after completing a successful project.
Put effort into cultivating meaningful, thoughtful recommendations that share unique insights into what it’s like working with you.
Sample LinkedIn Recommendation Text
Here are some example snippets of strong recommendation text to give you an idea of what high-quality recommendations should look like:
For Project Managers |
“John was the project manager on several key initiatives while we worked together at Company X. He always kept projects on budget and on schedule thanks to his excellent planning abilities. John is very detailed which ensures tasks never slip through the cracks. He communicates well and keeps all team members and stakeholders updated. I’d gladly work with John on any project again in the future for his diligence and expertise.” |
For Engineers |
“As an engineer, Amanda is incredibly creative at solving problems. When our team was facing technical challenges on Project Z, Amanda was able to come up with innovative solutions that met our specifications. She has a true talent for understanding complex systems and her troubleshooting skills are unmatched. I’ve always been impressed at how Amanda can diagnose issues and rapidly develop solutions. Her engineering skills are absolutely top-notch.” |
For Accountants |
“Over the years that Bob has served as an accountant for our company, I’ve always been extremely impressed with his attention to detail, organization, and timeliness. He ensures our books are meticulously maintained and our taxes filed correctly and promptly. Bob has deep knowledge of accounting best practices and keeps completely up-to-date on the latest regulations. He has saved our company a great deal of money through his careful review of finances. I would not hesitate to recommend Bob as an accountant.” |
For Designers |
“As a designer, Julia stands out for her creativity and ability to understand clients’ needs. When we hired Julia to design our company’s new website, she came up with an absolutely gorgeous design that perfectly represented our brand. She has an amazing sense for fonts, colors, layouts, and other details that result in highly polished work. Julia can visualize concepts and bring them to life in a way I’ve rarely seen. Her communication is also top-notch; she explains her ideas clearly and helps clients see her vision.” |
Well-written recommendations like these that are specific, detailed and highlight tangible skills and outcomes are very persuasive and meaningful for your brand.
LinkedIn Recommendation Etiquette
It’s important to follow proper professional etiquette when requesting recommendations to avoid coming across as spammy or insincere. Some recommendations best practices include:
- Only ask people who have direct experience with your work and skills.
- Recommend connections first before asking them to recommend you.
- Send personalized recommendation requests, not generic mass messages.
- Provide recommenders with relevant details and talking points.
- Express genuine gratitude when receiving a recommendation.
- Don’t pressure people who seem hesitant to recommend you.
- Keep in occasional touch with recommenders so they remember you.
- Monitor recommendations to remove any that are no longer relevant.
Having a large network filled with sparse or low-quality recommendations can seem disingenuous. Focus on cultivating authentic, thoughtful endorsements from people who genuinely know and appreciate your work.
Turning Off Recommendations
If needed, you can turn off the ability for connections to recommend you. This can be useful if:
- You are changing careers and old recommendations are no longer relevant.
- You had an ugly falling out with a past recommender.
- You want a clean slate to cultivate new recommendations.
- You feel existing recommendations are poorly written or unflattering.
To disable recommendations:
- Go to your LinkedIn Profile.
- Click on the 3 dots icon next to your profile photo.
- Select “Settings & Privacy”.
- Go to the “Notifications” tab.
- Under “Work & Education Section”, toggle “New recommendations” to off.
This will immediately hide existing recommendations and prevent new ones from being posted without approval. You can toggle them back on at any time.
Removing Specific Recommendations
If you just want to delete or hide certain recommendations, you can do so by:
- Going to your profile and clicking the 3 dots next to a recommendation.
- Selecting “Delete” or “Hide from Profile”.
- The recommender will be notified that you removed their recommendation.
Be cautious about removing recommendations, as constantly deleting them can seem suspicious. Try to cultivate recommendations you can leave up permanently.
Turning Off Endorsements
You can also disable endorsements if having an excessive or irrelevant number is an issue. To turn off endorsements:
- Go to your profile and click the 3 dots icon next to your name.
- Select “Settings & Privacy”.
- Go to “Skills & Endorsements”.
- Toggle “Endorsements” to off.
This will immediately hide existing endorsements. People will still see your listed skills, just without the endorsement counts. Toggle endorsements back on whenever you want to start collecting them again.
Showcasing Recommendations and Endorsements
To maximize the impact of your endorsements and recommendations:
- Feature your 3-5 top skills near the top of your profile so they are prominently visible.
- Curate your best and most relevant recommendations to appear at the top.
- Rotate out dated or irrelevant skills and recommendations over time.
- Thank recommenders publicly by liking their recommendations.
- Share recommendations on other networks like Twitter and Facebook.
- Use LinkedIn widgets to showcase endorsements/recommendations on your website or blog.
Proactively manage your endorsements and recommendations so your absolute best assets take center stage.
Conclusion
Getting quality LinkedIn endorsements and recommendations from leading connections can significantly boost your professional brand and credibility. But these assets must be cultivated gradually over time through consistently producing great work.
By proactively engaging your network, providing reciprocal recommendations, and tactfully asking the right people, you can build up a stellar profile backed by social proof. This will demonstrate your skills and abilities on the world’s top professional networking platform.