I found some Recommendations in my LinkedIn Inbox from a while ago.  Not sure why I was sitting on them but on Friday I decided to clean them out – approving all but two.  The first I deleted was what I posted on last Friday… my favorite LinkedIn Recommendation  This is the second one I’m deleting:

Some points:

• I don’t know this person (yes, I have since disconnected)
• Cheap? Guru?  Look at the person’s profile… lots of spelling errors.
• I don’t do SEO.. this is a clear violation of trust – he/she is just trying to get their SEO stuff and link on MY profile.
• The “recommendation” doesn’t talk about me at all – it’s all about SEO services.
• Year first hired: 2008?  NO.  I did not ever hire this person, and they didn’t hire me.

Yuck.  Makes me want to puke.  Prateek needs to go back to MySpace.

I have had this LinkedIn Recommendation sitting in my box (not actively shown) for a while… I can’t put it on my profile for obvious reasons, but I sure get a chuckle out of it every time I read it (more on WHY below):

Now, Harp Arora wrote that because I was working on my LinkedIn book (or was it the LinkedIn DVD?) and I need to have an outstanding recommendation I could see (and walk through the process).  I went to Twitter and asked for Recommendations for that purpose (I hate asking for Recommendations just to ask for them… ).

Thank you Harp, for your fun sense of humor!  And, if there ever is a statue of me… oh wait, there won’t ever be (much less a religion!)!

Last week I blogged about using LinkedIn Companies to find relevant contacts.

It made me think about one of the options I regularly use when I get search results on LinkedIn.  Check out the option I find myself choosing almost all the time:

I used to do just “Relationship,” which is, show me all of the results based on the degree of separation.  But now I choose “Relationship + Recommendations,” because this tells me something INTERESTING:

If you have Recommendations, I’m going to assume you are using LinkedIn, at least more than someone who just came in, created a skeleton profile, and has never logged in again.

And if you are using LinkedIn, or have used it a little bit, when I contact you THROUGH LinkedIn, you aren’t going to think that is so weird.

Hopefully, because you understand LinkedIn a little better, you’ll see my communication to you for what it is, instead of judging it as spam.

I know I’m generalizing, and assuming that having Recommendations means you know what’s going on, but that’s really the best I have to go on right now.

Speaking to the other options:

Relevance: I think this means how relevant the Profiles are based on my search criteria… but since they have “keywords” in there, maybe this is based on job titles?  For example, a C-level or director is more relevant than a manager?  I don’t know and didn’t test.

Connections: The same argument could be made about the number of connections someone has, however, I still want it based on my RELATIONSHIP (Degrees of Separation) first, and then another criteria.  It would be cool if they put Relationship + Connections as an option.

Keywords: I’m guessing this makes the keyword phrase more strict… but I’m not sure, really, what the diff is between not choosing any option (which defaults to Relevance).

Anyway, my preference today is Relationship + Recommendations

Don’t you love those messages you get from someone you don’t really know who ask if you will recommend them on LinkedIn?

I hate them.

Part of the issue is my connection policy: if someone invites me to connect I typically accept (with one exception).  In part, this personal policy is because I have a public personality and people might read my stuff or here me speak and want to connect – I’m happy to start a relationship that way (as opposed to saying “I don’t know you yet – let’s work on a relationship first.”).

What this means is I get a lot of people who I don’t know.

And it bugs me to no end when one of them, someone who I don’t know, asks me for a Recommendation.

What can I recommend you about?  The fact that you don’t know people but still ask them for professional endorsements?

That’s like a car company asking for an endorsement of a car you’ve never been in.

Or a pen company asking for a testimonial for a pen you’ve never seen or used.

I do not write back and decline, or lecture, I simply delete the Recommendation request.

It still bugs me, though…

Please, only ask for Recommendations from people who can really recommend (or, professionally endorse) you.

(this is only one reason why I dislike the built-in recommendation request feature in LinkedIn)

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time – I am pretty sure I included it in my LinkedIn book and on the LinkedIn DVD – and for sure I talk about it in my LinkedIn presentations.

When you get a Recommendation on LinkedIn, what do you do with it?

I think too many people don’t do anything with it, except let it sit there.

If you assume people will (a) flock to your LinkedIn Profile, and (b) scroll down and read any of your Profiles (after reading any of the LinkedIn Profile that proceeds it), I think you have unrealistic expectations

So, perhaps your LinkedIn Recommendations are sitting there like a bump on a log, getting no attention, and not working for you.

You are CEO of Me, Inc, right?  Well, put on your marketing hat.  Here’s an example:

As CEO of JibberJobber, and creator of the LinkedIn DVD (LinkedIn for Job Seekers (not just for job seekers)), I check out my Amazon reviews every now-and-then.  These reviews are similar to LinkedIn Recommendations – hopefully they are credible endorsements of a thing (in this case, my DVD.  In the Recommendation case, of YOU).

Here’s a recent Amazon Review I got:

I got more helpful information from this DVD then from reading 3 seperate books on LinkedIn. I would recommend this DVD to anyone looking for a job or just looking to learn more about LinkedIn.

This is a terrific endorsement of the DVD.  As a marketer, what do I do with it??

I have started to send out PART of this review to various places – on my website, in emails, etc.  Which part?  This:

I got more helpful information from this DVD then from reading 3 seperate books on LinkedIn.

This is not a lot to read or digest.  I’m not asking the reader to sift through jargon or cliche – it’s straightforward and to the point.

Go through your own LinkedIn Recommendations and take out one sentence, or one part of a sentence, from each of them that you could use somewhere.  Here are a few of mine that I think drive various points home (and enhance my personal branding message):

• As a speaker: Jason… “is a great speaker who connects with his audience and engages them in the presentation.”
• As an author: “Jason’s book “I’m On LinkedIn. Now what? is an incredible aid to anyone who doesn’t fully realize the value of LinkedIn…”
• As a subject matter expert: “Jason Alba is more than an expert in his field. He’s an expert who can actually teach and help others become an expert too.”
• My position in the industry: “From his powerful suite of tools at JibberJobber / Career Management 2.0 to his books on LinkedIn and Facebook, Jason delivers huge benefits to careerists, entrepreneurs, and even to career coaches!”
• Regarding my JibberJobber website: “I have been using JibberJobber.com as a premium user on a daily basis since 2007. Jason has created an excellent Web 2.0 service which has provided a vehicle for me to efficiently and clearly organize my career goals. As excellent as JibberJobber is, Jason has continually enhanced and improved his user’s experience and efficiencies”
• As an entrepreneur: “Take one part job-seeker advocate, one part solutions guy, add a collaborative style and toss with a heaping cup of innovation. Mix well. This is the recipe that is Jason Alba.”
• As a leader: “Jason was a visionary leader for Nuvek, strategically focusing the company on profitability. I learned so much from him as my mentor and my boss.”
• As a service provider (think customer service): “Jason’s expertise, reliability, attention to detail, and affable personality made working with him a pure pleasure. We received an excellent product tailored to our needs”
• As a team player: “I found Jason’s contribution [to the team] intelligent, insightful and meaningful to our objectives.”
• As a human being: “Jason is one of easiest individuals to talk to.”

Gosh, that sounds like a Jason-Is-Awesome Fest, doesn’t it?  I didn’t do it stroke my own ego (although I’m feeling pretty good right now), but to make a point – there is gold in your LinkedIn Recommendations!  Sift through each one and pull something out!

My first point is: You don’t have to use the entire LinkedIn Recommendation in your marketing.

Putting the entire thing could be distracting.  Use the powerful point you want to make, and leave the rest out.  It’s really okay to not say everything!

My second point is: Others are already talking favorably about you – let their words sell you.  And use those words in various places.

Once you figure out what your snippets are, put them somewhere – just leaving them on your LinkedIn Profile is not good enough (not if you are trying to market yourself – which you should all be doing).  Here are some places you can put these snippets:

• In your email signature,
• On your website
• On your blog – perhaps in the title or subtitle?
• In blog posts
• On your business card
• On your resume
• In your Bio (more on that later)
• __________________________… where else?

Go, today, and find snippets.  Then figure out where to put them.

I just approved this unexpected and unsolicited LinkedIn Recommendation for my LinkedIn Profile.  I really, really like it for a number of reasons (my comments in paranthesis):

Deiric McCann has endorsed your work as CEO at JibberJobber, LLC.

Dear Jason,
I’ve written this recommendation of your work to share with other LinkedIn users.

Details of the Recommendation: “I first came across Jason when looking for good books on how to harness the power of LinkedIn for driving sales networking efforts (puts our relationship into context – how/where we met, how he found me). I was struck by the straightforward and ‘how to’ nature of this excellent (I’m on LinkedIn – Now What?’) (that is a recommendation of one of my outcomes/products – and being “struck by” is a great way to emphasize the impact).

The book impressed so much (again, emphasized by something that could have been “just a book”) that we had Jason address two of our in-house webinar programs (serving about 300 sales professionals worldwide). He bowled our people over (bowled over? That’s another great use of language to emphasize… ) with the breadth and depth of his knowledge on LinkedIn (breadth and depth of knowledge = expert. It’s better for others to talk about my expertise than it is for me to talk about my expertise… right? I use “breadth and depth” in my presentations but I haven’t heard others talk about my breadth and depth… ) – and with his understanding of how to apply that knowledge to practical business situations (and these are hard bitten sales people who have seen it all!) (two points here – one is I’m not just an empty consultant, I am a practitioner. Two is that I went in front of a “tough” audience and left an impact – two very key points for others who might want to hire me).

We’re looking forward to having Jason back again (would you ever hire Jason again? YES). I cannot recommend this man highly enough – he’s a real difference maker.”
Service Category: LinkedIn Consulting
Year first hired: 2009 (hired more than once)
Top Qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert

Excellent job – rarely do I see a LinkedIn Recommendation this long, but Deiric really packed a lot of stuff in it!

One quick comment about formatting – he wrote this in three paragraphs but on my LinkedIn Profile you only see one paragraph… so if you do paragraphs just know they will get lost when they are displayed on LinkedIn.

I recently saw a post  by Jacob Share, owner of Job Mob, called Why LinkedIn Recommendations Really Are Valuable.  There are a number of points he makes that I want to comment on, but I’ll do that in another post.  Here I want to focus on where his post was inspired… Jeremiah Owyang (who is like a social media god) wrote a post back in July called Requested Recommendations on Social Networks: Why I Won’t Do It.  Jeremiah pretty much starts off and continues the conversation talking about LinkedIn Recommendations, and I think many of his points are off.  My comments below (read his post to get all of the lines I’m quoting in context).

>> “Looking at LinkedIn recommendations, they are puffery”. Instead she was looking for examples of work experience, eagerness to do the job, and of course ability.

Interesting… note that the person who said this was looking for marketing skills for their social team (I assume, looking for a new team member). I wonder what it says if a social marketer can’t get any LinkedIn recommendations?  Would that be a strike against them?  More on the content of a recommendation later…

>> I agree with her, when I see recommendations on LinkedIn, my alarm goes off, I know most are not objective.

This is crazy talk.  He goes on later to talk about why, but my point here is … his alarm goes off?  Which alarm – the alarm of deceit and fraud?  Seriously – have you ever seen a stack of letters of recommendation?  Does that make your alarm go off?  Have you seen customer testimonials?  Does that make your alarm go off?  Let’s put LinkedIn Recommendations into perspective here…

>> Why These Reccomendations May Not Be Trusted

Interesting choice of a subtitle – but note the KEY WORD has to be MAY… not that they ARE trusted, but that the MAY not be trusted.

>> From time to time, former colleagues ask me to be their reference –or even do recommendations (online references or testimonials) for them on social sites, like LinkedIn. Yet having gone through this process, they aren’t that trustworthy,

Jacob makes the argument that a LinkedIn Recommendation is “less likely to be faked than a typed or handwritten letter.”  Seriously.  Sounds like there is a big issue with trust in general here… how do we know that ANY recommendation or testimonial is ever authentic and real??

Also, what’s wrong with a former colleague asking for you to be a reference?  This is quite common in the business world.

>> I question how honest and authentic recommendations are when the system primarily has features that vet out unwanted reviews.

Um, what?  How about there is a system in place to keep out the CRAP that you see on MySpace and Facebook?  COOL PARTY DUDE!  CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU NEXT TIME!  Or, some self-promoting link on my Facebook wall… the purpose of LinkedIn Recommendations is not to give my contacts a medium to say whatever they want – think about a LinkedIn Profile – this is being compared to a resume – would you let your “friends” write graffiti-crap on your resume?  NO.

I absolutely want 100% control over what ends up on my LinkedIn Profile.

>> In nearly every experience I’ve been in, a former colleague or someone I’ve worked with requests a recommendation, this means they are expecting a positive review.

Duh.  Let’s switch to letters of recommendation. If someone asks for a letter of recommendation and it SUCKS (it is negative, or not as positive as I need it), do you think I’m going to present it to a potential employer?  Do you see companies putting testimonials like “the product was okay – I might get it again if I’m in a pinch” on their website?

NO, you put your best foot forward.

Heaven forbid we expect a positive review!

>> Since the content is in public, saying something bad about someone else (even if it’s true) isn’t going to help your network, so the the contributor is biased.

“The contributor” should be smart enough to write something real and genuine – I know, that doesn’t always happen, but if you are grown up you can figure out how to say “no” to a recommendation request.  OR, you can write something like what (supposedly) Benjamin Franklin wrote - which is a bunch of worthless drabble.  The recipient of the Recommendation is not forced to put up your drabble, or your weak recommendation.

>> Then, they can review my submitted review, and then accept or reject. I’ve had someone reject my reference, and ask me to rewrite it once before (I think it may have been because I had a typo). Because these three filters are setup, it’s unlikely that you’ll see reviews that are have objective content, or negative information.

Yeah, that’s right.  And if you write me a letter of recommendation with a typo I’m going to ask for a fix (or just assume the interviewer can figure out that YOU spell bad, not me… or I can wonder if they will mark your mistake against me because I don’t have enough attention to detail to get them a proper document).  And if you don’t write me a positive review that speaks to my brand and my strengths, I’m going to REJECT YOUR REFERENCE.  You won’t know it if it is a letter of recommendation… but even so, would you be upset if you knew I only used three letters of recommendation, and yours wasn’t one of them?  Probably not.

>> Now it’s not just recommendation systems in business social networks, it’s also case studies from vendors, and customer testimonials. All of this content is cleaned, scrubbed, and presentable in favor the seller.

No kidding?  Of course!  We knew that what we are presented with is going to be “best foot forward” material… I don’t ever expect to see something like “Most of my kids like it but little Jimmy thinks it tasts like horse vomit” on the side of a cereal box – do you?

Jacob makes another great point: “In either case, it’s up to the recruiter to decide whether more reference-checking is needed.”

>> Potential Solutions: RSomers suggested that LinkedIn reduce the number of recommendations people can give.

I can’t see LinkedIn implementing this.  They’ve already put in a limit on number of connections I can have, number of connection requests I can make, number of Groups I can join, etc.  Telling their users that they can only have a certain number of Recommendations is crazy… I think there’s a healthy does of “caveat emptor,” or “let the buyer beware” in the case of LinkedIn Recommedations, but I DO NOT advocate a limit imposed at the system level (in other words, imposed by LinkedIn).

>> Recommendations … become more relevant if they come from someone who are at the top of their game, or have a relationship to the buyer.

I disagree… I might not know who major industry or professional players are if I’m not in that industry or profession. There are various criteria that elp me determine if a Recommendation is worth something, but it’s not necessarily WHO does the recommendation.  I say this after getting an amazing endorsement from Ask The Headhunter himself on my LinekdIn DVD – that endorsement carries substantial credibility to industry insiders, but to people who don’t know Nick, it is “just another endorsement.”

In working with my Now What authors I find them looking for testimonials from people who they think have really big names but I have no idea who those big names are.  Insignificant.

>> in the end, smart buyers and employers will dig deeper to find where sellers and candidates shine

This is one of the beauties of Recommendations – on each Recommendation there is a link to the person’s Profile so you can actually contact them and do more deeper digging.

>> I won’t be giving anymore recommendations on [LinkedIn]… instead, I’ll use my blog and Twitter to provide them in a more organic area where there aren’t obvious filters –making the recommendations count even more.  The challenge of course is finding them will not be easy.

Make them count more?  You give out tweets like candy on Halloween… how is that any more credible?  And how can you give a real endorsement with reasoning on Twitter in 140 chars?  And your blog … I think you are severely limited to what you can write on your blog and who and what you can and will endorse.  LinkedIn’s recommendations are not the same thing as a Tweet or a blog post (I’d love for you to do a blog post on me or my stuff, but I consider the chances of that between nil and … nil).

As far as “making them easy to find,” I’d say that the recipient should have a website and link back to, or quote, the original post or tweet.  It is the recipient’s responsibility to make sure their audience can get the right, relevant information to make a decision.

Alright, here’s my disclaimer – Jeremiah is a smart guy and there is a reason he has such a big and loyal following.  This is not a knock in him but the logic in this old post is just too much for me to pass up on.

I have more thoughts, of course.  You can read my post How To Write An Excellent LinkedIn Recommendation at the link.  And, here’s a followup to Jeremiah’s post by Russ Somers, and here’s a response to Jeremiah’s post by LinkedIn on their own blog.

I’m regularly asked about the power and importance of LinkedIn Recommendations.  One issue that comes up has to do with one of my pet peeves: what to do when someone who you don’t know asks you for a LinkedIn Recommendation?

My answer is to ignore (archive) it.  Don’t even respond.

Here’s a humorous recommendation from Benjamin Franklin… you can find it on Google Books in Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin as well as in Little masterpieces of American Wit and humor.

Sir:  The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to give him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him, not even his name  This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you it is not uncommon here.  Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person brings another equally unknown, to recommend him; and sometimes they recommend one another!  As to this gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be.  I recommend him, however, to those civilities which every stranger, of whom one knows no harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him all the favor that, on further acquaintance, you shall find him to deserve.  I have the onor to be, etc.

Hillarious!

I spent some time on my JibberJobber blog today doing a LinkedIn Profile Makeover – go check it out!

Here’s a great post with 19 daily tasks for various social media platforms… 5 for Twitter, 6 for Facebook, 5 for LinkedIn, and 4 for blogs.  Understand that Chris Brogan is a pioneer in this space, and doing this has been a part of his job descriptions over the years (afaik)… doing all of these regularly (even weekly) might be way to much for the average mortal.

Nonetheless, there are great suggestions you can implement.  I don’t necessarily disagree with any of them, although I’d suggest and alternative to his 15th point (the last one in LinkedIn) …. only put slideshows or books that are relevant to your branding message, not distracting at all.  Don’t need to add more noise to your LinkedIn Profile.