How to Create a LinkedIn Recommendation

By Joel Elad from LinkedIn For Dummies, 2nd Edition

3 of 7 in Series: The Essentials of LinkedIn Recommendations

After you have gone through your list of LinkedIn contacts, and determined who you can recommend without damaging your reputation, you’re ready to write your first LinkedIn Recommendation. To create a Recommendation, first you need to pull up the person’s profile:

1.Click the My Connections link (part of the Contacts set of links) from the top navigation bar of any page.
2.Select the person you’re recommending from the connections list that appears.

Your Recommendation goes directly to that person, not prospective employers. Any prospective employer who wants a specific reference can request it through a Reference search on LinkedIn.
3.Visit the profile of the person you want to recommend.

Before you write up your recommendation, review the person’s experience, summary, professional headline, and other elements of his profile to get a sense of what skills, attributes, or results should be reflected in your recommendation of that person. Then follow these steps:
Click the Recommend This Person link to the right of her name and photo.
Select a category for that person.

As soon as you click the Recommend This Person link, you’re immediately prompted to choose an option describing how you know this person.

Your four choices are
- Colleague: You worked together at the same company.
- Service Provider: You hired the person to provide a service to you or your company.
- Business Partner: You worked with the person but not as a client or colleague.
- Student: You went to school with the person, either as a fellow student or as a teacher.
Click the Go button.

The Create Your Recommendation page appears.
4.Define your relationship with the person you’re recommending by answering a few questions.

Each of the three drop-down boxes asks you to pick an answer from a predefined list. Specifically, you will be asked to
- Define the basis of the recommendation: If you’re a colleague of the person, LinkedIn wants to know whether you managed or worked side by side with the other party, or whether that person was the manager or senior official. If you’re a business partner, LinkedIn wants to know whether you worked at a different company from the other person or whether the person was a client of yours.
- Define your title at the time: Identify which position you held when you observed the behavior in the other person you’re recommending. If your experience overlaps multiple positions, pick the position that best defines your relationship with the other party.
- Define the other person’s title at the time: You can enter only one Recommendation per position, but you can recommend the other party on multiple positions.
5.Write the Recommendation in the Written Recommendation field.

Believe it or not, people judge you by the comments you leave about others, not just what they say about you. So, look over your Recommendation before you post it, and watch for obvious spelling or grammatical errors.
(Optional) Include a note in the Personalize This Message text box.

When you send your Recommendation, you have the option to also attach a personal note.
Click Send.