Why I Use LinkedIn Recommendations
Last Friday, Jeremiah Owyang published a blog titled Requested Recommendations on Social Networks: Why I Won’t Do It. I really enjoy Jeremiah’s blog because he elevates the conversation around social networking and generally provide thoughtful insight, but on this one I have to disagree with most of the points in his this post. So much so, that I’m deviating from my usual topics of social media planning and execution to write this post. Requested or not, LinkedIn recommendations do have value and they should be one of your points of reference about candidates.
Maybe I’m an idealist, just too pragmatic, or maybe I care too much about my reputation. Regardless of whether a recommendation is via LinkedIn or another source – requested or not – I won’t put anything in a recommendation that I don’t feel is the honest truth. Just as I won’t recommend a person for a job if I don’t think they are a qualified fit. I attempt to be objective, and not display a recommendation for me if I don’t think it is accurate. As with a marriage, I firmly believe that there can be no misrepresentation up front if the employment or consulting relationship is to be long and fruitful.
Why I like LinkedIn Recommendations:
- As one hiring manager I recently spoke with put it, they provide more rounded perspective on an individual because “…they add texture to the person that you can’t derive from the profile and resume.”.
- They give me a list of references to consider contacting when hiring an individual – beyond the three recommendations that may have been provided on the job application.
- Anecdotal information sometimes found in LinkedIn recommendation provide insights into the person that can be explored further.
- Provided there are multiple recommendations from the same time period, they may provide information that can be easily cross-referenced between recommenders who worked with the candidate during the same period. How many times have you found something out about a candidate in call to the second, third or fourth recommender only to wish you knew so you could have asked an earlier one? Some of these can be identified up front.
- References (positive and negative) from more organic locations like blogs and Twitter are all well and good for those of us in social media or who work in companies or industries who have heavily adopted social networking. But for those don’t, this is not an option. And I’d wager that of everybody using LinkedIn, there are more folks in this circumstance than not. For them, LinkedIn is the primary social networking location for this information. An example, what are the chances that a fourth year accountant at a small non-social media savvy manufacturing company has existing organic references on blogs and twitter? Probably slim to none.
Now I’m not naive, and know far well that there is some puffery out there. The objectivity of any recommendation should always be examined – not just LinkedIn recommendations. As Miriam Salpeter commented to Jeremiah’s post, “No one should make a decision based on one piece of evidence…” And as Russ Somers also commented, ”Even the Unabomber can come up with three people who will say positive things about them.” As with any reference check whether by phone, email or other means, the old adage, “ask, then verify” holds true. ”
I will continue to use the recommendation engine at LinkedIn, and I hope others will too. As for Jeremiahs’ decision not to, I could understand if it was an issue of volume (too many requests), but not because the methodology is flawed. Any method of recommendation has some shortcomings.
What do you think?
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I think that LinkedIn references provide anyone interested in the person with the external verification and accreditation that we like to see. For Instance, if your looking at the CV of a person and google them to get some understanding of their background beyond what they have presented, these references can make all the difference, they show who the person has been dealing with, in what capacity and how well the person delivered on expectation.
Regarding the accuracy of the Linked In references I think they are as accurate as any standard reference given by anyone. If there turnout to be significant variation between the person and the reference, standard interaction highlights this. As with any other kind of reference.
I have about 10 years of recruiting experience beyond the time I have spent in Social networking. I find the LinkedIn recommendations wonderful. It is an easy way to get a sense of a candidate or prospect from their profile and recommendations. It provides a good sense to develop interview questions or further topics to delve into in a reference.
With anything, you need to verify the information there. I have rarely done a bad reference. Yes, you can refuse or ask for a re-write on a reference. So what? I am more inclined to believe what is out on a public site than the phone number of a supposed manager of a candidate. You never really knew sometimes if you were talking to the former manager or his uncle.
LinkedIn provides a way to cross reference information. It is another business tool for professionals. The best way to get accurate references on a candidate is to use multiple sources including your own network if possible.
If Jeremiah doesn’t want to provide LinkedIn recommendations, fine for him. However, it is a wonderful tool for the employment sector.
I believe recommendations are valuable for at least two reasons: (1) they give recruiters some insight into the subject’s strengths (especially if they are consistent) and (2) they provide the subject with information about how s/he is viewed by others.
I fully agree that LinkedIn recommendations should be used as a tool to prepare for conventional reference checks. Reading what others say is a great way to determine the best questions to ask while on the phone.
The one thing that everyone seems to be missing in this discussion is that the unique benefit to having recommendations in LinkedIn is that the person reading the comments can gauge what to believe based on their degrees of separation with the reference. As stated, recommendations in general can only be used to a certain extent (e.g. the unabomber comment). However, I might be inclined to ask my friend Fred to tell me more about his friend Ricky who gave a recommendation for a possible candidate. It’s also important to read all recommendations that Ricky has given (which can easily be done) to get a sense as to his judgement and willingness to recommend people.
I remember a TV commercial from a few years ago where the company encouraged viewers to “know your source”. This is very applicable here.
I agree with everything above. The key is to manage the ones you receive. If someone sends you a recommendation full of “fluff” I think you have every right, to either ask the writer to add some specifics, or not post it on your profile.
As for giving recommendations, if you can’t think of anything but “fluff” for the recommendation you are giving, you probably shouldn’t be writing them one in the first place.
Steve,
I agree with you that LinkedIn recommendations – and that they need to be taken with a grain of salt. While no one is going to be putting a negative recommendation on their profile, the fact that someone has recommendations is important for at least 2 reasons.
First, it shows that a person has former managers, colleagues or connections that will vouch for them. Secondly, it shows the type of connections that the person associated with during their career.
Just like I see red flags when someone has a lame LinkedIn profile, I see a bigger red flag if someone doesn’t have any recommendations.
Tom Humbarger