Many business professionals use LinkedIn to help boost their career. LinkedIn allows you to connect with other business professionals, network with other people, learn more about specific companies, attend online presentations, join industry-related groups, read industry-related news and even find a new job.
Your LinkedIn profile also contains a variety of information. You can add personal and professional links to websites, current and past jobs, a small biography about yourself, and a list of awards and accomplishments.
One other feature on your LinkedIn profile is the ability for other people to be able to recommend you or for you to recommend someone else. These recommendations can help your LinkedIn reputation, but they can also be a nuisance. Some people swear by LinkedIn recommendations as a way to prove their value, and some people don’t pay any attention to this feature. Whether you love them or you hate them, the following are the pros and cons of LinkedIn recommendations.
Pro: It can improve your profile
LinkedIn has a set of basic guidelines that can help complete your profile and increase your overall visibility on the site. By having recommendations on your LinkedIn page, you are increasing the completeness of your profile and adding overall value. This can help your profile appear in front of other people in your industry, which can boost your connections. If your profile is lacking in information, a recommendation or two can make a huge difference.
Con: The process can be time consuming
When someone writes a recommendation for you, you have to accept the recommendation twice before it goes live on your profile. If you’re writing a recommendation for someone else, you will have to go through a bunch of different steps and questions before being able to actually write the recommendation. This process can be a nuisance to some people, making them less likely to leave recommendations.
Pro: It can help people learn more about you
When someone looks at your LinkedIn profile, they are generally doing so for a reason. Maybe they’re interested in professionally connecting or partnering with you, or maybe they want to add you to their own professional team. When you have recommendations on your profile, it will allow these viewers to learn more about you. They can then use these recommendations to learn more about whether or not they want to partner with you.
Con: Some people overdo the recommendations
While recommendations are important, there are some people that go overboard. These individuals reach out to anyone and everyone they’re connected with in order to try and elicit recommendations. They may send LinkedIn messages and email messages in order to retrieve recommendations. Not only do they annoy everyone with their constant begging, but then their LinkedIn profiles are so full of recommendations that they can also become a pain to scroll through. Plus, when someone has a variety of recommendations, it makes other users wonder if they’re really that good at their job, or if some of the recommendations are fake.
About the Author: Charlie Adams is a tech guru and IT specialist with Review Trackers. Charlie often blogs about technology and its role within the world of business in an attempt to educate.
Original cover photo source: Coletivo Mambembe
