I’ve been discovering all sorts of uses for feedback recently, but I’ve come across a neat idea of how to make even more use of recommendations too. Jason Alba, in his “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What” blog has pointed out that just leaving a recommendation lying statically on LinkedIn is rather wasteful of a precious resource. After all, someone has gone to the trouble of crafting an honest yet strongly supportive assessment of your abilities, the least you can do is celebrate it.
In his article Recommendations: So What???, he promotes the idea that you should share the recommendation outside of LinkedIn. His suggestion is to use the time-honoured publishing technique of quoting the most relevant snippet, rather than reproducing the whole statement as it was written. This of course means that you can choose the part of the recommendation which aligns most closely with the brand you wish to project.
“Arthur always ensures that the IT solution is the best possible one for the business”
As one reader commented, it may be a sensible precaution to ask the recommender’s permission before publishing their comment more widely. Although fair use means you could get away without their permission, it does seem wise to make sure you do not bite the hand that feeds you with glowing opinions. Also you can also ask the person if they mind the recommendation being overtly attributed to them. You might find it more powerful to say
David Bottomley, successful Change Consultant, found that Arthur always ensured that the IT solution was the best possible one for the business