Elevate Your Credibility: Mastering Social Proof on LinkedIn

My mom's famous words..."Trust BUT Verify"!

image created using DALL-E 3

Trust and credibility heavily influence professional success. It's true in everything we do. Understanding how to make the most of "social proof" has become a cornerstone for building a strong reputation. Whether you're seeking new opportunities, nurturing existing connections, or aiming to establish authority in your field, the power of platforms like LinkedIn is essential.

Let’s explore the art of what a compelling and credible digital presence on LinkedIn looks like through skill endorsements, recommendations, and strategic engagement.

How to Build Social Proof To Form Your Credibility

But prove it to me!

Social proof, based on the idea of normative social influence, is the influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them and it is the lifeblood of any business.

Your LinkedIn profile is a great way to build up a stock of recommendations and glowing words from colleagues, vendors, current and past clients, and others.

On LinkedIn, there are two types of social proof - Skill Endorsements and Recommendations.

Each one is important for different reasons.

The Skill Endorsements Section

This section confuses many people. Skills are essentially keywords that the recruiting Talent Solutions platform uses when matching employees to job openings.

It’s wise to make use of all 50 slots for an optimized profile - but only list skills that are important and consistent with your current or future business strategy. Generic skills are meaningless to your target audience.

PRO TIP: Look at your competitors and see what skills they are ranking for.

According to LinkedIn, people who list at least five skills receive up to 17x more profile views. The more endorsement counts you have for your skills, the higher you’ll rank in the search results.

You can only endorse your first level connections. And endorsing one of your connections for an obvious skill is not disingenuous. But it does help to know the person or at the very least choose a skill that they are known for as noted on their profile.

When used as a gesture of kindness, endorsements are a great way to get their attention - like a gentle tap on the shoulder. They’ll get a notification that you endorsed them, and two out of three times, they’ll reciprocate or send you a message acknowledging it. This is an easy way of building credibility to nurture your network.

It may even spark a conversation!

Skills Deeper Dive

You can designate up to three skills to have featured in your profile. Rotate the order once you reach the 99+ benchmark. Strive to get 99+ endorsements for each!

LinkedIn’s data as seen through its 800+ million members provides a clearer picture of how workers’ skills have changed over time, and how they may need to change in the years to come.

LinkedIn Skills Assessment

To kick it up a notch, LinkedIn now offers a built-in tool called LinkedIn Skills Assessment. This feature allows you to demonstrate your knowledge of the skills you've added on your profile by completing assessments specific to those skills and is particularly useful if you are changing careers or job seeking.

It also helps increase your profile visibility. Vedran Rasic and his team over at one of my favorite apps, LeadDelta, have published a super informative article on how to make the most of this feature. Check it out.

PRO TIP: Most Libraries offer access to LinkedIn Learning for FREE. There are quite a few courses that will provide you with a certificate of completion.

The Recommendations Section

Walt Whitman once said, “If you did it, it ain’t bragging.” So if someone else says kind words about what you’ve done in the form of a recommendation, that goes a long way!

While skill endorsements are helpful, particularly for job seekers, full-on recommendations are much more powerful.

Testimonials are the highest level of social proof and are vitally important in building trust.

From a prospecting point of view, sincere recommendations provide helpful information and insights you can use when sending invitations to connect. Reading what people write about others will give you a glimpse into the person.

PRO TIP: When reading someone's recommendations, you can see how people refer to them.For instance my profile name is JUDITH but people who know me, refer to me as JUDI!

Here's how to ask for recommendations:

Seize the Moment

Opportunities to ask for recommendations in a non-intrusive way happen all the time if we look for them.

Let’s say you facilitate a webinar or something similar where there is an audience. After your presentation, send out a survey asking for feedback. Review the feedback, and if you find a few quotes that speak to your knowledge, etc., reach out and thank whoever paid a compliment. Ask them if you could include their feedback on your LinkedIn profile.

Go a step further and copy and paste what they wrote to make it easy for them, and request it from the LinkedIn platform. In return, you could offer them a copy of your slide presentation or handout as an incentive.

Aim for an approximate 3:2 ratio of recommendations received versus given. People who receive AND give recommendations appear to be actively engaged LinkedIn members.

PRO TIP: Try not to request multiple recommendations on the same day.

Recommendations with the same date could look suspect. Instead, have a game plan to reach out to a couple of people regularly, at least once a month.

Think about giving recommendations to others when you’ve had a positive experience. But don’t expect one back. Do it because you want to share a random act of kindness. "Quid pro quo" recommendations appear less credible.

When you recommend someone, you put your credibility behind that person- it is important that you mean it!

By originating the recommendation on LinkedIn, it stays with your profile. You can then copy the text and add it to your website and other marketing materials.

Key Takeaways

✅   Social proof, particularly on LinkedIn, plays a vital role in building credibility and trust in the professional sphere.

✅   Skill endorsements and recommendations are crucial for enhancing visibility and conveying expertise on LinkedIn.

✅   Leveraging skill assessments can demonstrate and validate one's expertise, especially when in career transition or job seeking.

✅   Proactively seeking and providing recommendations fosters credibility and trust, and nurtures networking opportunities.

✅   Maintain a balanced approach, including endorsing others and requesting recommendations periodically to avoid appearing disingenuous.

✅   Utilizing social proof effectively not only enhances one's LinkedIn profile but also facilitates meaningful connections and opportunities for professional growth.

✅   LinkedIn's evolving features and tools, such as the Skill Endorsements Section and LinkedIn Skills Assessment, offer valuable opportunities for profile optimization and career advancement.

Now over to you! How will you build your credibility?

------------------------------------------

This article is excerpted from the book Elevate Expand Engage- pages 44 - 47

© 2024 Judi Hays. All Rights Reserved.