If you want it done right, do it yourself: help your clients write and post their recommendations.

The online social networking site LinkedIn lets you connect with your business network, allowing you to stay in touch, build relationships and keep up­to-date with important changes to your contacts’ situ­ations — such as employment changes or business de­velopments. LinkedIn also has the ability to help build your credibility with new connections and potential prospects using the Recommendations feature.

Recommendations are testimonials added to your LinkedIn profile by existing connections in your network who have worked with you and want to share their ex­perience with others. A good recommendation can be an extremely powerful marketing tool because it can highlight things about your product, service or company that you couldn’t say yourself without sounding overly self-promotional or too salesy.

Many of your clients are probably willing to give you a glowing recommendation, but getting them to sit down and actually write it for you can be a challenge. Even if they do write one, not everyone is a gifted recommenda­tion writer and you may end up with a single paragraph, or a recommendation that sounds nice, but doesn’t help show the benefits of working with you.

Make It Easy for Them

The best way to receive the kind of recommendation that helps sell you in the best possible light is to have a third party interview your client and then write the recommendation for them. Clients often are more gener­ous with their praise to a third party, and many people find it easier to talk about an experience than to write about it.

It may seem like extra work, but interviews are actually the best way to guarantee well-written recommendations and usually turn out a lot quicker in the long run.

The best time to ask a client for a recommendation is after you have recently worked together, so the experience is fresh in their mind and they are still feeling very enthusiastic.

Ask your client if they would mind giving you a testimonial through a 5-10 minute interview with a third party. Let them know once the interview is complete, your third party interviewer will compile the discussion into a 2 to 4 paragraph testimonial in your client’s own words and send it to them for final approval.

To do this, you can hire a copywriter to conduct the interviews and write your recommendations, or simply ask someone you know who is a great listener and will be able to identify the important keys to the interview and put it into the right format.

7 Questions That Guarantee Great Recommendations

Have your interviewer ask the following questions:

1. What problem or situation were you experiencing before working with ABC Company?
2. What other options did you explore before you decided to work with ABC Company?
3. Did you have any doubts or concerns before engaging ABC Company, and how did they overcome them?
4. Why did you choose to work with ABC Company over their competitors?
5. What results did you get from working with ABC Company?
6. What most impressed you about working with ABC Company?
7. What type of person or business would you recommend works with ABC Company and why?

Once the questions have been answered, your  inter­viewer should use the words and unique voice of the person giving the recommendation to ensure they are happy with the result and will post the recommendation to LinkedIn.

Adding the Recommendation to Your LinkedIn Profile

Once the recommendation is completed, you need to ask your client to add the recommendation to LinkedIn with these steps:

1. Visit your personal LinkedIn profile; send them the link directly to this so they don’t have to search for you;
2. Select the “recommend this person” option;
3. Choose the service provider option which highlights they are a client of yours;
4. Select the company, category and year they hired you;
5. Select your top 3 attributes – these include: great results, personable, expert, good value, on time, high integrity and creative;
6. Add the recommendation that you created for them in the written recommendation field and then send it to you.

Once the Recommendation has been sent to you, you’ll need to approve it so it updates your profile.