I have been taking a little bit of my own medicine and am participating in my own LinkedIn Challenge this week.  The challenge is to recommend 5 people by this Thursday at 9:30am.  That means spending 10 minutes a day on LinkedIn, writing quality recommendations for your connections.

How to Achieve a High Return on Connections

Connect with people that will add value to your network. Basically, everyone.  But that being said, don’t be a serial connector – add with care, meaning add with thought.  If you are adding every single person on LinkedIn, you better send each and every one of them a personalized message as to why you want to connect with them.

A good ROC is a high recommendation-connections ratio.  Without recommendations, no one looking at your profile can feel warm and fuzzy inside that you do good stuff.  You might be the CEO of this company and the Inventor of that product, but without human endorsement, that means nothing.

What’s the point? This is an exercise in how to effectively use LinkedIn.  If you’re not already 100% complete, this challenge is for you.  If you already have 3, 10, or 675 recommendations, this challenge is also for you!  Everyone can benefit from giving recommendations – you make someone’s day, you help increase their network, and you might receive one back.

So, on with the challenge!  Today is Day 2 of 4, so hopefully but now you’ve recommended a couple people.

How are you coming along in the challenge?