How many LinkedIn connections do you have that you really know? That you know well enough to want to be seen associating with them in business? Well enough to invite them in to your business “front door”?
OK, now you are getting nervous-you know you are connected to people you do not know well. Or not at all, but you just don’t want to reject them because it is uncomfortable.
Well, get past that. Disconnection is healthy.
Going forward, connect to people you know through business dealings. So that brings your connection group down to a critical mass, right?
Now take 2% of that critical mass number and that equals the number of recommendations you should have on LinkedIn. That’s the Halpert Rule.
Why this percentage? I have found that 2% of your connections should love you so well as to gleefully offer their recommendation of your work. The other 98% still like you, but not as much as the 2% who go the extra distance for you. committing their name and reputation to recommending you in writing!
Nothing scientific but it seems to work, and I practice it too: I have 60 recommendations from my 3120 connections. That’s 1.92%; a couple more recommendations are in the cooker. About 2 to 3% is ok; more than that is over the top.
You don’t have that many recommendations? Go get some more, and choose the top 2% from your connections whom you can easily ask.
Help them by advising what facet of your work you demonstrated that you would like them to offer a recommendation: in essence write most of it for them and they will return to you a reasonable version of what you were seeking.
There, the eponymous Halpert Rule.
