Lately, I’ve had a couple experiences that have expanded my perspective of a recommendation. Moreover, I’ve learned that a recommendation isn’t just a letter. You can forward a connection on LinkedIn, introduce two people at a networking event and even recommend followers on Twitter through #followfriday. There are a lot of ways to help build others’ networks, but that means there are also more ways for you to lose credibility.

What’s important to remember is that recommending someone, especially when you are young in your career, should not be taken lightly and your credibility is at stake. Whether you’re recommending a friend or a connection for an internship, leadership position or offering your approval on LinkedIn, you can be tied to that person’s successes and failures. I found a good post on LinkedIn’s blog that discusses the reputation economy and it’s a good read for advice on how and when to recommend someone, particularly in using LinkedIn.

It’s easy for college students to not even think twice about connecting a good friend to a recruiter at the company you’ve worked for. I know it’s happened to me before. However, it’s important for young professionals to remember some things about making recommendations. Here are some tips about who to recommend and when:

• Make a recommendation based on a joint project or while working for the same company/organization. Whether you are recommending a colleague, or someone higher up or below you, you should be able to describe several experiences with positive or meaningful outcomes you have shared with that person.
• Don’t be afraid to say no when asked for a recommendation. If you feel that you haven’t worked enough with that person to justify writing a quality and accurate recommendation, it will show in what you write. Offer other help, such as a resume critique, mock interview or send a few job postings.
• Be clear and concise. If you determine you can make a recommendation, make sure you explicitly state how you have worked with that person and what the experience was like. Offer advice on what kind of situations you know that person would do well in.
• Be sure to take the recommendation seriously. The best recommendations I’ve received haven’t been wordy descriptions of my abilities, but they have been professional, accurate representations of what I am capable of. Write a compelling lead and make sure you keep your reader involved throughout the recommendation.
• Your credibility is at stake. When you recommend someone who does not follow through, it reflects poorly on you and it might impact your relationship with recruiters.
• As with everything, be honest with your recommendation. If you over exaggerate abilities and skills in the letter, it’s only going to reflect poorly on you.

Also, a couple people in my Twitter network chimed in with their thoughts. Here’s what they had to say:

• Becky Johns said she only recommends people to contacts if she can actually vouch for their work.
• According to Karen Russell, recommend with caution — that is, your reputation is on the line, too.
• Tressa Robbins said to be absolutely sure before recommending them OR say that you’re not sure but think they’d be worth interviewing.

What would you add about recommending other young professionals? Any advice for those swimming in these waters?

I attended a presentation last week given by Dr. Richard Cole and Andy Corner, APR. Dr. Cole is the Department Chair of APRR at MSU and Andy is an instructor in the department. They have been working on some research about the level of writing skills associated with entry-level public relations practitioners.

Dr. Cole blogged about the specific findings here, but here is a quick summary. The survey reflects the views of 848 PR practitioners from PRSA.

• Only 14 percent of PR supervisors think their subordinates are good writers
• Writing for the media amounts to around 20 percent of the entry-level PR practitioner’s time spent in the day
• Supervisors graded their subordinates less than 3 out of 5
• Nearly half the respondents have been reducing expectations of entry-level writing skills

Basically, we need to get our act together.

I think there’s a lot of reasons why this is occurring. First, if you look at the more seasoned professionals, many of them have degrees in journalism and/or worked at a newspapers. Now, many schools have a public relations major and that’s where much of the PR industry is recruiting from. Another reason. While I don’t have any research or stats to back this one up, it’s something I have noticed. Shannon Paul once told me that the future of the public relations industry will need to be able to balance new media with traditional practices, and I think that’s the best approach a student can take.

If  you’re not a journalism major, you can still saturate your degree with writing courses. I’ve found that my political science, English and foreign language courses to be the most useful now that I’m learning a different form of writing. I studied French all four years in high school and that taught me more about grammar than I ever learned in any English class (sadly). At least within my circle of PR students, many of us are intimidated by a “low grade” in a writing class, but sometimes we have to bite the bullet to make the most of your degree.

Here are some resources to improve your writing in addition to your classes:

• Copyblogger. Read it. No questions asked.
• Various AP Style exercises: Newsroom 101, Platform Magazine, OK Cupid.
• Your internship experience should include not only agency and corporate components, but a writing component as well. Work at your college newspaper, write for various departments and offices in the university.. anything. Just make sure you have a supervisor who is willing to make your projects bleed.
• Join the conversation on-line. Writing a blog will let you make those embarrassing mistakes that lead to you being called out. Just make the mistake and learn from it.
• Proofing your work. Honestly, I used to never read my work (shame, shame) and I learned the hard way that this really is essential. By printing off your column or release and reading it over, I’ve learned some valuable lessons about proofing and writing.

The bottom line is that you need to be a good writer to be a solid public relations professional. That doesn’t mean you need to write a certain number of press releases, opinion editorials, etc. Remember when I talked about being a strategist rather than a tactician? Learning to be a good writer should be part of your career strategy.

How else can students improve their writing? Can writing only be improved through classes? Are there any other resources we should know about to help improve writing?

Photo by churl on Flickr.