Fishing for Compliments

Dear Alisa and Gina,

With the pervasive power of social networking tools I am connected with lots of people I haven’t actually worked with in some time. This is great but it also has some challenges."

I just received a request to write a recommendation for someone I worked with 20 years ago. I'm not in the same field and I haven't been for a long time, so I feel like I can't comment on anything like her current work or business. Should I reply and tell her what's holding me back? Should I ignore this request? I'm really at a loss. ~ Not a big fan

I think you should tell your colleague what your concerns are. What online requests have done is make everything less personal. More than likely the request to you went to dozens of people at one time. By reaching out with a personal touch, you have the potential to help your friend even more. ~Alisa

Send her this: “Can you believe it’s been 20 years since we worked together? Now that I think of it, it would be better if you get someone who can write a more up-to-date recommendation – it would have more credibility.” ~ Gina