Okay, so recently while on vacation in New Orleans, I started getting these LinkedIn endorsement emails. When I would click on the button to view them, I would ALWAYS come to the following page (image left), so I thought it was spam.
Then I’m reading Social Media Examiner RSS feed the other day and I notice they linked to a LinkedIn’s Slideshare account about how you can now endorse someone in one click. So then I thought, “Oh, that’s what those must be”.
So I followed the instructions and viewed my profile and viewed all of the endorsements for me. But I had a slight issue:
The emails say that I am endorsed for social media. Yet, on the LinkedIn site it says that I am endorsed for Online Advertising. Huh? So I dismissed that and scrolled down to my Skills and Expertise section and that’s where it highlights that I am endorsed for Social Media Marketing, Social Media, LinkedIn, Web Project Management, and Marketing Strategy. Now THAT’s a little more like it.
So after all of that, once I accessed it, LinkedIn asked me if I wanted to endorse people I knew and it was like crack. I couldn’t stop. I kept on clicking on people and endorsing them or clicking on the x to dismiss them if I didn’t like them or know them well. I am connected to over 1,000 people (I’ve also been working professionally for 20 years and according to the IRS since, 28 years, so I have a lot of connections.)
What’s the benefit?
For starters, anyone looking at your profile can see this, including recruiters and it gives a clear picture about what your skills are to anyone viewing your profile.
You have the option of hiding endorsements if you like. Like for example, I switched careers from operations and project management to social media and marketing, so if someone wanted to endorse me for operations or project management, I may not want to display that on my profile.
Etiquette?
Well, like all social media goes, you should say ‘thank you’ by sending a message to the person who endorsed you.
What I wish? Is that LinkedIn would have sent a message out to all users rather than just announcing it on their blog because I logged a support ticket thinking it was a scam. The other thing I wish is that you could request endorsements, but right now that’s not a feature.
How do you like the new LinkedIn Endorsement feature? Let me know in the comments below.
Hi Tracy, this is a nice intro post about LinkedIn endorsements.
The feature has now been out long enough that the clients of our PR/social media agency are reporting experiences with endorsements that are a bit troubling. I blogged about it here:
http://www.wordwritepr.com/Blog/bid/111996/To-endorse-or-not-to-endorse-that-is-LinkedIn-s-question-here-s-my-answer
Hi Paul, I liked your angle, but i’m not sure I totally agree with your blog. I for one, actually look at the people and the skill that LinkedIn is recommending I endorse for and if I disagree, I just don’t endorse. I would also like to think that because LinkedIn is a more mature and more professional social network that people are more thoughtful about who they endorse and recommend. I actually think the endorsements are a good thing. And I also think that there is nothing wrong with being endorsed for something that you used to do – especially if you were good at it. It rounds out your experience. And at the end of the day, a person who is more rounded usually has more to contribute to a job rather than a person who has built a more vertical resume.
Hi Tracy! Thanks for your response. I agree that endorsements have the potential to be a good feature. The problem is not you or your ethos in endorsing. It’s that the endorsements feature has not been explained to people by LinkedIn and it’s promoted in a way that people who really have no basis for an endorsement are endorsing people. I have had three or four careers (depending on how you would count politics/government) so I’ve had the opportunity to gather (and put on my LI profile) plenty of skills. The problem is not being well-rounded, it’s that people who have no professional basis to judge a particular skill are continually prompted to endorse people for those skills and they do so, without thinking, because LI makes it so convenient (and is so relentlessly persistent about it). For an endorsement to have meaning, it should come from someone who has experience of you demonstrating mastery of that skill. I am seeing and hearing from clients and colleagues whose perspectives I respect that this is far too often NOT the case. I do hope that like so many social media concepts, LinkedIn figures out a way to make this truly valuable.