At the end of September, 2012, LinkedIn announced its latest feature: Endorsements. At the beginning of March this year, the one billionth endorsement was made (It was for Water Treatment!). I’ve heard a lot of griping over the months about what a sham Endorsements are, but on the other hand it’s so easy to add your stamp of approval to all your best connections. Whether we love it or hate it, Endorsements are here to stay; LinkedIn has invested too much to cut the cord now.
So I say, “Get over it and use it to your advantage” !To make the most of LinkedIn and Endorsements, follow these tips.
You can be endorsed for up to 50 skills.
My top 10 endorsements are social media marketing, teaching, marketing, email marketing, and customer service. These are basically keywords for myself (which LinkedIn and other search engines love), so the more keywords/skills I have, the better.
You can manage your endorsements.
While editing your profile, you can edit your endorsements. After clicking the pencil icon you can
- Add or delete a skill
- Hide a specific endorsement
- Choose whether or not you will display your endorsements on your profile
- Change the positioning of the endorsement section on your profile
List skills that are consistent with your current or future business strategy.
On top of that, make sure your most important skills are the most-endorsed skills. Just because you have crazy interpretive dance skills that doesn’t necessarily mean you want it at the top of your list where the majority of your profile viewers will look.
Only accept endorsements you want to show and that you actually have.
If you get a message from LinkedIn saying someone wants to endorse you for Penguin Caregiving and you don’t actually know how to care for penguins or don’t want it shown on your profile, don’t accept the endorsement. It’s okay, not all of us can be Mr. Popper.
Endorsements may be part of the LinkedIn search algorithm.
They may not be yet, but they will be. This goes back to using endorsements as keywords – the more you have the more likely you’ll be found for a certain skill.
Endorsements may differentiate you.
If your profile looks similar to another candidates, having 100 more endorsements for a certain skill(s) may be the differentiating factor.
Endorsing someone might grab their attention.
Not only does your face and name appear on their profile, but they get an email telling them what skill you endorsed them for. Easy points.
Hopefully, some of you will start to realize the benefit you can get from endorsements. They may be great, but don’t forget about recommendations as well. Wayne Breitbarth, LinkedIn Guru, recommends you get two or three recommendations for every job entry on your profile. Reading a few positive sentences about your work ethic and skills may say more to a potential employer/client/customer/partner than many of your endorsements. You can never have too many of either.
Still have questions about LinkedIn Endorsements or anything else related to LinkedIn? Click below to register for our July 10 live Q&A webinar with Wayne Breitbarth. Don’t wait as “seating” is limited and filling quickly.
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