It’s been a while, well over a year actually, since you and I talked about LinkedIn Endorsements. I do need to talk about LinkedIn endorsements though. They are here and they are here to stay. Well, as sure as we can be with any feature of LinkedIn to stay. 🙂
What you ought to know already about LinkedIn Endorsements
Last year I shared some useful information. Love ’em or hate ’em, they are part of your LinkedIn reality. Might as well make the most of this feature. I hear people complain that endorsements have no value as people can click quite willy-nilly on your skills. True. You don’t have to accept that though! Find out in just 30 sec how to get only genuine LinkedIn endorsements. Having said that … once people start endorsing your skills, LinkedIn automatically puts the skill that is endorsed most on the top. No need to put up with that! This is YOUR profile so take back control over your ‘bingo card’. UPDATE MAY 2017: Bingo card is gone, read this instead. (Still useful info below).
Why do you need LinkedIn Endorsements on your profile?
Well, they make quite a nice colourful addition don’t you think? Your LinkedIn profile is all about telling people what YOU want them to know. Endorsements validate your words cos others agree that you are good at the skills you claim you’ve mastered. I actually dragged my skills section to the top for that reason. Visitors read my summary first, where I talk (a lot) about myself and straight after they see my words validated by my network. Pretty cool if you ask me.
Another reason you need endorsements is to help people find you. What if someone needs a copywriter, you happen to be a copywriter, but they don’t know you? They’ll most likely search in Google and maybe even on LinkedIn. Keywords help you appear in those search results. What better place to add them then in the only spot where you don’t have to craft beautiful sentences around them?
Something else I need to tell you…
Technically this is not about LinkedIn endorsements (and neither was my last point). It is about skills, but with skills come endorsements, so time to embrace them. Have you ever clicked ON a skill on someone’s profile? Takes you to a wonderful place. A place where you find articles on that topic, groups about the topic, jobs related to the topic and … professionals on that topic! So if someone clicked on ‘copywriting’ surely you want to be shown!
Best way to get honest LinkedIn Endorsements
Just ask! Ask people that you trust and value, so you know they won’t click just to be nice. It goes like this: “Hi Jill, I finally applied some TLC to my LinkedIn profile and even gave my skills section a bit of a shake up. Would love if you could visit my profile, scroll down to my skills and endorse any you truly believe I’m any good at. If there is anything I can do for you … don’t be shy and reach out.” See, easy peace, just ask.
Final thought … do not, I repeat DO NOT send one message through LinkedIn to multiple recipients. First of all, how genuine is that? Can’t be bothered to repeatedly copy/paste your message and address it properly? Even more worrisome … this now creates a group-chat that is like the Hotel California… you can check out anytime, but you can never leave. Please don’t do this to people you value (or to anyone really).