Six Tips For Using LinkedIn Endorsements

Want to further enhance your “Social Proof” and online credibility? Want to have your achievements and accomplishments validated by others and not being simply viewed as just something which you’re boasting about? LinkedIn now makes it a lot easier.

LinkedIn Endorsements

As a LinkedIn user, you’re probably well aware of the many changes which LinkedIn has recently implemented. Of all the changes, one that caught my attention and which I’ve started to use is the new “Endorsements” feature. This addition, rolled out on a limited geographical basis on Monday, provides LinkedIn users with the ability to endorse people that they are connected to on LinkedIn.

Similar in many respects to a Facebook Like, and a +K on Klout, an endorsement now makes it easier for people to recommend others without having to go through the somewhat tedious and time consuming process of a full fledged recommendation. Although not as thorough, it still goes a long way to validating that the claims that an individual has made on their profile are real and not something which has been made up. There are still ways of gaming this, however, so like everything else in Social Media, one needs to “peel back the onion” and carefully review all aspects of someone’s profile to see if the person is genuine and has the experience and educational background that supports their skills and expertise.

Six Tips For Using LinkedIn’s Endorsements

1)Make sure that the LinkedIn Skills & Expertise section is displayed on your profile and that your top skills are listed in descending order of importance for the position that you have or are seeking.

2)Move the LinkedIn Skills & Expertise section to the top of your LinkedIn profile so that it is right below the Summary section. This will position it in a clearly visible area of the profile; essentially “above the fold”. This can be moved by going into the edit mode of LinkedIn and clicking on the top of the section and dragging it into position.

3)Check out the profiles of your key contacts and if they don’t have the Sills & Expertise section displayed on their profiles make sure that they add it. Send an email to them or call them. Explain the added exposure, the ability to be more readily found via a LinkedIn search, and the enhancement to their credibility which they’ll receive by using it. This is an important development!

Tips 4-6 and Complete Article