Every once in a while, I will come across a LinkedIn profile with skills but NO LinkedIn Endorsements. This is very unusual, since LinkedIn actually works to help you get endorsed for the skills you list. Usually, it is because the profile owner has either deliberately – or accidentally – turned OFF the Endorsement feature. LinkedIn Endorsements help you on a number of levels and I always recommend leaving them on. Here is how LinkedIn Endorsements work and how to adjust your LinkedIn Endorsement settings.
LinkedIn Endorsements help people understand what you do and the skills you have as well as providing third party credibility. If you are looking for someone to help you with your email marketing, you might search and see that I have expertise in this area. If you then see that someone you KNOW has endorsed me for this skill, it give me more credibility as well as gives you the name of someone to know and trust, to ask about their experience with me.
But say that I list ‘brain surgery’ as a skill. I do NOT in fact, know how to do brain surgery but hey, I can write anything I want on my skill list. LinkedIn is a free tool, with little oversight. They can’t check every skill every member claims to have so I can add anything I want.
But what LinkedIn DOES do, is to ask people who are linked to me and who DO know me, if I have the skills I list. In my case, I have literally hundreds of people who have endorsed me for my Email Marketing and Online Marketing skills. Ditto for Blogging and Social Media. And while maybe one or two people might absentmindedly endorse me for brain surgery if LinkedIn asked them, it would quickly become obvious that this was NOT one of my strongest skills.
LinkedIn Endorsements are an important component of a fully optimized profile and I highly recommend leaving them on. If for some reason you are not being endorsed, be sure to check your settings! Here is how to check your LinkedIn Endorsement settings:
NOTE: this is best done on the full website version, not via the mobile app.
Go into your account and go to ‘Profile’ and ‘Edit Profile’
Scroll down to your SKILLS section.
Once in that section, hover over the upper right hand corner.
You will see bunch of little pencil icons (you will NOT see them until you hover over that area with your cursor) – click on the one in the upper right hand corner of the skills section to go into edit mode.
Once you click this, you will see new options:
Be sure that you check ‘YES’ that you do want to be endorsed. I recommend checking the other boxes as well.
You want to be included in endorsement suggestions to your connections in order to maximize the likelihood that you will be endorsed! If you leave this OFF, people WILL still be able to endorse you when they visit your profile but as I always say, take every opportunity to have LinkedIn work for you!
The next box is the one to UNCHECK if you do not want to be prompted, each time you visit LinkedIn, to endorse your connections. I highly recommend leaving this on as it is helpful to the community as a whole (as I noted above, this is the primary way that others can trust the skills people list) and it is also a good way to stay engaged with your connections. It is also just good karma to contribute when you can!
And note that just because someone endorses you, do NOT feel obligated to endorse them. If there are skills they have that you know and can attest to, then by all means, do endorse them – you now know how helpful this can be – but if you do not know them well enough or do not feel comfortable endorsing them for the skills they list, then do NOT.
The last box is about notifications. I DO recommend leaving this on so you have an email prompt when someone does endorse you but if you are getting way too many emails, especially from LinkedIn, then you can certainly leave the block unchecked.
Whether you get an email notification, or not, you can hover over ANY endorsement you have received and you will see a pop-up with a link to the person’s profile and a button to ‘send a message’.
The ‘send a message’ button makes it really easy to send a quick Thank You note and or to check in with your connections to see how they are doing!
Endorsements are a useful way to make the most of your LinkedIn profile – use them!
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