Have you noticed the new feature on LinkedIn? You can now endorse other people's skills and have your skills endorsed.
Receiving a skill endorsement is similar to a recommendation, however it takes less time and is easier to complete. Sometimes, a single word or phrase endorsement can have more impact than a lengthy written recommendation.
Right now, the full effect of receiving an endorsement is hard to tell. However, the number of endorsements you receive may eventually affect your search ranking and impact your word-of-mouth referrals.
So, how do you get more LinkedIn Endorsements? Check out these 5 tips below.
1. Edit Your Endorsements
Often times when your first log into LinkedIn, you are asked to endorse people with whom you are connected.
However, if you haven't gone back to update or edit your skills since you first created your LinkedIn account, then some of the skills that you originally claimed may not make sense to your followers.
For example, you may have listed skills that better applied to an old job. Now that you no longer work at that job, your current connections don't know you for those skills and it appears confusing.
Visit your skills section and edit them for your current position. This way when people first log in and your name pops up with skills to endorse, the skills make sense.
2. Arrange Your "Skills" in order of importance to you
Similar to step 1, when you edit your skills section you can order your skills by level of importance to you.
Why Order them by Importance?
This is important because,LinkedIn will only highlight your top 10 skills. Any additional skills that you've listed will appear in a "pile" under "more skills".
An Exception to the Rule:
Once your connections start endorsing your skills, then the number of endorsements will dictate the rank of each of your skills. This also makes it important to eliminate any skills for which you don't want to be ranked highly.
3. Move your Skills and Expertise Section to the Top of Your Profile
To make it easier for your connections to endorse your skills, move the "Skills and Expertise" section closer to the top of your profile.
To do this:
a. Click to edit your profile.
b. Scroll down to the "skills and expertise" section
c. Put your curser over the title "skills and expertise", click once and drag up.
d. "Drop" the skills and expertise section in the new place, higher on your profile. A couple of good locations for it are just below your Summary or after your Experience section.
4. Be Proactive, Keep a Watch & Edit
When connections first log into LinkedIn, they are now often prompted to endorse the other people they know. Here, your connections are given a list of the skills you've claimed. The connection then has the option to endorse all of the skills or only the ones they see fit/ know you for.
In this section, visitors also have the ability to write in their own endorsements. This means that if they don't like the skill choices available, they can type in other skills for which they'd prefer to endorse you.
Every time this happens, you will be alerted via email. It is important that you go in and check your new skill endorsements. If it is a skill that you no longer wish to be associated (perhaps an old job skill), then you can delete the endorsement.
Remember, you don’t want to confuse future customers.
5. Endorse Others
This may be the easiest way to receive endorsements from others. When you endorse your connections they receive an email notification. That email notification also asks them to endorse you. It's a win-win situation.
So, how do you start endorsing others?
To endorse another person on LinkedIn, you need to visit their profile and scroll down to the "Skills and Expertise" section. Here you can see what skills your connection has claimed. Then, you can choose to endorse them all or just one.
Remember, you only want to endorse skills that you Know the other person possesses. Your picture will appear next to the endorsement. Thus, if you've endorsed all of someone's skills simply because you "like" them, you may end up hurting your own reputation.
Have you started endorsing others?
What do you like about this new feature?
What don't you like about this new feature?
Please comment and share below.
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Awesome article, Kim! I didn't realize I had skills listed from my previous career that made no sense to my current business. I've just updated my skills and moved them higher up on my profile. Thanks for the great tips!
Love hearing this, Laura!
It’s a click instead of a written recommendation.
Love hearing this, Liz!
Hope the new baby is doing well, Rob! Thanks for stopping in!
Good advice regarding the repositioning of the skills. However, possibly since the addition of this article, it shows "Only skills or expertise without endorsements can be reordered." The tips are valuable. Thanks!
Feel free to share, Christian!
Indeed Kim! I confirm that your article clearly describes the best ways to visualize and get endorsements. It is useful for other people to see your top skills but also very useful to define your own strengths as seen by your connections!
That sounds great Cathy! Love the engagement opportunity that offers.
Hey Kim! I love how you explain your ideas. Detailed enough that you will surely learn something from it. Keep posting!
I like the concept of endorsement as a way of engaging with people. Connection really is the key. Thanks for sharing, Kim! Your article indeed visualizes the importance of LinkedIn endorsements.