Continuing the conversation LinkedIn Endorsements

Recently, I asked if you had seen the new LinkedIn endorsements. I wrote the post after seeing a conversation about the endorsements on the career e-lists. Many people are not happy with this newest innovation by LinkedIn. They think it is too easy to point and click. Therefore, the endorsements are not sincere or accurate.

Some people randomly click and like and link to everything, you will question the sincerity of the endorsements. Rarely do I speak in a different direction than Jason Alba about LinkedIn topics, after all, he wrote the book, “I’m on LinkedIn, Now What?” and his LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVDs are part of my packages.

Jason said recently in his post, LinkedIn Endorsements:

Because it is too easy for people to “endorse” you.  You can stack a bunch of endorsements with no efforts, and they could be meaningless.  We’ve already seen this a little with Recommendations, where people get a bunch of recommendations (I have a lot but I have rarely asked for them).

The over-eager Likes and LinkedIn Endorsements

This is where Jason and I disagree. I don’t disagree that it is too easy to endorse. Some people will use it meaninglessly but I think we are taking this far too seriously. Whatever LinkedIn’s motivation for creating this feature, I don’t see it as much different than Facebook’s Like features on comments, status updates, and even pages. Some people are happy “likers” liking everything in their path. Their collection of pages that they liked can hardly be seen as an endorsement because they “like” far too many things.

However, I know that when I endorse someone using this new LinkedIn feature, I think about it. I know that there will be some people like me who honestly take it seriously and don’t just click and go.

When I look at the faces in the endorsements on my LinkedIn profile (this link should take you to my full profile, the public profile URLs don’t show endorsements), I see people I know and respect. Many of these people are my colleagues and I know they know my reputation and work.

If a new client is checking me out, hovering over my endorsements should assure them that I am not a fly-by-night resume mill, but a respected member of the career community. I like that.

LinkedIn Endorsements, Recommendations, and References

When I speak with business owners, I know even with references submitted the old-fashioned way, they don’t put much credence in them. As much as employers ask for references, they realize that few of us are going to give names of people who would voice reservations if asked.

Should you use LinkedIn endorsements? Really, that’s up to you. But I think that overall, your goal should be to develop a reputation for excellence in your work so that anyone asked about your abilities or skill sets can confidently endorse you.

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