LinkedIn Endorsements are Really Useful!
There’s been a lot of cynicism around LinkedIn endorsements. Many people don’t really understand what they’re for and why we should be using them. I can include myself in this, as I didn’t see the point of endorsements at first … until recently. I’ve now discovered three extremely useful ways of using endorsements which I thought I’d share with you.
- Say thank you. Every time I receive an endorsement from one of my contacts, I send them an email to say thank you. If the ‘endorser’ is already one of my clients, a quick thank you is a nice way to keep in touch with them. If they’re a potential client, or someone I don?t know that well yet, the thank you is a good way to work on building up our relationship. Next time someone endorses you, why not send them a quick note to thank them for taking the time to do it?
- Find out what you really do. I spend a lot of my time helping clients to create Marketing Plans, to help them grow their businesses. I do this by spending a day with them, doing what we’ve been calling a Marketing Planning Day. However, when I looked at my endorsements recently, I saw that I have far more endorsements for Marketing Strategy than Marketing Planning. This means that people I work with and who know about what we do, see it differently to the way we do. Does this mean we should change the name of the Marketing Planning Day to something like a Marketing Strategy Session?
- See what people are really good at. We recently took on a new Account Manager. When I carried out a phone interview with Nidhi, I looked her up on LinkedIn. Aside from reading her recommendations, I also looked at her endorsements. When you create a CV, you can say in it whatever you like. I’ve read too many in my time that say the same thing, telling me how brilliant the candidate is. However, endorsements come from other people – you can’t make them up. Seeing what other people think of Nidhi helped me decide to offer her the job.
I still don’t know why LinkedIn introduced endorsements and I also know that many people are not using them seriously. However, I’ve discovered these three ways of using endorsements to good effect. How can you make the most of them?
