No one using LinkedIn over the last year or so could have avoided the endorsement craze. Whether its status updates popping up in your feed saying Joe Bloggs and has been endorsed by John Doe for ‘management’, automated emails from contacts asking for a quick reference, or people you can barely remember adding to your credentials (presumably so you’ll return the favour), there’s literally no escape.
But are these endorsements worth the (virtual) paper they’re written on?
The other day I was endorsed, not for the first time, for ‘PR’. Not wishing to sound ungrateful, but my LinkedIn profile clearly states that I’ve worked at a PR agency for 13 years, so I’d have thought that much was obvious without the need for third party affirmation.
I’ve also been endorsed by people who, quite frankly, don’t have a clue what I do in my job or whether I’m any good at it. These include people I haven’t worked with since the good old days of sending press releases out by post and, worse still, people I haven’t worked with at all.
For example, a friend of mine has endorsed me for my ‘media relations’ skills. He’s a stand up comic who I met when our kids were in childcare together. To be honest, I’m not 100 percent convinced he got a good grip of my credentials amid the tears, tantrums and general mayhem of the morning nursery drop off but, even if he did, who cares?
Good PR (whether you’re representing a firm or yourself) has to be believable and credible, and the same should apply to LinkedIn endorsements. If you’ve worked with someone worthy of your praise, then why not write something meaningful and insightful, rather than ticking a few prescribed boxes suggested by LinkedIn? And if you don’t know someone well enough to write them a proper reference, don’t bother doing it at all.
Don’t get me wrong, I like LinkedIn, it’s a great way of keeping in touch, and is gaining rapid influence as a marketing tool, but all this good stuff is being overshadowed by all the meaningless and annoying endorsements that clutter my experience.
LinkedIn makes it so easy to endorse someone that people do it without thinking – and it shows.
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