LinkedIn recently added 1-click endorsements to their list of features. Want to give kudos to your contacts for their skills? Use the skills and expertise section that suggests people and skills that you can endorse. You can also suggest your own.
Want to get more endorsements? Start giving endorsements to contacts who you can honestly say you’ve known and can vouch for their skills. It’s also perfectly okay to ask some of your contacts to endorse you if they’ve hired you or worked with you.
Word of caution: don’t send out requests to everybody you’ve connected with. Recently, I’ve been getting requests for endorsements from people I’ve connected with, but don’t have first-hand knowledge of their work.
It’s a bit awkward: “I know we met once years ago. Can you endorse me on LinkedIn?”
I’m working on a graceful refusal. “Since we haven’t worked together I don’t feel that I know enough about you and your work to endorse you. Please do ask me again in the future after I’ve had a chance to get to know you better.”
Let me know if you have a better way to word this. I like to be nice and help people. As a business owner, I don’t feel that the goal of endorsements is like getting everybody to sign your high school yearbook. You want business contacts who know you to endorse your business skills.
