Which are more important – LinkedIn Recommendations or Endorsements
When I published my previous post on LinkedIn Endorsements, I was surprised at the reaction. Many of you think that LinkedIn Recommendations were being devalued. There were a number of good points that were brought up that I want to highlight.
Order is important!
Which appears first in your profile, your LinkedIn recommendations or your endorsements?
You have control over the order of every section of your profile! YES, you can reorder your profile!
I recommend that you place your recommendations and endorsements before your work experience!
Which is more powerful?
Which is more powerful the recommendation that my former colleague at LifeSize (my last corporate gig) Ian Poh wrote for me:
“Marc is one of the closest and wonderful peers that I ever worked with in a multinational corporation. He understands the cultures of people that come from different nationalities with different background, and always sensitive to their way of thinking and perspectives while working with them in a global organisation. With clear objectives in his mind, Marc always carries out training development plans in such an organized way and he knows exactly what to do and how to bring his objectives to accomplishment. As a trainer in person, he never fails to capture his audiences’ attention with his dynamic and engaging communications skill.
One thing that I always admire Marc is his ability to create excellent visual communications training contents that makes the profound technical knowledge easy to be understood by the audiences.”
OR
Ian endorsed the following skills:
- Training
- Coaching
- Public Speaking
- Teaching
- Start-Ups
I hope you see that the recommendation is much more powerful!
By the way, Ian lives in Singapore and is one of the most talented professional I have ever worked with in my career.
Which appears first? My recommendations!
Order is important in your skills and expertise
If you want certain skills and expertise to get priority in your endorsements, put them first!
If you do not want endorsements for certain skills and expertise, either remove them from your profile or put them at the bottom.
You have control but….
LinkedIn Recommendations you have to accept. You have control over what recommendations appear in your profile which I wrote about in my post Managing LinkedIn Recommendations.
Endorsements just show up.
You can hide endorsements but…. if you hide them they are gone forever!
Endorsements are a real problem for financial professionals!!
Most financial professionals are strictly forbidden from having public recommendations by law.
If you do not want endorsements then you will need to stay on top of this and regularly monitor your LinkedIn profile.
Which are more important – LinkedIn Recommendations or Endorsements?
It is up to you!
You have control.
Which comes first in your profile?
I have had a career where I have touched a lot of people. I have given workshops or presentations around the world, probably over 1,000, over the last 35 years. Lots of people can attest to my skills and expertise.
On the other hand, recommendations are based on personal relationships.
Personal relationships are much more important to me than any skill endorsement.
My LinkedIn Recommendations come first!
Which comes first in your profile?