LinkedIn is a great community for recommending other business professionals. Now they’ve made it even easier for us to promote each other. In the past LinkedIn offered recommendations to professionals. You could recommend one another and thus receive credibility and show up in searches.

Now, LinkedIn offers “Endorsements.” Endorsements are much easier to use and seem to be catching on faster than recommendations. In a matter of weeks, people are receiving more endorsements than they ever did with recommendations.

Tips for Using Endorsements on LinkedIn

• Endorse Others – Start by endorsing your networks first before asking for any endorsements. At the top of the LinkedIn Profile box, you will find an endorsement box that you can click on (you can also write in skills or expertise you’d like to endorse). Lower in the profile you can view other endorsements and “like” them. As you do this it shows up in your news feed and gets the word out.
• Take Your Time – Make sure you know the person you are endorsing and take the time to really think of the skills they have. Don’t just go through clicking boxes to make them look good so they will make you look good. Be honest in your endorsing.
  
• Contact Your Inner Circle-You might have 20-30 people in your inner circle on LinkedIn that you can contact when you need help or advice. Endorse these people on LinkedIn. They may not be aware of the new endorsements. So, send them a private message telling them what it is and that you have endorsed them.

With the time crunch people are in now, I think the endorsements will be more readily used. However, because of that same time crunch the endorsements may not be accurate. As I pointed out above, some people may just be going through and clicking boxes.

Have you endorsed anyone yet?

How accurate do you think the endorsements will be on LinkedIn?