Mark Bullock of phoneBlogger.net discusses managing your LinkedIn endorsements make sure that your true talents are not overshadowed.Recently, LinkedIn rolled out a new feature meant to showcase the different skills of its members called “Endorsements.” Ever since, connections have been actively encouraged to endorse their colleagues via pop-up boxes that allow users to endorse en masse.

People quickly began to question the validity of such endorsements considering how effortless it is to endorse dozens of people with the click of a mouse. But soon another problem emerged: What if I do not want to be endorsed for a particular skill?

It may not be obvious, but no one can endorse you for a skill on your profile until you accept it.

Typically the endorsee gets an email from LinkedIn that says something like, “Congratulations! Your connection, so-and-so, has endorsed you for a new skill, blah, blah, blah.”


There is no “click here to accept skill” button or a link back to the section of your profile showing your skills. This is actually quite misleading on the part of LinkedIn, as the only obvious course of action is to click the “Continue” button.

If you click “Continue,” then congratulations, you have just accepted the endorsement. It now shows up in your profile under the “Skills & Expertise” section where everyone can see it. So where’s the downside?

Too many skills dilute a reader’s perception of your focused abilities. And even worse there may be skills that could get you in trouble legally, or are outside your industry’s professional ethics.

You can remove any skill from your profile, at any time, by following these instructions:

 

1.      Hover your mouse over the “Profile” menu

2.      Click on “Edit Profile” from the drop down list

3.      Scroll down to the “Skills & Expertise” section and click on “Edit”

4.      Click the “X” on any skill you want to remove

5.      Click “Save” on the bottom left of the section

That’s it! The undesirable skill and related endorsements you marked will no longer be on your profile.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for networking and articulating your hard-earned skills. It might be to your advantage to examine what skills you have been endorsed for to make sure they are not misleading – and to make sure that they are not obscuring/overshadowing your true talents.

 

We’ve written several articles about using blogging and social media to foster referrals. Feel free to check them out at phoneBlogger.net/Blog

– We’d love to hear your feedback,
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Mark Bullock, phoneBlogger.net & Practice Marketing, Inc
Mark Bullock
Telephone: (631) 754-0800
Email: Mark@phoneBlogger.net
Website:phoneBlogger.net

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