VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Mike Harrison

I'm having a hard time understanding LinkedIn endorsements; specifically why some people – even many who don't know me or my work – are endorsing me for skills other than those that appear in my profile.

What is the reason someone would do that?

Thanks.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.

Jason Huggins · Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 8:41 am Post subject:

If they endorse you, you'll endorse them right? Smile

I think that is the mindset. I only endorse people I know, for skills that I know they possess. Honestly, I don't think endorsements mean much to anyone. Everyone knows how they work (and how they really mean nothing).

Lee Gordon · Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 10:17 am Post subject:

I have to believe the endorsements are harmless, even if they serve no actual purpose. But I suspect there must be some sort of SEO or other value in them because I have received them from some people (including upstanding members of the good ole VO-B cool

whose marketing savvy I respect and who probably wouldn't waste their time if the exercise were purely frivolous.

On the other hand, I have to laugh when I get them from people who not only don't know my work, they don't know me. Every once in a while I'll see the name of someone who endorsed me and think, "Why did I accept this person's connection request? I don't even know who the hell that is." And some people keep endorsing over and over again -- often for skills I don't even claim to possess.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Bish · Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:41 am Post subject:

Collect Pokemon cards... or navel lint.

Either will probably benefit your career (and be less time consuming) than LinkedIn endorsements. It's like FacePlant... you like my page, and I'll like yours.

Tosh. Utter Tosh!
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

Bruce · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:18 am Post subject:

Yep, they are a glorified gimmick.

Side note: I research my spam filters every day because at least once a month they trap a critical email that I have to rescue. The number of spoof LinkedIn and Facebook messages I've been getting the past few months is astounding. Several every day.

If no one's said it yet, spammers and phishers are idiots.

B
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Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:38 am Post subject:

Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:29 am Post subject:

to me, when someone i know endorses me, i regard it as the equivalent of a facebook poke (whatever that is, haven't figured it out) or a way of sending a shout-out. i get notifications in my inbox, and that's as much as i know, because i don't use the site (but probably i should).
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Mandy Nelson · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:08 am Post subject:

"endorsing" is the new "poking"
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Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:29 pm Post subject:

Even all the mindless LinkedIn endorsing makes more sense to me than the ridiculous number of emails I get informing me that someone -- not merely a stranger, but someone whose name is completely unfamiliar to me -- has added me on Google+.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

heyguido · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:44 pm Post subject:

That's because social media is full of the socially inept. Rolls Eyes

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Don Brookshire
"Wait.... They wanna PAY me for this?"

jsgilbert · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:19 pm Post subject:

LinkedIn, perhaps more-so than just about any other part of social media, tends to have a false reputation of its participants understanding social media. It does have a strong bent towards business and professional promotion.

But if you understand that 96% of the people on LinkedIn have free accounts, then it should really be quite clear that most of its practitioners don't quite have a handle on things.

We don't see that many kooky cat videos or pix of egg mcMuffins, and the relative difficulty one might have in stalking somebody might make it look more civilized than say, Facebook, but that's not necessarily the case.

And this is reflected in the 47 endorsements for "Magazines" I received in the past month or so.

LinkedIn likes it because it gives them infinitely more "touch points" than before. I get 6 or so emails from LinkedIn per day, letting me know that I've been endorsed or so and so likes a comment of mine, Somebody I may know named Murray has just joined LinkedIn, or...

This helps LinkedIn up the number of engagements it gets from its members, perhaps keeps some members from simply abandoning their accounts and directs me back to various LinkedIn groups, whereby I might make a new comment, do a little rant or start a new thread.

My data analysis indicates that I've had my profile looked at by 1,364 voice talent, (or those working for the water district of Macon Georgia, but who have taken 3 or 4 v.o. classes) resulting in nothing at all and 467 headhunters. The latter, after reading my profile apparently not interested in hunting my head.

Any resemblance that LinkedIn endorsements has to an actual useful tool is completely coincidental. By the way, my Klout score is higher than about 70% of congress. Now that's some Klout.
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j.s. gilbert

js@jsgilbert.com
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Jen Gosnell · Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:32 pm Post subject:

J.S., that's an excellent articulation of the reasons I pay LinkedIn such scant attention. It is so full of bumbling and noise. I use it for research once in awhile and that's about it.

I've found it much less useful as a freelancer than I did six or seven years ago (!!) when it actually helped me find my last corporate job. The site was much less in-your-face with notifications and such back then, as well.
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Lee Gordon · Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 12:42 am Post subject:

Not all that long ago, LinkedIn used to advise connecting only with people you actually knew in the real world. That is clearly now out the window.

I believe I have mentioned before that one of the chief benefits of LinkedIn and, for that matter, Facebook, is the assist they give me in tracking down old classmates and former work colleagues. I even found a few on MySpace, back in the day, and more recently found a former co-worker on Twitter.

I know if I study all the tutorials Dave Courvoisier has put together on the subject, I can probably learn how to use these social media to actually benefit my career, but for now I am satisfied that LinkedIn has enabled me to locate the up to date email address of my classmate, Jan, and, after several years of fruitless searching, helped me re-establish contact with my old college buddy and radio colleague Bill Silver, the original "But wait, there's more" voice of the Ginsu Knife commercials.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice