A comment by Brendan Cullen of Survey Guru on my post on the latest LinkedIN endorsements feature got me thinking. Here’s what Brendan had to say:

Well what are people looking for from it? Personally I want it to signify people’s true expertise in particular areas. It’ll provide that only so long as it’s based on merit and not just people playing the numbers game…

Brendan makes a very valid point and I’d like to address it in this follow up post today.

I certainly see the potential for abuse of this new feature – human nature and  examples like Klout suggests this could quickly become a quid pro quo arrangement and therefore largely devalued. However, it’s here and it’s staying for now, so how should we prepare for it?

I wrote my previous post for LinkedIN users to think about how they should highlight their skills and expertise. So many users have incomplete profiles and this seems like a good opportunity to complete them more thoroughly. Maybe it’s time to add more skills, or cull some of those you have listed. I am also finding the endorsements feature is a way to re-connect with other LinkedIN users who I may not have connected with online for some time – sending them emails to thank them for their endorsement and in one case making an arrangement to meet for coffee.

In conclusion, I think so long as we don’t get too caught up in making this a LinkedIN strategy, I am happy to embrace it for now. How about you? Do you think it is pretty meaningless overall or can you see some value to LinkedIN endorsements?

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