When you endorse someone on LinkedIn for their skills and expertise, it can give their profile a boost and showcase their abilities to recruiters and hiring managers. However, many LinkedIn users wonder if the person receives a notification when they’ve been endorsed. Understanding how LinkedIn endorsements work can help you use this feature effectively for networking and career advancement.
What are LinkedIn Endorsements?
LinkedIn endorsements allow you to recognize the skills and accomplishments of your connections. When you endorse someone, their skill is added to their profile along with your name and photo endorsing them for that skill. It’s a simple way to give positive feedback and validation to your connections for their expertise.
Some key things to know about LinkedIn endorsements:
– They are skills-based – you can only endorse someone for predefined skills on their profile, not general attributes.
– Anyone can endorse – you don’t need to be connected to someone to endorse them.
– The endorsed person must add the skill first – you can only endorse skills that people have already added to their own profile.
– There are no limits – you can endorse the same person for multiple skills, and multiple people can endorse a person for the same skill.
– Endorsements are public – anyone who views that LinkedIn profile can see who has endorsed that person and for what skills.
Do People Get Notified About LinkedIn Endorsements?
So do LinkedIn users receive notifications when someone endorses them on LinkedIn? The short answer is no, LinkedIn does not send notifications or alerts to users when they’ve been endorsed.
Instead, the endorsements simply appear on their profile. The only way for them to know is to visit their LinkedIn profile and actively check the endorsements section.
There are a few ways an endorsed user might come to see that they’ve received endorsements:
– Visiting their profile – This could be done casually to update something, or intentionally to check for new endorsements.
– Being notified of a new profile viewer – LinkedIn does notify you when someone has viewed your profile, so if someone views your profile in order to endorse you, you may get notified about the profile view.
– Seeing the notification number increase – There is a number next to the endorsements section on your profile showing how many new endorsements you’ve received. So a user may notice this number go up and then check the section.
– Being alerted through LinkedIn’s weekly newsletter – LinkedIn’s weekly email digest contains a summary of your new profile activity, including new endorsements. So users who read these emails would be notified passively this way.
Overall though, LinkedIn does not have an active alert or notice that goes out every time someone endorses you. Users have to take the initiative to check their own profile for new endorsements periodically if they want to stay on top of them.
Why Doesn’t LinkedIn Notify You of Endorsements?
LinkedIn’s reasoning behind not sending notifications for endorsements seems to be that they don’t want these notifications to be disruptive or encourage endorsement spamming. Some specific reasons LinkedIn likely doesn’t have alerts for endorsements include:
– To prevent endorsement spamming – If there were notifications, some people might aggressively endorse others just to get their attention or send too many endorsements.
– To keep the focus on meaningful engagement – LinkedIn wants to encourage substantive interactions and relationship-building between connections.
– To maintain their clean inbox goal – LinkedIn users tend to dislike too many notifications cluttering their inbox, so limiting alerts helps reduce this.
– The high volume of endorsements – Some very active users can receive hundreds of endorsements. Individual notifications for each could become overwhelming.
– Endorsements are secondary – For most members, endorsements are a nice additional feature, but not critical for networking and connecting with others.
Ultimately, endorsements are intended to enhance profiles organically over time and serve as validation, not be a primary method of direct member-to-member communication. So LinkedIn likely determined notifications were unnecessary and potentially disruptive if overused.
How to Use LinkedIn Endorsements Effectively
While endorsements don’t trigger alerts, they can still be an impactful feature. Here are some tips to use LinkedIn endorsements effectively:
– Endorse thoughtfully – Only endorse people for skills where you have first-hand knowledge of their abilities. Don’t just endorse randomly.
– Spread endorsements out – Don’t bombard someone with multiple endorsements at once or it can look insincere. Pace them over time as you learn more about the person’s expertise.
– Endorse your strongest connections – Focus endorsements on close connections who would most appreciate the validation.
– Check back on your own profile – Login to your profile periodically to stay on top of new endorsements you’ve received. Being aware of them can be motivating and helpful for assessing your brand.
– Thank endorsers – If you see someone has recently endorsed you, send them a quick thank-you message showing you noticed and appreciate it.
– Endorse others when warranted – If you come across profiles where you feel compelled to validate their skills, actively look for the opportunity to endorse them.
Though LinkedIn endorsements aren’t meant as a primary communication method, they can still be impactful when used selectively and thoughtfully. The key is not depending on notifications, but checking in and staying active on the platform.
Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Not Sending Endorsement Notifications
There are both advantages and disadvantages to LinkedIn’s decision to not send alerts about new endorsements.
Here are some potential benefits:
– Reduces notification noise and clutter for users
– Encourages self-motivation to engage with your profile and connections
– Avoids endorsement spamming or inflating numbers artificially
– Forces endorsements to be given more meaningfully and intentionally
– Keeps the focus on relationship-building over minor profile transactions
Some potential drawbacks include:
– Makes it harder to keep track of endorsements organically
– Could result in some endorsements being missed and underappreciated
– Relies on people checking their profiles frequently to notice new endorsements
– Limits the encouragement and positive feedback that notifications could provide
– Endorsers don’t know if the person they endorsed is aware of it
Overall, it’s a tradeoff between wanting to encourage authentic endorsements and not have them disrupted by constant notifications. For users who check their LinkedIn regularly, the lack of alerts likely won’t be an issue. But more passive users could miss out on some of the benefits of endorsements.
Should LinkedIn Add Endorsement Notifications?
Given the pros and cons, should LinkedIn initiate some form of alerts when you receive new endorsements? There are reasonable arguments on both sides of this question.
Here are some reasons why LinkedIn should add notifications:
– It would encourage and incentivize users to actively endorse more.
– Members would appreciate being notified of positive feedback.
– It would drive increased engagement on the platform.
– Casual users would be more likely to see their new endorsements.
– Senders could feel confirmation that the user saw their endorsement.
– Endorsements might carry more impact and meaning.
Here are some reasons why notifications may not be necessary:
– It could contribute to endorsement spamming and inflation.
– Too many notifications may frustrate users.
– Checking your own profile periodically is not that difficult.
– The culture of authentic endorsements might be disrupted.
– It could detract from relationship-building and direct communication.
– Users can still see endorsements in the weekly newsletter digests.
Overall there are good arguments on both sides. LinkedIn will likely continue to evaluate usage patterns and feedback to determine if notifications become necessary to improve the endorsement experience. But for now, it seems the downsides likely still outweigh the benefits for most professional users.
Other LinkedIn Features That Provide Notifications
While LinkedIn has deliberately chosen not to provide alerts about endorsements, there are other interactions on LinkedIn that do trigger notifications:
– Receiving connection requests – You are notified when someone sends you an invitation to connect.
– Acceptance of your connection requests – You will see a notification when someone accepts your invitation to connect with them.
– Messages – Direct messages through LinkedIn will alert you like an email.
– Mentions in posts or articles – If someone mentions your name or profile in their post, you’ll get a notification.
– Likes or comments on your posts – You will be notified when someone interacts with your content.
– Profile views – You’ll get alerts when someone views your LinkedIn profile.
– New followers – LinkedIn will notify you whenever someone chooses to follow your profile.
The common thread is that you get notifications for direct interactions initiated by other people. But passive activity like endorsements added to your own profile do not trigger alerts. This approach minimizes disruption while still allowing for meaningful relationship-building interactions.
Tools to Track LinkedIn Endorsements
If you want to closely monitor new endorsements without signing into LinkedIn constantly, there are some tools that can help:
– **LinkedIn’s notification email digests** – As mentioned, these weekly emails summarize profile visits, mentions, likes, comments, and new endorsements.
– **LinkedIn browser extensions** – Extensions like Nimble and Dux-Soup can show your notification count on LinkedIn profiles.
– **Third-party apps** – Some apps like EndorseOwl can send you alerts when you’ve received new LinkedIn endorsements.
– **Premium LinkedIn account features** – Upgraded LinkedIn accounts provide broader analytics on your profile’s engagement.
But for most LinkedIn users, periodically checking your profile and skimming the platform’s organic notifications is likely sufficient to stay on top of new endorsements and activity. Extensive endorsement monitoring is generally unnecessary for individuals focused on quality over quantity.
Conclusion
LinkedIn endorsements can be a nice validation of skills and expertise when used meaningfully. But while they appear on your profile, LinkedIn intentionally does not send alerts every time someone endorses you. The absence of notifications helps keep the focus on substantive interactions and avoids endorsement spam inflation.
While some users and endorsers may wish for alerts, the overall culture of authentic, organic endorsements likely benefits more from the lack of notifications. By developing habits to regularly check your profile and notifications, you can reap the rewards of endorsements without getting overwhelmed by constant alerts. The connections and conversations that happen through direct communication channels ultimately provide more value than any amount of skill endorsements.