LinkedIn’s endorsements feature allows you to endorse your connections for their skills and expertise. When you endorse someone, it appears on their profile and helps build their professional brand on LinkedIn. However, sometimes the endorse option doesn’t show up on LinkedIn profiles even for your direct connections.
Why You Might Not See the Endorse Option
There are a few possible reasons why you may not see the endorse option on someone’s LinkedIn profile:
- You aren’t connected to them on LinkedIn. You can only endorse your 1st-degree connections.
- They have disabled endorsements. Users can opt out of receiving endorsements.
- Their profile is set to private view. You can only endorse public profiles.
- You’ve already endorsed them for all their listed skills.
- It’s a personal profile. Company pages don’t have the endorse feature.
- You don’t share any 1st-degree connections. You need at least one shared connection to endorse.
- You don’t have enough profile information. LinkedIn requires complete profiles to endorse.
How to Troubleshoot When You Can’t Endorse
If you think you should be able to endorse someone but can’t, here are some troubleshooting tips:
- Make sure you are logged into your LinkedIn account. The endorse option only appears when logged in.
- Confirm you are actually connected to the person. Go to your connections list to double check.
- Check if their profile visibility is set to “Connections only.” Switch yours to the same setting and try again.
- Look for the text “You’ve endorsed [name] for all eligible skills.” This means you’ve endorsed them for everything already.
- Make sure your own profile is complete with a photo, work experience, etc. LinkedIn requires this to endorse.
- Ask the person to endorse you first. You may then be able to endorse them back.
- Contact the person to see if they’ve intentionally disabled endorsements on their profile.
How Endorsements Work on LinkedIn
To understand why you may not always see the endorse option, it helps to know how LinkedIn endorsements work:
- You can only endorse your 1st-degree connections.
- You must share at least one 1st-degree connection with the person.
- You can endorse each skill only once per person.
- Users can choose to disable endorsements on their profiles.
- You can’t endorse anonymous or private profiles.
- Endorsements only appear on full profiles, not Company pages.
- You can remove endorsements you’ve previously given.
- Recipients can opt out of notifications for new endorsements.
So if you don’t share any mutual connections, have already endorsed all skills, or the user has disabled the feature, the endorse option will be hidden.
What to Do If Someone Won’t Endorse You Back
If you’ve endorsed someone on LinkedIn but they haven’t endorsed you back, here are some things you can try:
- Politely send them a message reminding them of your endorsement and asking them to endorse you in return.
- Comment on one of their posts thanking them for their work and expertise in a skill you want endorsed.
- Wait and endorse them for additional skills later. They may endorse you back without prompting.
- Connect with more of their connections to increase the social proof.
- Focus your efforts on endorsing those who do reciprocate.
- Keep providing value to your network by commenting, liking, and sharing.
However, some people may choose not to engage in mutual endorsing for various reasons. It’s best not to take it personally if someone doesn’t endorse you back. The main purpose of endorsements is to validate skills for your connections.
Should You Endorse Someone You Don’t Know?
Endorsing people you don’t know well on LinkedIn just to try and get endorsements back is not recommended. Here are a few reasons why:
- The endorsements come across as inauthentic.
- You can’t genuinely validate skills for someone you don’t know.
- It could be perceived as spammy behavior.
- Your endorsements lose value if given out indscriminately.
- People are unlikely to reciprocate endorsements from strangers.
- It won’t strengthen your professional network or brand.
Instead, focus on endorsing those you’ve worked with, went to school with, or have mutually interacted on LinkedIn. Your endorsements will carry more weight and meaning.
Best Practices for Endorsing on LinkedIn
To get the most out of LinkedIn endorsements, keep these best practices in mind:
- Personalize each endorsement with a comment.
- Endorse skills you’ve actually seen the person demonstrate.
- Aim for quality over quantity of endorsements.
- Endorse those who will likely reciprocate.
- Target active LinkedIn users for better results.
- Check back periodically as new skills may be endorsed.
- Focus on endorsing recent connections.
- Look for chances to endorse after interacting.
The Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Endorsements
LinkedIn endorsements have some potential benefits, but also come with downsides to consider:
Pros
- Validates skills and expertise
- Shows you recognize someone’s abilities
- Helps build credibility
- Boosts profiles in search results
- Encourages engagement on LinkedIn
Cons
- Can come across as disingenuous
- Seen as a popularity contest by some
- Not moderated for accuracy
- Links skills to identities that are unverified
- Perceived as spam or reciprocity by some
The Future of LinkedIn Endorsements
While still a popular feature, endorsements on LinkedIn may change in the future. Here are some potential updates:
- Ability to tag or link to examples of skills
- Weighting endorsements from certain connections higher
- Limiting the number of endorsements per skill
- Enabling endorsements in comments or posts
- Requiring examples or reasons for endorsements
- Notifications when you are endorsed by senior leaders
- Selectively displaying endorsements on your profile
LinkedIn may also discontinue endorsements altogether and focus more on written recommendations. However, endorsements still provide value today by highlighting skills and expertise within your network.
Key Takeaways
- You can only endorse 1st-degree connections on LinkedIn.
- Users can disable endorsements on their profiles.
- Endorsing strangers won’t boost your brand or network.
- Focus endorsements on those likely to reciprocate.
- Quality endorsements carry more weight than quantity.
Understanding how LinkedIn endorsements work can help you use them more effectively. But even without reciprocation, endorsing colleagues for validated abilities ultimately supports your professional community.
