LinkedIn Skill endorsements

"Solve it with the click of a mouse." This should be the mantra of most software companies. To make something easier by automating the process or having it whittled down to simple computing steps is nirvana to us, the users. Of course with today's mobile devices and touchpads, the clicking of a mouse is getting to be old-fashioned. The folks at LinkedIn have added a new feature to each member's Profile. It allows your connections on LinkedIn to "vouch" for your proficiency in the Skills section of your Profile. As easy as selecting a person's stated skills and clicking on one or several of them, you can endorse that what they're claiming about themselves is true. Here's how it works...

In each LinkedIn member Profile, there is a section you can activate called SKILLS. Each member can designate up to 40+ skills they feel they bring to the party. That's been in place for nearly two years. What has been added is the ability for your connections to say, "Yes you do" have those skills. They do this by endorsing your skills one at a time.

This is what your Skills section of the LinkedIn profile looks like with a few endorsements...

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What LinkedIn has done with this is made a significant "shortcut" to their Recommendations feature. People like getting LinkedIn recommendations, but it's a bit much asking your connections to write them. This new endorsement approach for the Skills section is just like a recommendation ~ with one click of the mouse, as shown below...

Just click that "+" graphic and your LinkedIn Profile picture will appear next to that person's skill, in this case Advertising. The connection you have endorsed can be notified via email and LinkedIn Inbox message that they have received an endorsement. As of now there is no "ask your connections to endorse you" feature. I kinda hope one doesn't appear. I believe the recoomendations and endorsements should come naturally. And they should come often, if you're good at what you do!

Well done, LinkedIn - let the frezied endorsing begin!

Hootsuite

I've been a Hootsuite user for 3 years, this application is a "control center" for your social media sites. It's a web based app, so it works on a PC, a Mac, and there are Android and iPhone apps available for use on your phones. It is a free system that works well for one user to manage their social sites. They also have a for-pay version that allows multiple people from our office to control our various Twitter and Facebook accounts. If you have Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, you can post messages and updates to either or all of these sites through one place - Hootsuite. Each of your social sites is represented as a tab across the top of the screen. When you click on a tab, you get to select which components (called feeds) of that social media site you see. For example, Twitter users can choose to see the Home feed, a list of all incoming tweets from your followers, the tweets you have sent, your Direct Mails (DM) incoming and outgoing, and a list of any tweets in which your Twitter handle has been mentioned. It's neatly organized all on one page, a page you can rearrange or customize anytime you'd like! See below...

If you have information you'd like to share on your Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter sites simultaneously, that's easily done with Hootsuite. Post a message, links to other sites, photos or video and then decide which of your social sites will get it. Type message once and launch to all with one click of the SEND NOW button. A big convenience for those with multiple accounts.

Hootsuite also allows for scheduling of your messages. Let's assume you wanted to send a message tomorrow afternoon through Facebook or Twitter to coincide with an event. This message could be a reminder to others as to what they should prepare or bring to the event. You can schedule a message to be sent on a certain date at a particular time without you having to launch it right then - Hootsuite will do it for you! 

I recommend this app for franchisees and anyone trying to keep their social presence current. It is not recommended that you post every bit of info to all of your social sites. For example, hashtags are best on Twitter, longer messages are best on Facebook, etc. What a time saver Hootsuite can be, especially when you use the service on your mobile devices along with a desktop PC or Mac. Here's the website, download the free version and start organizing your social media efforts.

Hootsuite website

Linkedin grows in importance.

Wasn't it just a few months ago that Linkedin was the social media system everyone swore you had to be on, but you weren't really sure why?  It's an online resume, right? I'd tell people it was the 2011 version of your "little black book", the kind we used to keep our best, most reliable contact information in. Linkedin is growing in popularity, now it's grown  considerably to be more than just that.

On May 19th, Linkedin went public.  They must've had some new ideas waiting all warm in the pot because since mid March they've added new features that are very useful.  These features make using Linkedin more compelling than it was when it served as just an online resume.  I've grown to like the Advanced Search and the Linkedin Today News feeds.  Advanced Search is now very robust.  You can search for people by Industry, Groups, Relationship, Language, Job Function, and Company Size.  You can really drill down to locate experts and potential employees with the People Search tool. For our franchisees, it's help at their fingertips. Without having a tremendous amount of "connections" (friends or followers in Linkedin-speak) you can still gleen fantastic information from others if you share similar groups with them.  Advanced Search lets you look not only for people, but for Updates, Jobs, Companies, Answers and Groups.  Look for keywords in the answers that others have contributed to the groups or communities they've joined.  It works very well.

The Linkedin Today News feeds are even better in my opinion! You now have a Linkedin Today bar at the top of your Home page.  It contains news and postings from industries and subject matter that you've subscribed or shown interest in.  You select which subjects or sources you'd like to receive information regarding and Linkedin delivers content as recommended by other users with similar interests.  Each user that recommends a link or article shows up in a counter in the lower left corner of each article.  If you read an article you like, you can reach out and "connect" with many of the folks that also thought enough to post this article. It's very effective, and for me it has spurred me to post things I think are of interest that I don't think others have seen yet. To the readers that share my interests, sources and groups, I come across as informed and knowledgeable on these subjects. This allows me to potentially "link" to others for answers and to have them reply to my questions.  Always professional in nature, it puts the power of the Linkedin community to work on my issues. That I like. I'm guessing we'll see more improvements to Linkedin before 2012.  They've added job change features and other hiring/HR tools...  pretty neat for a free system!