I Have A Top 1% LinkedIn Profile

When it comes to building your career in online marketing, LinkedIn is a truly invaluable resource. I have taken LinkedIn seriously from the early days of my career and it has paid large dividends. I have received job opportunities, forged connections, and built a network I’m truly proud of. For all these reasons and more, I was thrilled to receive last week an email from LinkedIn saying my profile is in their top 1% in terms of views for 2012 (check out the screenshot below). Thanks, LinkedIn, for the email. (As a side note: I think this is great marketing. Why not send emails from time to time commemorating milestones – 200 million users for LinkedIn – and thanking their most active members?)

So, what’s new for me on LinkedIn? These days, I’m having a blast with LinkedIn Skill Endorsements. When I originally wrote the post just referenced, my top skill was PPC with 6 endorsements. Now, my top skill is SEM with 43 endorsements. I have found that skill endorsements are all about user adoption. The more people you endorse, the more endorsements you will get!

I’m always interested in forging connections with new professionals in the online marketing industry. Thanks for reading PPC Ian and please make sure to Connect With Me on LinkedIn.

From a PPC career perspective, I’m a huge fan of LinkedIn. LinkedIn offers a great way to build your personal brand and obtain career opportunities. LinkedIn also offers a great way to give back and help out others! One of my original posts here on PPC Ian (and one of the really popular ones) is my post about Growing Your SEM Career With LinkedIn.

Today, I wanted to do a quick post about a brand new LinkedIn feature. LinkedIn now allows you to endorse skills. If you go down to the Skills & Expertise section of someone’s profile and click that little plus sign, you will endorse their skill. Check out the screenshot to the right, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You may have already received a few emails about your friends and colleagues endorsing your skills!

I like this feature because it’s easy to use and fun. Personally, I think written endorsements are king. These are the original endorsements on LinkedIn that require a written statement/paragraph. They take a lot more effort to generate and mean a lot. However, as a way to supplement written endorsements, these skill endorsements are fun. I like to think of them as “micro endorsements”.

So, what’s my strategy when it comes to these skill endorsements. It’s really the same as my strategy for written endorsements: The more you give the more you receive. I try to help others by endorsing them for their best skills. In return, I have been organically getting quality skill endorsements. Really, LinkedIn is a great way to give back to the online marketing community. Get out there and use skill endorsements to thank others. Also, don’t forget to connect with me on LinkedIn!