The Endorsement Game

Linkedin, the very popular social networking sight for business, recently added a feature that gave me great cause for concern until I finally figured out the new feature’s purpose. If you are a regular visitor to Linkedin, by now you know you can endorse connections for skills and expertise they claim to have. For example, I claim to have writing related skills. The way endorsing works is through a popup with four boxes. Each one has a picture of one of your connections.

In each box you are asked a question about a skill your connection claims to possess. If Mitt Romney was one of your connections you might be asked, “Does Mitt Romney know politics?” You have the option of endorsing Mitt or ignoring the question. Once you decide whether to endorse one or more of the people in the boxes, you can click for more and get fresh faces to endorse or instead, ignore because you don’t think they have the skills they say they do or you simply don’t like them that day.

It’s probably related to my background in healthcare sales and my nodding acquaintance with marketing, but I am asked one question constantly. Does (let’s call him) Angelo know marketing? I am completely flummoxed by this question and others like it. Does the question really mean has Angelo ever heard of marketing? I know. Really, I get it that the question wouldn’t appear with Angelo’s name if he didn’t claim to know marketing. But for the sake of argument let’s pretend that Angelo’s job is a customer service representative at a small, family owned homecare provider in say, Dodge City, Kansas.

Now suppose that Marc Pritchard, the global marketing and brand-building officer at Procter and Gamble, whom I’ve never actually met, was also a Linkedin connection. What would I do if I’m asked if Marc knows marketing? If I endorse both connections what does my endorsement say?  I mean if they both “know marketing” I suspect someone is being grossly underpaid and it isn’t Marc. There isn’t an ounce of nuance in my endorsement. It’s either yes, or ignore. And truth be told, I hate to ignore people who may need encouragement or validation.

I wonder if perhaps it’s the word “know” that is giving me a headache. It’s not like this is just a Nike commercial where Bo knows…well, everything. We’re giving references here. Maybe it should be a multiple choice question. Three choices would be ideal I think.

1.      Angelo can’t even spell marketing.

2.      I’m sure he’s heard the term.

3.      Yeah, I’ll vouch for him.

 

Of course, only option number three would be helpful to my connection. Options 1 and 2 might reduce my number of connections but I’ll take my chances. I still have the option to ignore the question.    

There is another question that comes up frequently given my background. “Does Mallory Valley know healthcare?”  Listen: We’re talking about one of the most complicated and debated subjects in our society today. Does anyone actually “know” something as broad as healthcare? Are we talking about health care financing? Is it the delivery of health care services? Am I being asked if Mallory knows a sub-specialty like neo-natal intensive care just to name one? Or, is the question really simple as in does Mallory take good care of herself? 

When I first started endorsing people I took the responsibility seriously. After all, my endorsement reflects on my business judgment and acumen. If I endorsed you it meant that I had sufficient experience to support my endorsement.

All of that changed for me early one morning when it occurred to me that the nice people at Linkedin probably meant to create an on-line board game to keep us on their site longer and get us to add more connections. But what would be the object of the game? Do you win if you provide the most endorsements? Conversely, might they track the number of opportunities to endorse that you ignored? My guess is the object of the game is to receive as many endorsements in as many categories as you can. Hint: The more you endorse the more people feel obligated to endorse you. So get busy.

In case Linkedin hasn’t actually considered the huge potential of the endorsement game, here is a way for you to keep track of your score until they do. Give yourself two points for every connection that endorses you. Add an additional point every time the same connection endorses you again in another category. I think the winner of the game should be automatically inducted into Mensa.