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.   

Linkedin: Not for those that Fear Rejection

I have 182 connections on Linkedin which is a modest number when I compare it with some of my connections. Mark and Rick for example, each have more than 500 connections. On the other hand a few of my connections are linked to fewer than 5 people. I think the number of connections you have might depend on how well you handle rejection. When you join Linkedin you put yourself out there. Sure, Linkedin allows you to click on something that says “Add so and so to your network” as if it’s a foregone conclusion that your invitation will be accepted. Not so, I’m afraid. You can be left high and dry. Right now there are 14 people who haven’t accepted my invitation to connect on Linkedin. Two of them were just invited in the last 48 hours. The other 12 were invited…let’s just say a while back. I have high hopes for the two prospects I just invited to link into. Those in the “while back” category are definitely long shots.
My failure rate stands at 7.69%. If that is a typical result, Mark and Rick have at least 38 people ignoring them. Is that a lot of people? I don’t know but Major League baseball teams have just 25 players on their roster during the season.
As I review the list of people who have ignored me, I am struck by the fact that two of them will surely be reading this post. You know who you are but please don’t feel any pressure to explain yourself. Get this: I talk to one of the refusniks regularly on the phone. We exchange emails too. Why the snub?
Life was so much easier when I was a kid and the boy sitting next to me could whisper “Ya’ wanna be friends?” while the teacher wrote something on the blackboard. It was nearly impossible to refuse a face to face request. And, if by some chance the answer was no, the turndown wasn’t recorded in my permanent record the way Linkedin refusals are.
Regardless of it’s shortcomings, I like Linkedin. It boosts my ego to know that the links of my 182 connections, connect me to almost two million people. Surely if the need arises one of them will have a job for me.
One application I’m not crazy about is “Who’s viewed your profile.” At first I thought it would be fun to see who is curious about me. Mostly though, it’s the people that only hours ago agreed to be a connection. I suppose they’re just eager to see who I know. Sadly, the “Who’s viewed your profile” thing is really about the same as the most likely to succeed, prom queen, best hair, high school popularity thing. My profile has been viewed by 5 people in the last 30 days. Some things never change. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m not actually in the job market right now. I mean if I was in demand, thousands of professionals would be checking me out, right? If only one-tenth of one percent of the 2 million links I have gave my profile a gander that would be 2,000 people! Five out of 2,000 is a percentage too small to mention.
Linkedin encourages members to share an article, an idea or even an insight. Here is an insight recently shared by a member: “The first 90% of project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.” He’s right too. Yogi Berra couldn’t have said it better.
Although Linkedin doesn’t suggest telling fellow connections which city you’ll be visiting this week, what you’re reading or what kind of day you had, I notice a lot of members do just that. By the way, if you’re reading this post and you want to mention that fact to your connections I won’t object.
One thing I don’t fully understand is why people I’ve never met ask to connect with me. Is it possible that my network is that valuable? If that’s the case I wonder if I should charge a fee for the connection. Imagine what Mark and Rick could charge with their 500+ connections! I usually say yes when I’m invited because I don’t want to be rude and I don’t see the harm. Of course you never know what a stranger might be up to. I suppose I could go to Backgroundcheck.com to see whose invitation I’m accepting but I would feel a bit paranoid doing that. And, I’m not going to get to 500 saying no am I?

Copyright 2010, Len Serafino. All rights reserved.

Help! My Friends Are Poking Me

When the editor of the weekly newspaper invited me to be her friend on Facebook, I couldn’t resist. I had no idea she wanted us to be friends but I was excited to receive her invitation. She is one of the movers and shakers in town and she is a very nice lady. There was only one problem: I wasn’t a Facebook member. If I wanted to be friends with my editor I had to sign up. So I did and now I have 24 friends, some of whom I am well acquainted with, some I’ve met once or twice, and a handful of relatives to round things out.
For my money, it was a lot easier to find friends in the third grade when the kid sitting next to you in class just whispered out of the side of his mouth, “Hey jerkweed, wanna be friends?” I’ll confess that I am bewildered at times by Facebook. For instance, I always thought that relatives automatically qualified as friends even if you hate them. Not that I hate any of mine. I’m just saying. And, now that I’m friends with relatives, they can follow my every move if I’m foolish enough to post them. If my kids were to see a notation like, “Went to Vegas for the day but told my wife I had business in Phoenix,” I have no doubt they would squeal on me. What can I really post that will be interesting and keep me out of hot water?
Some of my Facebook friends post messages describing what they are doing at this very moment, along with photos to burn the image in my mind. One friend, perhaps a bit bored with life, (or maybe he has kid problems too) wrote he was eating potato chips on his couch. I loved the picture, one hand dipped in a giant bag of salt and vinegar chips the other holding the remote. His elderly mother probably isn’t interested in social networking. She doesn’t even own a computer. Too bad because I would like nothing better than to invite her to be my friend so she could see what’s clearly visible in the picture. My friend was getting crumbs on the couch and even worse, he didn’t have a napkin nearby to wipe the grease off his fingers. If the poor woman could see this site she would be beside herself. She’s very old fashioned though so rather than email chiding words to him she would reach for the phone and call.
My friend Cindy poked me a couple of months ago. I had no idea what that meant. I still don’t. I can tell you she hasn’t poked me again but I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe I was supposed to give her a poke. To be honest I haven’t been able to get a full night’s sleep since she poked me, worrying that my social networking skills might be costing me friends.
I have no doubt that my clumsy business networking activities are costing me many fine opportunities. Linkedin, a business networking site geared toward business contacts, is a case in point. Some of my Linkedin connections are also Facebook friends. There’s no place to hide. I have a whopping 32 Linkedin connections. Obviously I’m not exactly a ball of fire on this site either. My friend Don has 149 connections. Rick has more than 250.
And, I’ve already had one very unpleasant experience on this site. I was asked to connect with someone I thought I successfully disconnected years ago. I refused her invitation, an option Linkedin clearly provides. I thought that was the end of the matter but instead I got a nasty message back from my suitor which, in its own way, provided ample justification for my refusal. Still, it must be painful to be turned down. One of my connections wanted to recommend me to others. I refused that too. He said something about my track record that while accurate in every way, didn’t create the value add you expect from such things.
Social networking can be fun and it does offer a way to keep up with people that live far away. I have heard that some people actually get addicted to social networking. They become so immersed in the lives of their friends and business connections that they spend hours on these sites. I am not worried about that in the least. I lead a balanced life, filled with…hold on, It’s my cell. There’s a tweet from Twitterer…Can I get back to you in a sec?

Copyright 2009 Len Serafino. All rights reserved.