Episode 64 Using LinkedIn Skills and Endorsements to Your Advantage

Jack: [00:00:00] I've had the privilege of being in and around banking for more than 50 years. Lots of changes during that time. We've gone from ledgers to laptops, typewriters to technology. One thing, however, remains the same. Banking is a people business. And I'll be talking with those people that make banking great.

Here on Jack Rants with Modern Bankers. Hello, everybody. Hi, Brynne.

Brynne Tillman: Hey Jack. How are you today? Well, it's a great

Jack: Thursday and uh, everybody is fantastic. We've gotten through the Super Bowl and everybody had a good time with that. I'm sure. And now we're headed to spring training. Spring has started Brynne, and I can tell you why because the pitchers and catchers have gone to camp and pretty soon baseball starts.

And I'm pretty excited about that as well as golf season. So, and we've got a great program today that I'm, uh, that I'm really excited about using LinkedIn [00:01:00] skills. Uh, and endorsements to your advantage. But before we do that, you know, Brendan and I are very, very committed to, providing you the audience, which is growing, and we're very appreciative of that with some really good ideas and resources.

Brynne held this up, uh, a few weeks ago, and so, uh, anything that Brynne reads, I gotta read too. And it's Jeffrey Klein. Jeffrey is amazing. He's Mr. Purple. He's been on a TED Talk. He's a great speaker. And he wrote this very interesting book about content. And it's something that you should read. And then, of course, every Saturday, you and I, Brynne, typically listen to, um, Meredith Elliott Powell and Mark Hunter, and they put this book up, Authentically Social, by Corey Perlman.

Of course, I got this hobby, Brynne, and I've always had this hobby of, I see a book, I just reach out to the author. So I reached out to Corey, got a nice book, [00:02:00] uh, got an autograph, and I'm going to start reading that. Both of these will be on my program, Jack Rance with Modern Bankers, uh, down the road now, before we start, Brynne, I'm really excited.

I went back and looked at a few of the programs that we did as we got through, uh, you know, started this journey together. And, you know, we've done, uh, almost 30 or 40 programs together. Maybe more, um, seven mistakes, uh, bankers make on LinkedIn from commercial, a banker to thought leader, collaborative articles, uh, profile updates.

We've got so many of these and Brynne they're available in the public library and everybody can see all the replays. We're really excited about that. Well, This is an interesting one because it used to be more powerful than recommendations, this whole skills and endorsements thing. And it's morphed and changed as LinkedIn has done over [00:03:00] the years.

So let's start at the very beginning, Brynne. What are skills and endorsements and how are they different from recommendations?

Brynne Tillman: Oh, what a great question. So let's just start with the skills piece. And the skills are literally, Keywords and phrases that represent what you do really well. This was really created from a recruiter mindset, right?

So that people could add the skills that they have. And then when they were searching for the right candidates, Those skills would come up. The people with those skills would come up. So why do I believe that skills are actually really important even though almost no one ever looks at them? Because it is designed for search engine optimization to be free.

those skills. So where do we start with this? We want to make sure that as we are choosing our skills that we're going to have [00:04:00] listed there, that we are thinking about what our customers are searching for when they are looking for us. You can also talk with your marketing team because they probably have a great list meant for the website.

Now only put them on your profile if you have them, but marketing can help you identify what those actually are. Number one, an endorsement means that someone other than yourself. visits your profile and says, Oh, Jack is really good at economics. And so they click. I endorse Jack for economics. Now, randomly, you may get a notification.

that you've been endorsed or someone that you've endorsed may get a notification. There was a time when you'd always get it, but you know, LinkedIn's always changing it up. However, they will come into your [00:05:00] notifications so you will see that you've been endorsed if you are actively checking those notifications.

Now your question real quick before I throw this back to you is what's the difference between endorsing, endorsing someone and recommending them? Okay. Well, endorsing is just a little click that says you're good at this. And it really doesn't put a huge value, uh, behind it. I mean, the numbers help the more endorsements you have for a skill, the higher you're going to come up in that search.

So there is definitely value in getting endorsed. But a recommendation is so much more personalized. Uh, it links back to your profile in a way that, uh, a visitor or, uh, potential customer can click through and say, Oh, this person said all these really great things. So by far recommendation is absolutely more valuable, [00:06:00] but skills.

helps you get found more than recommendations. So that's why we're putting a little emphasis on this today.

Jack: All right. So you are the queen of LinkedIn value. And, and so what I want to know is you mentioned notifications. So let's say that you, uh, click on a skill that I have, and I find that in my notifications.

What should I do about that?

Brynne Tillman: So personally, I would thank them. I really appreciate that. Um, it's been a while since we last connected. What are you up to? I mean, it depends on who it is, right? But I want to start, so that's a little casual. But if someone is going to endorse you, in most cases, you know them relatively well.

Maybe not all cases. Some people will misuse endorsements. And by the way, side note, don't endorse someone for something you haven't experienced. When you endorse them for something, your name is behind it. So if someone randomly endorses [00:07:00] you for a skill, they have not experienced, make a determination. If it's worth it to you to actually pursue most of the time, someone that's going to take the time to endorse you as someone that has experienced you.

So you just follow up as if they texted you, right? What would you say if they texted you? Hi, Hi. Hey, Jack. How are you? Right. That this is just a little ping and this is a trigger to start a conversation. And in this case, even a trust based conversation based on someone trusting you for a skill.

Jack: Okay. So when you think about this, uh, as, and I'm going to give you a practical thing that I do with skills and endorsements.

To kind of reinvigorate some of those connections that I haven't maybe touched in a while. So my question to you to think about, uh, as I give you this practical idea is let's say that I'm endorsed by Al Capone [00:08:00] and I go into my endorsements and skills and I go, Oh my gosh. I don't want that on there.

What can I do about that? Brynne? So let me, I'll, I'll let you think about that as I tell you something I do practically. So I have a lot of connections. You have a lot of connections, whether you have 500, 200, a thousand, whatever it is, those people that early on connected with you. You may lose a little contact with so one of the things I do is I'll go through from time to time My older endorsements and this is all done by downloading your connections And I scroll down to the bottom and i'll go to their profile and i'll see if they have skills and endorsements And I'll click on it and I'll do that.

That can engage them and re engage them. Hey, we haven't talked in a while. Thanks Jack for the, uh, for this endorsement. I really appreciate that. So that's a little practical tip that you can do. All right. What happens if I'm, uh, if I'm endorsed by Al Capone [00:09:00] and I don't want that on my

Brynne Tillman: profile? You can hide it, which is great.

The interesting thing is, let's say it says you have 11 endorsements and number 11 is Al. Even if you hide it, people will only see the 10 other people, but it will keep your 11. So it actually will still benefit you. By having it, but you can hide it. So other people don't see who endorsed you.

Jack: All right.

Another practical tip, and you can kind of amplify this as well. When I would make sales calls, or if I was going to make a presentation to a bank I knew that they were hiring us for maybe this thing, this thing, and this thing. I would move my skills and endorsements up because you can, it says 99 plus, it doesn't go over 99 plus, but you can have 500 and you, and people would be able to click on those and see, oh my gosh, this person, this person, this person.

They're pretty credible [00:10:00] and that's almost a testimonial, uh, if you will. Um, I'm curious your thoughts on that.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah. Often I call that social proof. So if you have 99 endorsements for a skill, that's social proof that you're probably pretty good at it. You know, you get one or two, it might be random. 99 plus is pretty impressive.

Um, so it definitely is social proof and you can move them around and you can pin three. So I, you know, pin your top three, but you're right if you are going after a particular industry. So let's say you really focus on the manufacturing industry and you have a skill that's manufacturing, banking or financing as your skill moves out to the top.

But chances are, if it's something like that, you don't have a ton of endorsements. And I would say, go to your colleagues. Doesn't matter who's endorsing you. I mean, it will show your. logo there. If a lot of people from your bank or credit union endorsed you, [00:11:00] your logo will be there. I don't think anyone's looking that deep into it, but go to everyone that's going to participate with you in this business, your underwriters, your customer service folks, anyone you've got these relationships, you can ask them to endorse you for this.

I'm going after this business. It would be wonderful. To get some endorsements. So while it's really difficult to do that in a recommendations, you can't really pack your recommendations effectively. You can definitely pack those endorsements. So how many can I have? I don't think there's a limit, but to your point, it will always show 99 plus.

Yeah. Um, I don't want to say that I haven't. Verified there, there's no limit, but I think there's no limit.

Jack: All right. So any number of people can endorse you, uh, and then you have the right to create some endorsements yourself. And I believe you can have up to a hundred. [00:12:00] It used to be 50. But one of the things that's kind of interesting, Brynne, is tell your story about a class that you were doing and how that all came about in a unique kind of endorsement.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, so, and this was probably, gosh, 12 years ago when I first started teaching this and, uh, LinkedIn had already. Skills that in endorsements that you could do, but they had just rolled out the opportunity to type in your own skill. It didn't have to be on their list. So I'm in a class and I decided I'm going to put in parenting just to show them that there was no parenting.

And now I wrote parenting and now parenting is a skill and I was ready to delete it in a couple of hours. It was just my example. But by the end of the class I had three endorsements. Now. Mind you, at the time, I had three adult children. Now I have five. At the time, I had three adult children. [00:13:00] None of them were the people that endorsed parenting.

They were randos that I didn't even know that was, that were like, Oh, Brynne's a good parent. Well, thank you so much for making that leap. But I ended up, the point is, and this is why I went back. If we go back where I said, Don't endorse something, someone for something you haven't experienced. They certainly did not experience my parenting.

but that, so thank you for Bringing that up and making me laugh again. Uh, but it was, you know, I think it's a really good point to make sure that what you're putting out there, first of all, is professional. Although I say that if you're a good, Soccer player. I'm actually okay with you adding that in as a skill.

There's definitely some personalization. I may not have that in the top three that you're pinning, but I think adding your own, whatever your skills are, especially now that we have a hundred, I mean, who has a hundred skills for [00:14:00] sure? You do Jack, you have a hundred skills at least.

Jack: Yeah. Watching, watching baseball is one.

Um, so, uh, uh, yeah. So let's talk about, I want to, I want to ask you a question and I, and I lost it. Um, and this is live TV. So this is, uh, I have CRS. I can't remember stuff. Oh, I know what I wanted to tell you. I, I, I do, I recommend this to bankers and it relates to your soccer comment. Is it true that if I'm preparing for a call and I go on your profile, can I see all of your skills or will I just see the first three?

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, there's a see more button. It's kind of hidden, but you can click it and you can see all of those, you know, and that is something because we talk about to find two things in two minutes before every call. Right? So get on to someone's profile. And if you're really stuck, like there's not a whole lot [00:15:00] there, uh, two things, look at their skills.

That's a really good way to see how they see themselves. And look at the, this I know a little off topic, but look at the people and companies they follow, uh, the, the influencers that they follow. Those are also, they're hidden and they're right in that same area. And I highly.

Jack: Well, people ask me, uh, okay, if skills and endorsements aren't as big of a deal as some other things.

Why should I even look at him? Well, here's why. Let's say I'm going to call on Brynne and she has tennis. I know you play tennis. Yeah, I do. Let's say you have tennis as one of your skills. So I scroll down and I see you have tennis. Well, I play tennis. Um, and I might say early on in the sales conversation, Brynne, I noticed you play tennis.

How did you get into that? Excuse me. How did you get into playing [00:16:00] tennis? Now that's impressive because you don't say, well, Brynne, I was going over your LinkedIn profile and I noticed you play. Look, Brynne, I saw you play tennis. How'd you get into that? I play tennis too. And so it's a nice, easy way to find some level of commonality.

And it's so easy to do. So skills and endorsements, Brynne, while they seem to be less important than some other things on the profile are definitely not throwables.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah, I mean, I almost always find at least two things. that I can start a conversation with. And, Jack, back in the day, before all this internet stuff, we would walk into somebody's office and we would look around the room and we'd say, you know, do they have awards?

Uh, they have a picture of them as a cub scout leader. They had, like, you ha you see all of those things that help you to build rapport. Well, that's what the LinkedIn profile is. can do for you for [00:17:00] sure. It's the virtual office where you can look around and find things to build rapport on.

Jack: No doubt.

And, and I have to tell you, cause I was just on RelPro yesterday. iit, when, when you go on to someone's rel pro profile, uh, and you can get all kinds of great information about them as a person versus vertical IQ as an industry up in the banner, you'll see all kinds of things, including awards that they've won, things like that.

So I just want to make sure that as we're talking about call preparation and using skills that we kind of integrate that RelPro approach because that's so powerful. I love

Brynne Tillman: I absolutely love that.

Jack: Well, this was fun. Um anything else Let's review. Oh, I have one more thing. Oh, go go ahead and then we'll

Brynne Tillman: review So in your about section and in all of your job sections, you can pin [00:18:00] five top skills.

They're not in addition to the hundred. They're part of that hundred. Um, but it really shows up in your about section. There's actually a diamond. I think that it's like in your face, right? Like here are your top skills, but every single one of your positions, you can add those and it's just another one.

They're kind of running through your profile so that they stand out and they can see those key words and phrases.

Jack: Well, let's talk about that. That's a great one. So let's say that I'm in a vertical industry. Or I have a vertical skill. I know two bankers that we work with that are very engaged in social, in, um, in solar lending.

So let's say that I can put solar lending on as a skill. I get some colleagues to, in fact, endorse me for that. Now I can move that into my about section. I can amplify that a little bit in my about section, and I can [00:19:00] have somebody click on it and see who are the people that I've worked with potentially that can.

Add credibility to me. That's that social, uh, credibility that you talk about. Yeah.

Brynne Tillman: Is it the social proof for sure? And I think it's absolutely vital that we take this really seriously. And, LinkedIn is taking this top skills in each of your roles so seriously that you can't even not have top skills.

They force you to pick skills for every single one of your roles. So that is something to really make sure you're doing. I also want to talk about in your about section, those keywords and phrases, all of these keywords and phrases, you can use those same key words and phrases in your about section to be, again, more SEO optimized and to be found more readily.

Jack: Well, [00:20:00] um, I, I think that is just a great, uh, um, aspect of, uh, of this conversation. I think it's really important. And as we talked about, um, the recommendation versus the endorsement and really the difference between the two and what, what, what's the difference between the two?

Um, and how do you approach that? So, let me, let me ask you something. So we're talking about endorsements and skills and endorsements. Um, and we talked about how, how we, um, Can move them around. Um, we can, we can look at the number of them, uh, and we can take some action to, to, to, um, you know, manage that to our benefit.

So, uh, I, I really enjoyed this, uh, conversation today, Brynne. Um, and, um, I think it's really important that um, that, that people think about this in terms of, of their strategy on LinkedIn and how they use it as [00:21:00] part of their sales and marketing process.

Brynne Tillman: Yeah. And, just remember to take it seriously.

Um, you know, it's not a popularity contest, although it is, but it's also a way for people to find you and to trust you. So think about your skills and your endorsements seriously, make sure they're accurate, um, and make sure that you're getting endorsements. Um, you know, that can really help you get found more easily and faster.

Jack: Well, this was a great conversation. I really enjoyed it, Brynne. Uh, once again, I want to thank you. Uh, I want to thank our audience for joining us today. Um, and uh, uh, I look forward to, uh, having more conversations with you, Brynne, uh, as we, uh, go through this, uh, process of, uh, of helping bankers, uh, be more effective in their sales and marketing process on LinkedIn.

Brynne Tillman: I look forward to that as well, Jack. And I also want to say thank you to the audience for joining us. Um, you know, Jack's got some great content out there. So if you [00:22:00] have not subscribed, do so that way you're getting, uh, updates every time there's a new episode. And I want to say thank you to Jack for really providing such valuable content to our listeners.

Jack: Well, Brynne, thank you. And, this is another great conversation. look forward to having more, and we'll see you next time. Take care.

Brynne Tillman: You too. Bye-bye.

Jack: Bye.