Last week I was lucky enough to be in San Francisco with my family celebrating my brother-in-law Michael’s wedding. It was perfect. We spent the weekend on the Russian River with friends and family. Lovely. When the wedding was over, my family spent a few more wonderful days exploring San Francisco. One morning over coffee, my new sister-in-law Laurie who had her laptop opened, turned to me an asked

“What do you think about Linkedin endorsements?”

My knee-jerk response was:

“They suck.”

She seemed relieved that I had said it, and we both went on a rant why we think they suck. I thought I’d share our thoughts with you because I think Laurie is super smart, and she and I can’t be the only ones who feel this way.

I’d like to start with the caveat that I think LinkedIn is amazing. I love it, really, I do. I’m not here to Linkedin bash. In fact, I think I’m doing the opposite. I’m a LinkedIn groupie that wants to get the word out to Linkedin that one of their features sucks and please kindly remove it so we can go about loving your platform again –thankyouverymuch.

I’m on the site daily, and I even pay for upgraded services. I use the platform to network, close deals, reconnect with former colleagues, pass and share information, engage in the social media community and learn.

Now – for the uninformed, endorsements are the poor man’s recommendation. They’re the more seamless and slicker younger brother. Giving someone an endorsement is simple and frictionless. Which at first blush may seem like a good thing in social media, but I think being so frictionless has added to why they suck. Because all someone has to do to endorse you is to click a button. Much like the “like” button on Facebook this is ubiquitous throughout Linkedin, but frankly I think it’s diluted the platform. Here’s why.

1. They’re Spammy.

I leave platforms when I feel spammed. This is not good for anyone, and they dilute the brand equity of LinkeIn. The manner in which Linkedin has chosen to make endorsements a ubiquitous part of your Linkedin experience is by getting as close to spamming as I’ve ever seen Linkedin! When you log in, the platform prompts you to endorse people you may have not have seen in years, and while at first I was intrigued, now I’m annoyed. I get it. You don’t have to prompt me to endorse people every single time I log in.

2. The more you get, the less impact they have.

Unlike real recommendations – endorsements have a “cap” meaning there is a certain number of endorsements that you can get before it begins to look like a huge Rubik’s cube of faces on your LinkedIn profile. Silly.

3. See number 2.

At least five times a day I receive emails indicating that I’ve been endorsed on Linkedin. At first, I was intrigued by the service, and flattered that I was gettting so many endorsements.

Eary on when endorsements were first released, I would dedicate time every morning seeing who I could give endorsements to – but now, because I know how spammy they are in promoting people to endorse others, I think nothing of getting an endorsement. I can almost see the person sitting there with their chin on their desk blindly clicking away endorsements until Linkedin serves them up another face from their networking past. Like the drones who pull on slot machines…clicking, clicking, clicking awaiting some unseen reward of reciprocity.

Maybe I’m just being a grumpy old man, but I have to admit that I think my very generous endorsements look completely silly on my profile, and seem like overkill.

I’ll end the way I began – saying I love Linkedin, and I use it daily, but I have to ask …

Am I the only one that would like to see them do away with endorsements?

Let me know what you think?

Am I missing the hidden power of the endorsement, or do you feel the same way I do?

Comment below and let me know!