How To Manage LinkedIn Endorsements

LinkedIn: 10 Important Changes

LinkedIn Endorsements, a feature that the social network introduced a year ago, lets your connections give their stamp of approval to your skills and qualifications, which are ranked and displayed in a section on your profile. These quick-hit testimonials have become extraordinarily popular, according to Crystal Braswell, LinkedIn's manager of corporate communications, doubling to more than 2 billion among users since March.

But the influx of Endorsements might mean that like many other users, you've received a higher volume of email alerts from the social network than usual. If, coincidentally, you have been neglecting the endorsement rankings section of your profile as well, you might need to tidy up there, as well as your inbox.

Here's how to change your email frequency and adjust your endorsements to make this section of your LinkedIn profile easier to manage.

1. Change Your Email Preferences

If LinkedIn sends too many emails alerting you to your most recent endorsements, you can turn this alert off. To do so, navigate to your Privacy & Settings page and click the Communications side tab on the left next to the envelope icon. Click the "Set the Frequency of Emails" link below the "Emails and Notifications" subhead, and click the "Notifications" option. Here, scroll to the Endorsements section and select "No Email" from the drop-down list. Then click "Save changes."

[ Want to keep your job search private? Read 5 LinkedIn Privacy Settings For Job Hunters. ]

LinkedIn's Braswell said that if you choose to opt out of receiving Endorsement emails, you should still be diligent about monitoring that section of your profile to ensure that connections are voting up relevant skills that are important to you. If you find endorsements you want to remove -- or endorsements from a particular connection you want to remove – read on.

2. Remove Individual Endorsements

If you've received an endorsement from a connection you don't believe is qualified to vouch for that particular skill -- or if you want to delete an entire category of endorsements -- you can remove them.

To strike a skill from your Endorsements page, navigate to the main menu and select "Edit Profile" under the "Profile" heading. Scroll to the Skills & Expertise section and click Edit. Here, you can remove individual skills from your profile by clicking the X next to them.

You can also remove individual connections from endorsing a skill. To do this click the "Manage Endorsements" tab to switch views. Click a skill, then uncheck the box next to the contact that you want to remove from endorsing it. When you're done, click Save.

3. Remove All Endorsements

If you want to remove the entire Endorsements section from your profile, scroll to the Skills & Expertise section within the "Edit Profile" mode. Click Edit, then click the drop-down menu next to the option "Display your endorsements?" Choose "No, do not display my endorsements." Click Save. This will remove all endorsements from your profile.