By Kristen Harris, an EO Columbus member and owner of Portfolio Creative

When I initially received a flood of notices that I had been “endorsed” by lots of people for a variety of skills in LinkedIn, I had questions. Mainly “What is this?” and “Why do I care?”  Since this seemed to be the general sentiment, I did more research and discovered more about LinkedIn’s recently launched Skills and & Expertise feature.

This could actually become a valuable tool, especially for job seekers, freelancers, and people interested in growing their career through connections. In a nutshell, it’s a “point and click” way to endorse someone, or to have someone endorse you. It adds tags that make your profile more easily found by search engines and LinkedIn searches, and provides a consistent set of search terms. For example, you might call yourself a Writer, Copywriter, Marketing Copy Chief or endless other variations. But when the skill “copywriting” is attached to your profile, you can be found regardless of your title. LinkedIn also has a Skills & Expertise search function, currently in beta, which utilizes these tags and suggests people with related expertise.