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Wrong information on the LinkedIn Service Provider Category listing

Checked out the Services tab on LinkedIn to see how I fare on the Graphic/Web Designer category under Service Provider Recommendations.

I have seven recommendations on my LinkedIn professional profile as a graphic/web designer, one recommendation as a Creative Head and one recommendation as a business consultant.

Under the Service Provider directory my profile is listed as having only two recommendations as a Graphic/Web Designer and one as a Business Consultant.

I wonder why there is such misinformation? It affects my business directly – since I use LinkedIn for work and it is such an important part of my business development and helps me to generate revenues, such misinformation affects my revenues!

I have written to Customer Support and LinkedIn and lets hope they not their usual tardy selves with the reply and the solution/explanation. [ Will update this post about the same ].

Another grouse I have with this system of Service Provider categorization is that it allows me to choose the best professional from a certain category only in a given geographical location – which is a huge advantage no doubt. But it should also have an option to allow me to search for the best professional in a certain category in ALL of LinkedIn. I know I’ll come out tops so I’ll be happy to have it implemented 🙂

UPDATE I

Check the comments to hear LinkedIn’s side – they were prompt with this one 🙂

The best way to access the Worldwide listing would be to use this URL. Clicking on the globe icon is supposed to work according to the LinkedIn reply below but it doesn’t.

The Service providers recommendation listing shows only those recommendations that are given by clients. So if your client chooses a different options instead of “I was Naina’s client” then it will not show up on the service provider’s directory. The other recommendations made by people you’ve networked with will also not show up because in all likelihood you haven’t worked with these people – and this a fantastic thing that LinkedIn has taken care of [ sometimes I think that there are so many tiny little things that are so important and LinkedIn manages to take care of pretty much all of them ].

I have frou client recommendations as a Graphic/Web Designer and two of the clients did not choose the “I was Naina’s client option”. One has chosen “was a consultant or contractor to Naina at aside” and the other has chosen “was with another company when working with Naina at aside”.

So the system is open to human error and manipulation [ as all systems are ] and my only recourse would be to get in touch with these two clients and request them to edit their recommendations!

I’ll update on how that goes!

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2 comments

  1. Hi Naina,

    The LinkedIn Services section will only show recommendations that come from your clients.

    Also, you can search for service professionals in a certain category worldwide by selecting the tab with the earth on it. Sort by “Top Results” if you want to see the most recommended person in the network.

    Hope that helps!

    -Kay

  2. Hi Kay,

    Thanks for clarifying how to search for Worldwide service providers – it’s a very useful category listing. I was still unable to get to the Worldwide listing by clicking on the Earth symbol. If I sign into my LinkedIn account after a certain period of time, it automatically resets the search to Worldwide but after I change it to “India” for example, the only way I can get back to Worldwide is by either clicking on the Worldwide link in the “change location” menu under top locations or by using the URL http://www.linkedin.com/svpRecommendations?smp=&dgre=-1&mnrRegion=0.

    One the recommendations part, I have a total of four recommendations that have been received from real clients. Two of those are listed and two are not – in the two that are not listed, the client has not chosen the option of “I was Naina’s clients” but have chosen some other option for whatever reason. I have work and payments to show that I’ve delivered work for them – so the recommendation listing is still a misrepresentation although because of human error.

    So it still affects my business 🙂 The only recourse would be to request these two clients and ask them to choose the correct option and edit their recommendation – I hope there is an option to do that!

    I thoroughly appreciate the prompt response.

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