With LinkedIn being the biggest platform for connecting professionals, it’s easy to think it’s just a networking platform.
However, LinkedIn is much more than that– it’s one of the most powerful sales and lead-generation tools.
While that’s not news to anyone, social selling on LinkedIn can be a bit ambiguous. How exactly can you sell on LinkedIn in an effective and human way?
That’s where LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (LinkedIn SSI) comes into play.
Over the past few months, I’ve been active on LinkedIn and engaged with social selling.
The results are crazy. I’ve managed to:
- Grow from 300 followers to over 2500 organic followers
- Generate multiple 4-5 figure/mo leads (some I’ve taken, some I passed on)
- Reach over 200k people with my content
Social selling on LinkedIn works.
And that’s why I’ll be breaking down what LinkedIn SSI is, how you can find your score, improve it and use it to supercharge your social selling.
What is Social Selling?
Social selling is the process of using social media to interact with potential customers, build relationships and ultimately, drive sales. It’s a way of selling that focuses more on building relationships and providing value than the hard sell.
Social selling has many benefits, but the biggest reason it’s so important is due to the buying process changing dramatically over the years. The internet has redefined many industries, and impersonal or cold outreach doesn’t work anymore.
In fact – sales professionals who are great social sellers were found to create more opportunities and are 51% more likely to hit their sales quota.
While it’s possible to do social selling on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is by far the best platform for social selling – especially for B2B sales.
That’s because LinkedIn is a platform that’s designed specifically for professionals. It’s where people are already looking to make business connections and are learning more about potential business opportunities.
In other words, LinkedIn is the perfect breeding ground for social selling.
What Social Selling is not
Before I move on to talk about the LinkedIn SSI score, note that social selling does not mean spamming people with messages or sending connection requests to random people.
Social selling is not about being “sales-y” or looking for a one-time sale. It’s about building relationships, providing value, becoming a thought leader, and ultimately earning your potential customers’ trust.
What is LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI)?
The LinkedIn social selling index is a metric that’s designed to measure your social selling efforts – specifically on LinkedIn.
It’s a score that allows you to measure how your individual efforts add up.
Fun fact: The LinkedIn social selling index score was developed by identifying the top sales reps and social selling leaders and then analyzing their activities and usage habits on LinkedIn to see what factors drive successful outcomes.
There are 4 key pillars found that make successful social sellers. Each pillar is given a score out of 100, and your overall LinkedIn SSI score is an average of the 4 scores.
Let’s break them down.
What are the 4 factors of the Linkedin SSI?
1. Establish your professional brand
This is all about creating a strong, professional LinkedIn profile that accurately represents your personal brand.
Your LinkedIn account should be complete with:
- A professional profile photo;
- A banner or background photo;
- An updated headline and summary;
- Clear information about who you are and your expertise.
It’s also important to establish yourself as a thought leader in your space by publishing meaningful posts.
2. Find the right people
The second factor of the social selling index is finding the right people to connect with.
This means doing an efficient search or using research tools to find potential customers and prospects interested in your product or service.
This is where having premium accounts like LinkedIn premium or LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be really helpful, as it allows advanced search features to aid in lead generation for social selling.
It also means jo