How to Use LINKEDIN’s Social Selling Index Like for Your Business

Salespeople use LinkedIn to build their brand and reach potential clients through social selling. Find out how you're doing on the network and whether your activities are getting you the results you want with the LinkedIn Social Selling Index. With one click, it shows you how you're doing compared to other users.

Find out how you stand on LinkedIn

The LinkedIn Social Selling Index is a numerical representation of how well you are doing on LinkedIn. It shows you how your activities on this professional network are driving sales and how you stack up against other users in your industry.

It is a free tool that allows any LinkedIn user to check their position on the network. Just click on the link www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi.

The Social Selling Index shows you your current position

The index value ranges from 0 to 100. It is considered very good if you get above 70 points. The average LinkedIn user scores somewhere between 20 and 50.

The index is calculated over the past 90 days and is constantly updated. So you know immediately where you stand and how your activities are helping you improve your score.

4 areas assessed by the Social Selling Index

The Social Selling Index is based on four pillars that are measured separately. You can achieve a maximum of 25 points in each, the sum of which gives the total value of the index.

The four areas are:

• building your professional brand - the correct and complete profile is assessed, i.e. whether you have a profile photo, a completed work history, references,
• finding relevant contacts - measures how you find relevant contacts and use paid tools like Sales Navigator to make finding new connections more efficient,
• engagement with your network - this looks at whether you are creating relevant content that is useful to your followers, that generates user interaction and discussion under your posts, and assesses the reach of your posts, how many comments, reactions and shares you have,
• building strong relationships - assessing whether you connect with decision makers in the industry and how you respond to connection requests.

You can then clearly record all the leads from LinkedIn in the CRM. We recommend trying the free demo version to find out if and how it will make your work easier.

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How the index shows you what to improve on your LinkedIn

So the LinkedIn Social Selling Index will quickly show you how you're doing in these four areas on LinkedIn and which one you need to boost. For each of them, we will give you some tips on how to strengthen the metrics.

Building a personal brand

• Complete and fine-tune your profile - do not fill it out of obligation, but pay attention to each column, feel free to add your own banner in the header - the profile must appear authentic.
• Add interesting content to your profile - Pin articles, case studies and other valuable content to your profile that you want to show to all profile visitors.
• Be visible - publish interesting and useful information on LinkedIn and discuss it under other posts, thereby attracting users to your profile.
• Collect recommendations - ask colleagues and close work contacts to give you recommendations on your profile or highlight the skills mentioned in your profile.

Strengthening the network of contacts

• Connect with relevant people in your industry - search for them using filters or use the contacts that LinkedIn itself recommends for you to connect.
• Respond to connection requests - only add contacts that are relevant to you, reject others.
• Send personalized requests - if you don't know the prospect personally, always write a personalized message about why you're asking to be added to the network.
• Join industry groups – LinkedIn has a Groups feature that works similar to Facebook – try to find relevant groups in your industry and join them.
• Repeat visits to the profile - if a relevant person from your industry visits your profile, view their profile as well, or ask them directly to connect.

Sharing content and engaging

• Share Valuable Content - The most successful content on LinkedIn is content that is engaging, authentic, and provides valuable information at the same time - start building your image as a subject matter expert.
• Spread content relevant to your circle of contacts - your posts must be relevant to your network of contacts - therefore spread interesting things from the field and from your own practice, avoid off-topic topics such as politics or vacation photos.
• Engage in relevant discussions - regularly respond to others' posts, but only comment if you have something to contribute to the discussion, never to force it.

Deepening contacts

Keep in touch with your network – regularly comment on posts or congratulate important contacts in your network on their achievements. This way, you will remain visible to them and to other people in their circle.

By updating the index regularly, you can instantly see how each activity adds points to your overall score.

Social Selling Index will boost your business

A higher index value will guarantee you a better position on the network and in the business. The higher your score, the more reach your LinkedIn posts will allow. It will better connect you with important people in your industry or in the industry of a potential client. It will also help you show yourself as an expert and authority in your field.

This can open the door to more business for you. In fact, LinkedIn data shows that marketers with a higher Social Selling Index have a higher number of sales opportunities and are more successful in closing deals.

If you want to devote yourself intensively to social selling on LinkedIn, you cannot do without LinkedIn Sales Navigator. We describe how this extended LinkedIn function works in a separate article.