You may have already tried this LinkedIn feature: the Social Selling Index. It is a free tool that shows you what’s your position in the market in terms of networking & interaction on LinkedIn.
Your score is between 0 and 100 and consists of four components:
- Establishing your professional ‘brand’ (how complete your profile is and regularly creating meaningful posts);
- Finding the right people by using the tools LinkedIn provides;
- Responding to questions from other users in your network;
- Making new connections/expanding your network.
You can earn a maximum of 25 points for each component. Your score is then compared to that of other people in your industry and in your network.
Why would you like a high SSI?
At the time of writing, I had a Social Selling Index of 51 and I am in the top 5 percent of my industry, top 14 percent in my network. Personally, I really like LinkedIn to stay in touch with my network, to keep up with news developments. I even get new assignments via LinkedIn, but I’m also very active on this medium.
A good SSI score mainly helps you to check how effective you are with your presence on LinkedIn, your exposure and your ‘sales opportunities’. As far as I can tell, you do not get any extra rewards for having a high score, such as more visibility outside of that acquired through your own efforts.
How can you improve your SSI?
It is of course an cliché that a large, well-maintained network is very useful when you are looking for a new job or want to get attention for a product, service or news article. If you think it could benefit you and your business, then I would advise you to improve your SSI score. Not because of the score itself, but because of the consequences of your hard work.
In total, there are four elements that build your score. Some tips per element to improve your SSI:
Establishing your professional ‘brand’ (also keep reading if you don’t sell a branded product 😉)
- Make sure you have a professional profile photo and a cover photo that matches your personality and field of work
- Choose the keywords in your headline that you would like to be known for. Of course, you have to be able to live up to them. And keep them specific
- Add a short summary on your profile that says more about what type of person you are and what you find important in your career. This can help to make a good first impression, especially when applying for a job
- Make sure your profile is complete
- Ask for short and powerful recommendations from different types of people in your network. For example, a person who has been your manager, one of your clients, a person you have collaborated with directly and one person you have managed.
Interaction and the LinkedIn algorithm
See in which area you count as an expert and what you can publish that really helps your network. This could be a tip for a useful app, an investigation or research study you have conducted, a useful news article you recently read, an inspiring video, et cetera.
What I love about LinkedIn is that when people in my network respond to my content, it also becomes visible to their network, and when people from their circle respond, it also becomes visible to their network, and so on and so on. You can see this clearly when you look at the likes of people on your post after a few hours (or days), which then shows whether those people are in your first, second or third circle.
Regularly respond to the content of others if, for example, they ask a question to which you have a good answer, or tag an acquaintance if someone is looking for a certain type of employee/expert/supplier that you happen to know.
Expand your network with the right people
- Use LinkedIn’s search function to find potential clients based on criteria such as location, industry, function, company size, et cetera
- Use the ‘search by contribution’ to see if people are looking for expertise that you have to offer, such as an app builder, copywriter or project manager for example
- Use the ‘Who viewed my profile’ function to see who has shown interest in you or your content. Send a personalized message to connect if appropriate
- Use the ‘People you may know’ function to get suggestions for people who are relevant to your network. Send a personalized message to connect. You don’t need a premium subscription for this. If you click on the dots that give you more options instead of ‘connection’, you will see ‘edit invitation’ there. Voila. Free.
- Use the ‘TeamLink’ function to see who in your network is connected to your prospects. Ask for an introduction or a recommendation. Basically the warm introduction that you sometimes get in real life.
Engaging with insights
- Follow relevant topics, organizations, and groups on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest trends and developments in your industry and target market. These are different for everyone, of course
- Share relevant updates with your network that add value, solve problems, or raise questions. Use hashtags to increase your visibility and trigger responses by including a call to action
- Respond to other people’s updates with a compliment, a question, an opinion, or an insight. Be respectful and constructive in your responses and try to start a conversation. Make sure this is authentic. Don’t do it for the score or the traffic, but because the topic really matters to you. People can tell the difference…
- To continue on the previous point: if you use ‘InMail’ – LinkedIn’s paid messaging feature – send a personal message with attention. Learn about the person and/or organization. We all get enough spam already and you see it right away if it’s copy-paste message. So don’t do it, it’s a waste of time for all involved.
Building your network
- Send invitations to people you want to add to your network and add a personalized message explaining why you want to connect. I personally prefer to only add people I actually know. That makes your network much more valuable. I prefer a smaller but engaged network, rather than a network just to be as big as possible. Quality over quantity
- Be active and visible on LinkedIn by regularly sharing, commenting and liking content. Show that you are interested in what others have to say and that you offer value. But at the same time choose wisely; not everything belongs on LinkedIn and it is also important not to spam with information
- Make it a habit to add people on LinkedIn after a new business meeting, conference or interview. Also take a moment to thank them for the nice conversation you’ve had. Always a good habit. 😊
What do you think of LinkedIn? Does it help you? And if so, how?
Are you curious about your Social Selling Index score? You can find it when you are logged on to LinkedIn and then go to https://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi
This is free, at least for now. Of course I don’t know if that will remain the case in the future.