How to Increase Your Social Selling Index on LinkedIn? | A Comprehensive Guide

Your Social Selling Index (SSI) Score is one of the most crucial social media statistics that you should be aware of. The Social Selling Index (SSI) score given by LinkedIn is referred to as “the first-of-its-kind social selling measurement”.

In this article, we will discuss how to increase your Social Selling Index on LinkedIn, how to calculate your LinkedIn SSI Score and the rewards of a High Score. Now, let’s learn in parts about the LinkedIn SSI and examine how you may improve each of its components by just devoting up to 15 minutes a day to them.

What Is the Social Selling Index on LinkedIn?

The Social Selling Index is the information that LinkedIn employs to rank members based on their activity and social selling characteristics. The Social Selling Index (SSI) on LinkedIn is a meter of how effectively you’re using the platform to locate and connect with prospects.

The SSI is a scale from 0 to 100 that measures how well you performed in four categories. Each element carries a 25-point value. The 4-categories, also called pillars, are as follows:

• Building your brand as a professional.
• Making the right connections.
• Considering insights.
• Creating connections.

The last two are essential for sales professionals, even though the first two are more significant for personal branding. A high SSI score can increase your sales by enabling you to more effectively target qualified buyers.

How to Increase Your Social Selling Index on LinkedIn?

Provided below are the ways through which you can improve your social selling index on LinkedIn:

SSI Pillar 1: Creating Your Brand as a Professional

Given below are some of the optimization tips to create your brand as a professional:

1. Update the experience, summary, and headline fields on your profile. A complete profile is essential to showcase your potential and skills.
2. If your profile showcases many of your skills, then remember to mention the top 3 skills at the top and highlight some of your work to back up your claim.
3. Add a picture of yourself. You can also add a background to your profile.
4. Increase the number of endorsements you have�it helps demonstrate your abilities.
5. Post high-quality, appropriate, and helpful content for your followers. Your content is the key to your brand. Long-form contents are the best. You can make use of basic SEO practices as well.
6. Develop rich multimedia content that showcases your position as a thinking leader. SlideShares, written works, and videos (which receive 3x more interaction than text-only articles) are a few examples.

SSI Pillar 2: Making the Right Connections

Finding and engaging with individuals is frequently considered sufficient (the more, the better). LinkedIn highlights the need for quicker, more accurate prospect identification. LinkedIn is intelligent. This pillar promotes the use of Sales Navigator by including rating criteria like:

1. Conduct sophisticated account searches. 
2. Saving leads.
3. Utilize the Lead Builder program. 

However, there are a few recommendations that everyone can use:

1. Conduct quality people searches. To find the “right people,” use the advanced search function to filter the results or do Boolean searches.
2. Observe the profiles of people. Avoid merely searching and messaging! Demonstrate that you are being thorough. 
3. View the profiles of your third-degree connections (a “prospecting view”).
4. See who has visited your profile. It would be inappropriate to ignore this, as these are warm prospects!
5. LinkedIn looks at how many days you’ve been active, whether on Sales Navigator or LinkedIn.com. Boost the views on your inbound profiles. It’s a little odd that your prospects are finding you that way.

SSI Pillar 3: Considering Insights

The insight into how you engage with people or groups on LinkedIn is an important factor that LinkedIn considers to determine your SSI Score. The engagement factors on LinkedIn include:

1. Shares, comments, reshares and likes you give on others� posts.
2. Shares, comments, reshares and likes you receive.
3. Reposting anything created by others.
4. Groups joined.
5. Your response rate to connection requests or e-mails. Make it relevant and personal. You can watch the activities of your second-degree relationships to find mutual interests or ask them to introduce you.

Even though it can seem like a lot of work, you can complete it all in just 10 minutes each day. The secret is to include it in your daily routine. However, the information Sales Navigator offers will significantly increase your connection acceptance rate.

They also include ranking criteria that are only accessible to LinkedIn Sales Navigator users, such as:

1. Your saved accounts. 
2. Views for research (account page views plus Sales Navigator homepage scrolls)

You are certainly already familiar with the fundamentals that can help you build engagement and trust. Here are some of the common practices:

1. Using hashtags related to your industry or subject, such as #SocialSelling and #Finance.
2. Join the right groups and interact with them.
3. Share and leave comments on other people’s posts.
4. Many people believe that the only purposes of these suggestions are to find information that is worthy of sharing and to foster reciprocity.

But they also count as a ranking element in and of themselves for this pillar.

SSI Pillar 4: Creating Connections and Building Relationships

Here is what determines your relationship score for SSI: 

1. The number of connections overall.
2. Connections that are of vice president level or higher status. 
3. Internal relationships and connections (with other employees). 
4. The proportion of connection requests that are accepted. 

Building relationships is a key component of social selling. Relationships add value. Good stories and posts can foster connections and draw readers in. Social media platforms are essentially a forum for discussion, not a tool for pushing material as part of marketing campaigns. People pick it up immediately, so make sure you’re interested, willing to learn, and listening just as much as you’re speaking.

What Is the Importance of a High SSI Score on LinkedIn?

The index might be a criterion for improving your marketing efforts and LinkedIn profile. You will know what to concentrate on to strengthen your brand on LinkedIn if one of your SSI pillars is low. However, you should be aware that, according to LinkedIn, social selling leaders achieve higher results over time in the following ways:

1. Compared to colleagues with lesser SSI, social selling leaders generate 45% more chances.
2. Leaders in social selling have a 51% higher chance of exceeding their quota.
3. Social sellers outsell their counterparts who don’t’ use social media by 78%.

How To Find Your SSI Score?

Click on this link to get your SSI Score: Your LinkedIn Social Selling Index

Here�s what you�ll see:

How Much Score Is Considered a Good Score?

Here’s the score that is considered to be appropriate on LinkedIn:

• A score of above 70 on the LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) places you at the top of all social sellers, making you a leader in social selling.
• On the other hand, SSI under 30 is regarded as poor, whereas SSI between 30 and 70 can be considered okay.

LinkedIn statistics show that social selling leaders have superior outcomes:

A graph correlating your performance to that of your network and industry can be found inside your SSI dashboard:

As a last point, make sure you show how you are adding value when you upload material. Are you offering something important that people need, or are you selling what you possess? Keep in mind that success demands commitment and work. Today, the social selling index (SSI) is used by thousands of other people to build careers.

If you spend a bit more time developing your profile, growing your network, and interacting with people on the platform, your SSI will rise significantly. To enhance LinkedIn engagement, it’s crucial to pick the tool that best suits your objectives. With the correct LinkedIn tools, engaging with your audience is no longer a challenge.

FAQs on Social Selling Index on LinkedIn

Here are some of the frequently asked questions about SSI on LinkedIn.

Is LinkedIn SSI Score Free?

Yes, members can now view their scores on LinkedIn (at least for the time being). But previously, the SSI, or Social Selling Index Score, was a tool that users could only use if they paid for a subscription to LinkedIn for a very long time.

How Often Is LinkedIn SSI Updated?

It is updated daily. Because the LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index) is updated every day, your score may change according to how active and engaged you are on the site.

What Is the Highest Social Selling Index?

The Social Selling Index is a metric scale of 0 to 100. The maximum score for each pillar is 25.

What Are the 4 Pillars of Social Selling?

The 4-categories, also called pillars, are as follows:

1. Building your brand as a professional
2. Making the right connections
3. Considering insights
4. Creating connections

What Is a Good LinkedIn SSI Score?

A good LinkedIn SSI score is 70+. Between 30 and 70 can be considered okay, while under 30 is considered poor.

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