Selling online is essential for any seller or marketer. It’s more than selling a product or a service but also having an online presence that’s trustworthy and credible.
LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI) is a formula to assess the “social selling” capabilities of every user on the platform. It rates how you perform on LinkedIn against other users in your field or within your network and tells you how well your content resonates with your followers.
Knowing the details of your SSI helps you be a better salesperson and determine how effective you are at bringing in customers.
The better the quality of your Social Selling Index is, the more effectively it will be to market your products and brand (and it plays an important role in online selling using various strategies ).
What is Social Selling?
Social selling refers to the use of social media platforms to identify and cultivate leads and prospects. It is effective in B2B and B2C. When we speak of SSI, it refers to the way a person displays their sales abilities.
Social selling and digital marketing include a variety of tasks that revolve around personal branding and involve social media to increase visibility and presence. As we create more and more profiles (specifically professional profiles via LinkedIn), we’re selling ourselves on a level of personal, professional level to connect with others.
It can also be related to social prospecting and establishing brand awareness. This could include your personal brand or advertising your business as an entrepreneur.
Why Social Selling Matters for Digital Marketing Professionals
Social commerce is expected to expand three times faster than traditional e-commerce, and more than double from $492 billion globally in 2021 $1.2 trillion by 2025, according the Accenture’s research report.
This is just a glimpse of the power of social media to generate profits for any company by attracting the right potential customers and using content to engage and convert. The advantages of the social selling index include:
- Collaborate & Network: Instead of relying on cold calls to build connections, LinkedIn makes it possible to engage leads slowly, rather than sending out random pitches out of nowhere.
- Personal Branding: LinkedIn professionals seek out trusted brands and individuals with strong presences, such as thought leaders. By carefully curating content that stands up over time and participating in meaningful discussions, your “brand” can increase significantly.
- Keep an Eye On Competitors: Tracking what competitors are up to can provide invaluable insight into new developments and gain a sense of what other brands or sellers may be saying and doing, giving an idea of the competition you face.
- Boosts traffic: If you share relevant content, people will click to go through it. It is possible to use LinkedIn to share an article that includes a link or create a blog for your website to increase traffic. It is worth trying both methods to determine which method is the effective?
- Generate high-quality leads: If you’ve created an online presence in LinkedIn and are perceived as credible, the leads your company will receive are likely to be higher-quality since they’re in contact because of your expertise and presence on the site.
Also read: Top 10 Market Intelligence Tools to Track Trends and Competition
What is LinkedIn Social Selling Index?
The term became commonplace following the time LinkedIn launched its Social Selling Index (SSI) some time ago. It’s a way to measure the ability of a person to sell. However, it’s also a fascinating method for users who wish to build their profile on the platform.
It’s also an excellent advertising tool for LinkedIn to help get users more active on the site by promoting and selling their products.
So, what exactly does the social selling index formula base on? There are four factors that the SSI examines to arrive at scores:
- Developing a Strong Professional Brand
- Identifying and Targeting Potential Prospects
- Engaging in meaningful conversations
- Building relationships
How to Increase Your Social Selling Index Score
LinkedIn suggests aiming for an SSI score of at least 75. When you achieve that, you’ll be regarded as an expert on LinkedIn.
If you’re not happy with your LinkedIn social selling index score, you should consider trying to increase it. In your personal dashboard, there’s a rating for the four elements of the social selling index.
Let’s explore the best strategies to boost your Social Selling Index and reach top-tier leader status.
Create a Professional Persona
You’re likely aware of what a buyer persona looks like. If you’re on LinkedIn, you need to take your inspiration and develop a professional persona that can be a hit with your colleagues and clients, and prospects.
Look at your page from the point of view of the people who read it. Would they be interested in your profile and want to engage with you? Are you responding to their concerns or issues by offering your content? (Or even better, you can ask your trusted colleague or friend to review it to have a second opinion.)
Check the quality of your profile and work to get it 100 percent to ensure nothing is missing and you’re getting the most out of LinkedIn.
Use LinkedIn Tools
Utilize the tools available for free on LinkedIn to broaden your reach and discover new prospects. Sales Navigator is an advanced sales platform that allows virtual selling, which allows sales professionals to establish and keep relationships with their customers on a massive scale.
It is possible to use the “Lead Builder” feature to search for prospects within your organization, and then save the leads to a designated account. It can connect with various other technologies (e.g., CRM) to offer reliable and real-time information.
LinkedIn Small Business can help businesses increase sales, increase trust, and achieve their goals. LinkedIn promotes its service as ‘dedicated to connecting you with helpful resources, including tips, news, and information about small-scale companies. Guides, checklists, and features, such as advertising in text or sponsored content.
Don’t Automate
Although LinkedIn restricts many automation tools, like AI tools such as ChatGPT, on the platform, it is also working with certain partners to help recruiters, marketers, and advertisers automate certain tasks.
If you decide to implement automation on LinkedIn, take a look at whether it can help with your sales. Automating your sales can help you save time on manual tasks, but it could be a loss of personal contact.
Therefore, for posting schedules, analytics, and lead generation, it could be beneficial for the creation of posts or emails. Be sure that you’re creating content tailored to the individual, and also add an element of personality.
Also read: Brand Activation in 2025: Types and Tips for Successful Campaigns
Engage with Insights
LinkedIn’s SSI score is a measure of your engagement on the social media platform. This means that it’s analyzing and scoring shares, likes, and comments on your posts.
It also considers the way you interact with posts of others via comments or shares, and reactions. This examines the degree to which you’re keeping current with the latest developments in your field.
You must look over and interact regularly with your posts to not only increase your SSI score but also to build relationships with fellow LinkedIn members and to share expertise.
Create High-Quality Connections
No matter how many people follow you on LinkedIn, the most important thing is how quality of your relationships. The most qualified people will be delighted to help you find greater opportunities, whether it’s by promoting you as a possible employee or a colleague.
The best rule of thumb is to only make contact with people you enjoy! This may sound simple, but often we become so focused on what others are doing that we forget to look at the way they behave. Is this someone you’d love to sit down for coffee with or perhaps go to a party with?
LinkedIn groups are an excellent way to determine not only those in your industry professionals, but also those who can provide you with tips and insights if needed.
Conclusion
Social Selling is all about giving your prospects the value of the topics they are interested in and would like to talk about.
It’s crucial to make contact with people who have a worthwhile deal, not just an “ask”. It’s easy to use LinkedIn to highlight something that your contacts would be genuinely interested in, and then begin conversations with them.
Your SSI score reveals how effective you are at completing the four essential elements of building a professional brand and identifying potential customers, engaging in meaningful conversations, and developing connections. It’s also an excellent indicator of how well you promote and sell yourself.
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