Member Article

Boost your Social Selling Index score on LinkedIn

With over 414 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is the leading social platform for professionals and business owners. Amongst recruiters, sales teams and managing directors, it’s become a go-to resource, with 20 million active members in the UK alone.

In October 2013, LinkedIn launched a Social Selling Index (SSI). A way of measuring how you rank compared to your connections and others in your sector. Studies show links between higher SSI scores and performance. For sales professionals and business owners, this SSI can contribute, when used the right way, towards hitting revenue goals.

According to various studies, those with high SSI scores:

• Generate 45% more opportunities per quarter
• Get promoted 17 months sooner
• Hit quota (51% more likely than those with a low SSI score)

When it comes to generating B2B sales, a website is essential. It’s the modern equivalent of a glossy brochure. But whereas with brochures, you could post them to prospects; now you have to go out and bring sales leads to your website.

LinkedIn is an essential tool in the prospecting process. It is a source of information, a place to interact and connect with prospects.

How to increase your SSI score

One advocate of LinkedIn’s SSI score is Lindsey Boggs, a sales expert and keynote speaker. Naturally, she scores highly, with 99 of 100. Lindsey said in an article that “if you’re above an SSI score of 75 be proud. That is fantastic.”

However, concentrating on this score is a vanity exercise, not unlike spending a day prospecting sales but not making any calls or setting up any meetings. It’s not a metric that will earn you a promotion, since “It takes time away from prospecting and focusing on the end result: MOVING THE NEEDLE.”

For those interested in moving the needle, there are a few things you can do across the four areas that contribute to your SSI score (each marked out of 25).

1. Build a strong professional brand

• Fill in all sections of your profile
• Have a professional photo. Don’t use a cropped image from Facebook, a selfie or a screen-grabbed image from a Skype call. Have professional photos produced. It helps.
• Whenever possible, link to a body of work: videos, presentations, articles, press releases. Showcase your skills and achievements.

2. Connect with the right people

• Naturally, this is a part of prospecting. Except that LinkedIn may knock points off an SSI score when connections are made before an email or InMail exchange has taken place, although “this hasn’t been confirmed.”
• However, one thing that is sure to harm the prospect of a sale is bombarding new connections with sales pitches two minutes after you connect with them.

3. Engage with content/status updates

• Engaging with content and other updates can contribute to an improved sales pipeline, thus indirectly support a higher SSI score. But only when done the right way for the right reasons.
• Comment, share or like content only when you have something to contribute. This doesn’t have to be in real-time either; deal with notifications in one go.

4. Nurture relationships

• This is another activity that should be a natural part of your working day. When you meet people, add them on LinkedIn.
• Nurturing relationships means being authentic when it comes to what you share, comment on and engage with. This will show connections what kind of professional you are, thus contributing to your sales prospecting activities and SSI score.

All of the above, from publishing articles to making new connections, should intrinsically be a part of how you prospect for new leads. In turn, this improves your SSI score, which is a useful way of measuring the role LinkedIn plays in your company’s sales pipeline.

Curious to know your SSI score? Click here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by MBJ London .