The Digital Conversationalist

What is your Social Selling Index? Is it important?

Do you know what your LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) is? Click on the link and it will automatically tell you the result. Super simple, I promise.

Your Social Selling Index (SSI) result is measured across four categories:

  1. Establish your professional brand – fill in your LinkedIn profile completely and publish articles
  2. Find the right people – connect with people relevant to you. Many people ask if they should connect with people they haven’t met? My answer is always yes! LinkedIn isn’t Facebook, where most of us keep our connections to those we know. LinkedIn is a professional network, so finding people in relevant roles or job functions is critical. Perhaps you will connect with someone who will hire you in the future? Or someone you will hire. As long as the role is relevant, connect with them. Another tip is: accept invitations from professionals already connected to people you know. There are spam accounts on LinkedIn. This will help you avoid them
  3. Engage with insights – this is all about sharing awesome content aligned to your personal brand. It can be content you create yourself (although that’s measured under point one) or other content. However, to get this number up, comment on other people’s posts and tag people you think will be interested in the content you share. To tag simply put @ and then start writing the persons/people’s names. A menu of options will drop down. We are here to have conversations – engage with others as a priority
  4. Build relationships – this is about building a bigger network and connecting with senior decision makers. Offer value to your network every time you are on LinkedIn and see this number soar

I saw the lowest SSI score I’ve ever seen this week. Here it is…

Social selling index of twoPersonally, I don’t even know what it takes to get a two, but there we have it.

The increasing importance of SSI scores

I am hearing more and more talk in the enterprise that sales teams will be measured on SSI scores – it will soon be a KPI. The minimum expectation being discussed is 65.

My SSI today is 87. It’s always in the mid-to high 80s and I’m happy with that. Any more, I’d probably annoy my community and I never want to do that. My SSI score is something I monitor, because in my profession, it’s important. A lower score and I wouldn’t be walking my talk.

But take a look at the industry stats for marketing and advertising below. An average of 23 per cent! That’s shocking. When people ask me what marketing professionals should be prioritizing today, my first suggestion is Get Social.

SSI in marketing and advertising

Why? Because how can you understand the social world if you’re not actively engaged in it? How can you understand content marketing or storytelling if you don’t know how to do it yourself?

Let’s look at social sales

If you look at typical SSI scores for sales people working for LinkedIn, it’s usually 90-92. If you’re in sales, this should give you an idea of what best practise looks like.

And yet, social selling skills continue to be abysmally low across industries, with estimates suggesting only 15 percent of sales people are socially selling. I definitely expect this to change and become a job requirement/recruitment factor – soon.

This is especially so when social selling stats indicate that sales leaders who exceed quota get 35% more views on LinkedIn than those who do not (according to LinkedIn).

Outside of LinkedIn, I have seen internal stats at large global companies backing this claim up too. Those with higher SSI scores get better sales results. Therefore, if you’re in sales, one would suggest it’s time to take this seriously?

The good thing about LinkedIn’s SSI measurement categories, is it assesses the core values of what LinkedIn is all about – connecting, engaging, adding value and building a powerful tribe.

Go and check out your SSI and let me know what it is in the comments below? Anyone got less than two? Then again, if you only got two you wouldn’t be reading this blog, because you’re basically not on LinkedIn.

Are you seeing a shift in your company when it comes to requirements for a stronger social media presence? I’d love to know.

Cheers

Andrea

Social media image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I really appreciate it. If you like it, I’d love a comment, but please do tell me what your SSI is? Go on. Be brave. Of course, please feel free to share with your communities, because that’s what this is all about today – sharing and giving to each other.

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6 thoughts on “What is your Social Selling Index? Is it important?”

  1. Mine is 76 but should be higher! And that’s so interesting about sales teams starting to be measured by their SSI – I really like how by focusing on it puts an emphasis on relationship building and relevant content

    1. Me too, it’s all about that, so the measure really does help people switch on. It’s definitely interesting from a sales team perspective, but even more broadly, I’m seeing it applied within business. It’s a great move xxxx

  2. Pingback: I’m in marketing or communications, where should I focus my efforts? – AndreaTEdwards

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