What is Your LinkedIn SSI & Why Should You Care Ep 152

You might have a couple people helping assistants , VAs , things like that but it might just be you and your business and maybe you just don't have time to look at evaluating every single little thing . But if you're listening to this podcast , there's a really good chance that you're looking for some LinkedIn insights .

So today I want to walk you through what this SSI is and , spoiler alert , you should care at least a little bit . So , essentially , what the social selling index is , it's a score that LinkedIn gives every LinkedIn member on a scale of zero to 100 . And it's assigned to you on LinkedIn based on your activities , your profile , your overall presence .

An index means that a score of 50 means that you're average for all LinkedIn members . If you have a score that's better than 50 , you're doing better than the average person on LinkedIn . If it's lower than 50 , you have some opportunities for improvement . And essentially , what

your SSI is a score that helps to measure your ability at least what LinkedIn thinks is your ability to sell on LinkedIn

through a conversational approach , according to their magical formula . Now , they don't really give you too many details on how to improve your score in each area , but that's where I come in . I can help you out with this and this approach of social selling . It's not based on a heavy sales pitch or mass emails , or even email messages , for that matter .

Instead , it's based on relationship building . It's based on conversations and a more targeted approach that you're using . Now you could still be achieving these goals without knowing your score , but if you see your score , you're going to be able to quickly identify opportunities for improvement and gaps in your approach and areas that you need to focus

on . So let me break this down for you and I will put the link below if you want to check out your SSI . By the way , LinkedIn gives you a maximum of 25 points in each of four categories . The first one is called establish your professional brand .

Now , according to LinkedIn , this means that you complete your profile with the customer in mind and you become a thought leader by publishing meaningful posts .

Now my own take on this when we say establishing your professional brand , you need to have a fully complete and accurate current profile that's been optimized for your ideal target audience , and it should be regularly at least once a year , you should be reviewing your profile to make sure that it's up to date .

Linkedin's always adding in new features , sometimes adding in new areas of your profile and changing things around , so making sure that your profile is built for your ideal target audience is really important here . The second area is called find the right people . You can earn up to 25 points there .

Linkedin says identify better prospects in less time using efficient search and research tools . Now , by the way , I have heard that if you don't pay for LinkedIn

Sales Navigator , which is a paid membership , you can't get an SSI above 90 . And this is one of the areas that if you this is a crazy thing if you upgrade to Sales Navigator , finding the right people will instantly improve , even if you haven't used the tools yet . So that should tell you something right there . Now , finding the right people .

You can use this with the free basic version of LinkedIn , or even LinkedIn Premium or Premium Career , Premium Business , but what you should be doing is spending some time each week searching for and inviting people that are your ideal target audience to connect with you .

Now on LinkedIn , you can actually apply filters , you can look up people by geography , by job title , by features that exist within your profile . That we really can't do on Facebook and Instagram and in other networks and it can help you to reach your ideal target audience faster . So that's the area number two .

Area number three , according to LinkedIn , is engage with insights . Now , according to LinkedIn , they say discover and share

conversation worthy updates to create and grow relationships . I don't know about you , but that doesn't really tell me a whole lot other than they want us to participate in conversation and they're looking for our thoughts on how to further build those relationships with people , for our thoughts on how to further build those relationships with people .

Now , what I've noticed with this area is you really have to be spending some time in the LinkedIn homepage feed every day . You should be publishing posts that are generating engagement , both likes and reactions , but also , and perhaps more importantly , comments , and you're replying back to those comments as well .

I also recently discovered that if you are commenting on the LinkedIn news stories the trending news stories that they put on the right-hand side of your homepage do that once or twice a week and you'll notice your Engage with Insights score instantly will rise . You also reach some new people by doing that technique . So that's the third area .

The fourth and final area is called build relationships

, and you can get up to 25 points in here as well . Linkedin is measuring how we strengthen your network by connecting and establishing trust with decision makers .

Now , again , they don't really give me the rules to what do you do here , but my understanding is this is both inviting people to connect with dialogue , responding back when they do connect with you , and it's also when they say establishing trust with decision makers .

They're looking for people at a certain job title level or industry category level inside the platform . That shows that these are people who have great buying power on the platform and they're also leading you to further those professional relationships that you're starting with people .

So a couple other things to keep in mind , and then I'm going to tell you what my score is , and I want to encourage you to listen to this podcast . After you're done listening to it , look up your score and then maybe message me on LinkedIn and let me know what you are , but I do want to let you know .

According to LinkedIn , the SSI is important for a couple different reasons . First , they say that social selling leaders create 45% more opportunities than their peers

with a lower . I'm guessing you're listening to my podcast because you want more business right More than your competition , so your SSI can help you to get there . Linkedin also says that social selling leaders are 51% more likely to reach their quota . That important to you as a self-employed person , Maybe , if you set some goals for yourself .

Maybe not if you're no longer working in corporate right . Maybe you don't even like that word quota anymore . Finally , the third factor , they say , is that 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don't use social media .

Now , here we're gonna just talk about the fact that you are using LinkedIn , and if you are focusing on this approach and using LinkedIn social media to sell to , to connect your ideal target

audience , you're going to be more effective than those people that are maybe just sending blind emails to you all the time or spamming with robocalls on your phone , right ? So now that I've broken this down for you , giving you some things to think about with regards to your SSI , I want to encourage you to look up your score on LinkedIn .

I'll include a webpage in the podcast below where I explain the social selling index . And there's a pink button at the top that says see your SSI . When you click on that , it's going to take you to this really long URL businesslinkedincom slash sales solutions . Blah , blah , blah .

Anyways , when you get to that page , I want you to click on the get your score . In the middle of the page . It's like a gray box with a white outline , and as long as you're logged into LinkedIn , LinkedIn will automagically populate your score for you .

Now your current social selling index on the left hand side of your screen , in the middle , is what you're looking for . My score is currently 80 out of 100 . And I want you to keep in mind that LinkedIn is what I do for a living . Now I've had my score as high as I believe , an 85 , 86 .

And sometimes it dips into the 70s , but those are usually times when I'm so busy I just don't have time to spend on LinkedIn . And as I look through the four categories , I find that establishing your professional brand and building relationships I'm always very close to 25 in both of those categories .

It's the middle two where I have some opportunities for improvement . That's probably the case with you as well . Finding the right people and engaging with insights . Okay . Also , if you poke around this page , you're going to notice they give you some comparison tools to look at . So , within your industry , they'll tell you what your industry SSI rank is .

I'm in the top 1% In my network of first level connections . Linkedin will tell you what is your network SSI rank . I'm in the top 1% , and they'll also give you some comparisons lower on in the page and they'll say people in your industry are usually getting a score of 31 out of 100 , so my score of 80 is placing me in the top 1% .

Similarly , people that are first-level connections in my network have an average score of 44% and I've got an 80 , which makes me in the top 1% . What is your LinkedIn SSI and why should you care ? I like to look at this as a benchmark . Essentially , LinkedIn is making the rules and it's their sandbox that we're playing in here .

So we should at least understand what the rules of social selling are , at least according to LinkedIn , so that we can identify opportunities for improvement to further reach our ideal target audience and be successful on LinkedIn . So I think it's valuable , but I don't think it's the be all end all . I like to use it as a benchmark and to see some opportunities .

What do you think ? Look up your score , look at the data that LinkedIn is telling you and reach out to me on LinkedIn . Send me a direct message , Let me know what your score is and whether or not you found value in looking up your score and in today's podcast episode . Until then , my friend , I will see you on LinkedIn . Have a great day .