Social Selling Index: The Means Not The End

There are many articles about Social Selling Index (SSI) and ways to improve it. Let me share my personal experience after few years of this game in two easy chapters

1. What's behind SSI

LinkedIn’s SSI or Social Selling Index is a numerical score that measures how well each user fulfills proper social selling practices that revolve around using LinkedIn as a sales tool. LinkedIn created it as a simple way for sales reps to measure their progress at a glance. At the same time, it allows sales leaders to highlight the link between social selling engagement and performance. The idea is that sellers with a higher SSI are more valuable and contribute more to the bottom line of the company.

But what does it consist of anyway? Here are the four levers to the SSI score according to a recent LinkedIn article:

1.     Completeness of profile and using all the various aspects of LinkedIn as it pertains to your online presence.

2.     Joining groups, engaging with relevant industry insights (posting comments/likes/shares)

3.     Sharing of your own content

4.     Connecting with others. Note: SSI looks at your acceptance rate of new connections, so think before you reach out cold to people you don’t know.

(Source: https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/blog/sales-reps/2016/04/4-ways-to-boost-your-ssi-score--and-why-it-matters-)

2. OK, those are the rules, but this is the game

Knowing this it should be quite easy to improve your own social selling score over time. You should be able to leave all those low-scoring competitors in your rear-view mirror if you just pull on all these levers and pull hard, right?

Actually, it is not that easy and more importantly, I dare to say, it doesn’t matter. You can be getting sales traction even if your score is low(ish). If you have right facts and are able to participate in the discussions/comments on the post you will get noticed. Your voice will carry outside of you network and will help you to grow it. But more importantly – those conversations you are part of will sooner or later turn into sales opportunities. Once you get good at this start to scale. But one thing you cannot lose sight of is doing it right. There are no short cuts in social media. 

This is no different then sports or other skills - anyone who has tried to master a skill knows this. Getting the technique right on a single gym move before trying to master a large set of the same move in a short duration is critical to not injuring yourself in the process.

I have ways to go to have the perfect score, but on the way to it I will help people and get business going. What is your strategy?

Find out more about social selling in the B2B Enterprise context at https://www.thought-horizon.com