most people don't know this but linkedin has what's called a social selling index or ssi social selling isn't a term that we hear that often but it is a strategy that's growing in popularity and it's where you use social media to get new leads as well as deepen your relationship with those leads ultimately this will help build trust and it makes it way easier for you in the long run to get that sale now obviously linkedin's ssi score rates us specifically on social selling on linkedin so let's look at where to find this score and
more importantly what to do with it so in your browser type in www.linkedin.com forward slash sales forward slash ssi now when i first saw my score of 77 i freaked out because in school that's like a c and for those of you who are new to this channel i'm a social media strategist so a 77 won't cut it but then i saw up here that my 77 is in the top 1 for both my industry and my network so okay yay me and if you want some more comparison information just scroll down to the bottom
of the page and you'll see the averages for both your industry and your network so how does linkedin come up with this ssi score well the score is broken down into four components which helps us really see what we need to improve first you're graded on how well you establish your brand now establishing your brand has to do with two things how well you've completed your profile and also how well you put content out there that's relevant for your audience and your industry now i will tell you that if you feel like you have to
work on both your profile and your content just work on your profile first because ultimately that's where people will check you out and in your profile to make the linkedin gods happy include as many searchable keywords related to your industry as possible and that includes in all the areas where you can include descriptions as well as towards the bottom in the skills and endorsement section now according to linkedin i'm doing a pretty good job of this but there's always a little room for improvement if i could be really honest i could put in a few
more keywords the next thing you're rated on is how well you find the right people now this is an area that i could do better i am happy to accept connection requests from people i don't know but i'm really shy about reaching out to people proactively to people i don't know my business model works like this i try my best to throw as much valuable content out there as possible and nurture the relationships within my existing network and that greatly increases the chances for me of someone reaching out to me when they need my services
so again i'm not in hunting mode now when you click on this question mark next to find the right people linkedin is recommending you use efficient search and research tools to hunt down new people which is basically a roundabout way of linkedin saying you should buy their sales navigator premium plan for just 79.99 a month that might work for some of you with your business development style for me i'm good linkedin also rates you on how well you engage with insights now when i first saw this i thought they were talking about analytics but no
it's something completely different linkedin defines this with how well you quote unquote discover and share conversation worthy updates and according to this i have a lot to improve i'm a little frustrated with this because i feel like i'm doing my best every monday through friday i like comment and share on content from my network and that's in addition to putting out my own content every other day so what more does linkedin want from me so if it turns out that your score is really really low as well and you're doing your best give yourself a
break you're also rated on how well you build relationships now i have to tell you i was totally pumped that i had a perfect score and for me this is personal just for some context when i was a kid in school i hated recess i would literally spend the entire time walking around the perimeter of the playground kicking a rock because no one would play with me so the fact that i got 100 on building relationships and any aspect of my life is a win you probably didn't need to know that about me but i
just felt compelled to share it so here's what i do on linkedin if this helps you every monday through friday i check notifications and look for birthdays and work anniversaries or people who have just started a new job position and congratulate them and i will tell you i tend to limit the congratulations to people that i know know who i am so i'm not kind of freaking them out and also notifications i check to see if anyone has commented on my content or they've shared my content with their network and then i comment back on
their post to thank them for that it really only takes a few minutes a day and it makes a huge difference in nurturing relationships and like i said before i like comment and share on my network's content as well so that way i'm giving more if you're ready to take your social selling to the next level definitely watch this video in the top right corner because it talks about what to do and what not to do if you're messaging cold leads on linkedin and it includes some real life examples which you'll appreciate thanks and see
you in the next video
