February 17, 2025 • 11 mins
- What is the LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index)?
- Why should I care about my LinkedIn SSI?
- How is the LinkedIn SSI score calculated?
- What are the four categories that make up the LinkedIn SSI, and how many points are possible in each?
- What does "Establish your Professional Brand" mean in the context of LinkedIn SSI?
- How can I "Find the Right People" on LinkedIn to improve my SSI?
- What does "Engage with Insights" mean for LinkedIn SSI, and how can I improve in this area?
- How can I "Build Relationships" on LinkedIn to increase my SSI?
- How does the LinkedIn SSI relate to sales performance and opportunities?
- How can I find my LinkedIn SSI score?
- What is a good LinkedIn SSI score?
- How can I use my LinkedIn SSI score as a benchmark?
Understanding LinkedIn's Social Selling Index (SSI)
In this episode, I focus on LinkedIn's Social Selling Index (SSI). I break down what SSI is, why it's important, and how it can benefit you, especially if you're self-employed.
The SSI is a score ranging from 0 to 100, reflecting your ability to sell on LinkedIn through relationship building and effective conversations. I explore the four categories that make up the SSI score: Establish Your Professional Brand, Find the Right People, Engage with Insights, and Build Relationships.
I provide tips on how to improve in each area and share real-life examples of scores and industry comparisons to illustrate the importance of tracking your SSI. I encourage you to look up your own SSI scores and reach out to me for further discussion.
https://www.mellermarketing.com/mylinkedinssi
00:00 Introduction to LinkedIn SSI
00:35 Understanding the Social Selling Index
01:50 Breaking Down the Four Categories of SSI
01:58 Establish Your Professional Brand
02:34 Find the Right People
03:40 Engage with Insights
04:37 Build Relationships
05:29 Why SSI Matters
06:29 How to Check Your SSI Score
07:11 Personal SSI Insights and Conclusion
Join Today: Marketing with Meller
https://www.mellermarketing.com/join
**************************************
My name is Brenda Meller. I'm a LinkedIn coach, consultant, speaker, and author. My company is Meller Marketing and I help business professionals get a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie.
Visit mellermarketing.com
Let's connect on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brendameller
(click MORE to invite me to connect and mention you listened to my podcast)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you heard of the LinkedIn SSI or Social Selling
Index?
In today's episode, I want tobreak down what is your LinkedIn
SSI and why should you evencare?
Honestly, Now, if you'reself-employed, there's a really
good chance.
It's just you and your business.
You might have a couple peoplehelping assistants, VAs, things
like that but it might just beyou and your business and maybe
you just don't have time to lookat evaluating every single
(00:23):
little thing.
But if you're listening to thispodcast, there's a really good
chance that you're looking forsome LinkedIn insights.
So today I want to walk youthrough what this SSI is and,
spoiler alert, you should careat least a little bit.
So, essentially, what the socialselling index is, it's a score
that LinkedIn gives everyLinkedIn member on a scale of
zero to 100.
And it's assigned to you onLinkedIn based on your
(00:44):
activities, your profile, youroverall presence.
An index means that a score of50 means that you're average for
all LinkedIn members.
If you have a score that'sbetter than 50, you're doing
better than the average personon LinkedIn.
If it's lower than 50, you havesome opportunities for
improvement.
And essentially, what your SSIis a score that helps to measure
your ability at least whatLinkedIn thinks is your ability
(01:06):
to sell on LinkedIn through aconversational approach,
according to their magicalformula.
Now, they don't really give youtoo many details on how to
improve your score in each area,but that's where I come in.
I can help you out with thisand this approach of social
selling.
It's not based on a heavy salespitch or mass emails, or even
email messages, for that matter.
(01:27):
Instead, it's based onrelationship building.
It's based on conversations anda more targeted approach that
you're using.
Now you could still beachieving these goals without
knowing your score, but if yousee your score, you're going to
be able to quickly identifyopportunities for improvement
and gaps in your approach andareas that you need to focus on.
So let me break this down foryou and I will put the link
below if you want to check outyour SSI.
(01:49):
By the way, LinkedIn gives you amaximum of 25 points in each of
four categories.
The first one is calledestablish your professional
brand.
Now, according to LinkedIn,this means that you complete
your profile with the customerin mind and you become a thought
leader by publishing meaningfulposts.
Now my own take on this when wesay establishing your
(02:11):
professional brand, you need tohave a fully complete and
accurate current profile that'sbeen optimized for your ideal
target audience, and it shouldbe regularly at least once a
year, you should be reviewingyour profile to make sure that
it's up to date.
Linkedin's always adding in newfeatures, sometimes adding in
new areas of your profile andchanging things around, so
making sure that your profile isbuilt for your ideal target
(02:32):
audience is really importanthere.
The second area is called findthe right people.
You can earn up to 25 pointsthere.
Linkedin says identify betterprospects in less time using
efficient search and researchtools.
Now, by the way, I have heardthat if you don't pay for
LinkedIn Sales Navigator, whichis a paid membership, you can't
(02:54):
get an SSI above 90.
And this is one of the areasthat if you this is a crazy
thing if you upgrade to SalesNavigator, finding the right
people will instantly improve,even if you haven't used the
tools yet.
So that should tell yousomething right there.
Now, finding the right people.
You can use this with the freebasic version of LinkedIn, or
even LinkedIn Premium or PremiumCareer, Premium Business, but
(03:14):
what you should be doing isspending some time each week
searching for and invitingpeople that are your ideal
target audience to connect withyou.
Now on LinkedIn, you canactually apply filters, you can
look up people by geography, byjob title, by features that
exist within your profile.
That we really can't do onFacebook and Instagram and in
other networks and it can helpyou to reach your ideal target
(03:36):
audience faster.
So that's the area number two.
Area number three, according toLinkedIn, is engage with
insights.
Now, according to LinkedIn,they say discover and share
conversation worthy updates tocreate and grow relationships.
I don't know about you, butthat doesn't really tell me a
whole lot other than they wantus to participate in
conversation and they're lookingfor our thoughts on how to
(04:00):
further build thoserelationships with people, for
our thoughts on how to furtherbuild those relationships with
people.
Now, what I've noticed withthis area is you really have to
be spending some time in theLinkedIn homepage feed every day
.
You should be publishing poststhat are generating engagement,
both likes and reactions, butalso, and perhaps more
importantly, comments, andyou're replying back to those
comments as well.
I also recently discovered thatif you are commenting on the
(04:23):
LinkedIn news stories thetrending news stories that they
put on the right-hand side ofyour homepage do that once or
twice a week and you'll noticeyour Engage with Insights score
instantly will rise.
You also reach some new peopleby doing that technique.
So that's the third area.
The fourth and final area iscalled build relationships, and
you can get up to 25 points inhere as well.
Linkedin is measuring how westrengthen your network by
(04:45):
connecting and establishingtrust with decision makers.
Now, again, they don't reallygive me the rules to what do you
do here, but my understandingis this is both inviting people
to connect with dialogue,responding back when they do
connect with you, and it's alsowhen they say establishing trust
with decision makers.
They're looking for people at acertain job title level or
industry category level insidethe platform.
(05:08):
That shows that these arepeople who have great buying
power on the platform andthey're also leading you to
further those professionalrelationships that you're
starting with people.
So a couple other things tokeep 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 toit, look up your score and then
maybe message me on LinkedIn andlet me know what you are, but I
(05:29):
do want to let you know.
According to LinkedIn, the SSIis important for a couple
different reasons.
First, they say that socialselling leaders create 45% more
opportunities than their peerswith a lower.
I'm guessing you're listeningto my podcast because you want
more business right More thanyour competition, so your SSI
can help you to get there.
Linkedin also says that socialselling leaders are 51% more
(05:51):
likely to reach their quota.
That important to you as aself-employed person, Maybe, if
you set some goals for yourself.
Maybe not if you're no longerworking in corporate right.
Maybe you don't even like thatword quota anymore.
Finally, the third factor, theysay, is that 78% of social
sellers outsell peers who don'tuse social media.
Now, here we're gonna just talkabout the fact that you are
(06:13):
using LinkedIn, and if you arefocusing on this approach and
using LinkedIn social media tosell to, to connect your ideal
target audience, you're going tobe more effective than those
people that are maybe justsending blind emails to you all
the time or spamming withrobocalls on your phone, right?
So now that I've broken thisdown for you, giving you some
things to think about withregards to your SSI, I want to
(06:35):
encourage you to look up yourscore on LinkedIn.
I'll include a webpage in thepodcast below where I explain
the social selling index.
And there's a pink button atthe top that says see your SSI.
When you click on that, it'sgoing to take you to this really
long URL businesslinkedincomslash sales solutions.
Blah, blah, blah.
Anyways, when you get to thatpage, I want you to click on the
(06:55):
get your score.
In the middle of the page.
It's like a gray box with awhite outline, and as long as
you're logged into LinkedIn,LinkedIn will automagically
populate your score for you.
Now your current social sellingindex on the left hand side of
your screen, in the middle, iswhat you're looking for.
My score is currently 80 out of100.
And I want you to keep in mindthat LinkedIn is what I do for a
(07:16):
living.
Now I've had my score as highas I believe, an 85, 86.
And sometimes it dips into the70s, but those are usually times
when I'm so busy I just don'thave time to spend on LinkedIn.
And as I look through the fourcategories, I find that
establishing your professionalbrand and building relationships
I'm always very close to 25 inboth of those categories.
(07:38):
It's the middle two where Ihave some opportunities for
improvement.
That's probably the case withyou as well.
Finding the right people andengaging with insights.
Okay.
Also, if you poke around thispage, you're going to notice
they give you some comparisontools 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 networkof first level connections.
(08:00):
Linkedin will tell you what isyour network SSI rank.
I'm in the top 1%, and they'llalso give you some comparisons
lower on in the page and they'llsay people in your industry are
usually getting a score of 31out of 100, so my score of 80 is
placing me in the top 1%.
Similarly, people that arefirst-level connections in my
network have an average score of44% and I've got an 80, which
(08:22):
makes me in the top 1%.
What is your LinkedIn SSI andwhy should you care?
I like to look at this as abenchmark.
Essentially, LinkedIn is makingthe rules and it's their
sandbox that we're playing inhere.
So we should at leastunderstand what the rules of
social selling are, at leastaccording to LinkedIn, so that
(08:42):
we can identify opportunitiesfor improvement to further reach
our ideal target audience andbe successful on LinkedIn.
So I think it's valuable, but Idon't think it's the be all end
all.
I like to use it as a benchmarkand to see some opportunities.
What do you think?
Look up your score, look at thedata that LinkedIn is telling
you and reach out to me onLinkedIn.
Send me a direct message, Letme know what your score is and
(09:05):
whether or not you found valuein looking up your score and in
today's podcast episode.
Until then, my friend, I willsee you on LinkedIn.
Have a great day.
Have you heard of the LinkedIn SSI or Social Selling
Index?
In today's episode, I want tobreak down what is your LinkedIn
SSI and why should you evencare?
Honestly, Now, if you'reself-employed, there's a really
good chance.
It's just you and your business.
You might have a couple peoplehelping assistants, VAs, things
like that but it might just beyou and your business and maybe
you just don't have time to lookat evaluating every single
(00:23):
little thing.
But if you're listening to thispodcast, there's a really good
chance that you're looking forsome LinkedIn insights.
So today I want to walk youthrough what this SSI is and,
spoiler alert, you should careat least a little bit.
So, essentially, what the socialselling index is, it's a score
that LinkedIn gives everyLinkedIn member on a scale of
zero to 100.
And it's assigned to you onLinkedIn based on your
(00:44):
activities, your profile, youroverall presence.
An index means that a score of50 means that you're average for
all LinkedIn members.
If you have a score that'sbetter than 50, you're doing
better than the average personon LinkedIn.
If it's lower than 50, you havesome opportunities for
improvement.
And essentially, what your SSIis a score that helps to measure
your ability at least whatLinkedIn thinks is your ability
(01:06):
to sell on LinkedIn through aconversational approach,
according to their magicalformula.
Now, they don't really give youtoo many details on how to
improve your score in each area,but that's where I come in.
I can help you out with thisand this approach of social
selling.
It's not based on a heavy salespitch or mass emails, or even
email messages, for that matter.
(01:27):
Instead, it's based onrelationship building.
It's based on conversations anda more targeted approach that
you're using.
Now you could still beachieving these goals without
knowing your score, but if yousee your score, you're going to
be able to quickly identifyopportunities for improvement
and gaps in your approach andareas that you need to focus on.
So let me break this down foryou and I will put the link
below if you want to check outyour SSI.
(01:49):
By the way, LinkedIn gives you amaximum of 25 points in each of
four categories.
The first one is calledestablish your professional
brand.
Now, according to LinkedIn,this means that you complete
your profile with the customerin mind and you become a thought
leader by publishing meaningfulposts.
Now my own take on this when wesay establishing your
(02:11):
professional brand, you need tohave a fully complete and
accurate current profile that'sbeen optimized for your ideal
target audience, and it shouldbe regularly at least once a
year, you should be reviewingyour profile to make sure that
it's up to date.
Linkedin's always adding in newfeatures, sometimes adding in
new areas of your profile andchanging things around, so
making sure that your profile isbuilt for your ideal target
(02:32):
audience is really importanthere.
The second area is called findthe right people.
You can earn up to 25 pointsthere.
Linkedin says identify betterprospects in less time using
efficient search and researchtools.
Now, by the way, I have heardthat if you don't pay for
LinkedIn Sales Navigator, whichis a paid membership, you can't
(02:54):
get an SSI above 90.
And this is one of the areasthat if you this is a crazy
thing if you upgrade to SalesNavigator, finding the right
people will instantly improve,even if you haven't used the
tools yet.
So that should tell yousomething right there.
Now, finding the right people.
You can use this with the freebasic version of LinkedIn, or
even LinkedIn Premium or PremiumCareer, Premium Business, but
(03:14):
what you should be doing isspending some time each week
searching for and invitingpeople that are your ideal
target audience to connect withyou.
Now on LinkedIn, you canactually apply filters, you can
look up people by geography, byjob title, by features that
exist within your profile.
That we really can't do onFacebook and Instagram and in
other networks and it can helpyou to reach your ideal target
(03:36):
audience faster.
So that's the area number two.
Area number three, according toLinkedIn, is engage with
insights.
Now, according to LinkedIn,they say discover and share
conversation worthy updates tocreate and grow relationships.
I don't know about you, butthat doesn't really tell me a
whole lot other than they wantus to participate in
conversation and they're lookingfor our thoughts on how to
(04:00):
further build thoserelationships with people, for
our thoughts on how to furtherbuild those relationships with
people.
Now, what I've noticed withthis area is you really have to
be spending some time in theLinkedIn homepage feed every day
.
You should be publishing poststhat are generating engagement,
both likes and reactions, butalso, and perhaps more
importantly, comments, andyou're replying back to those
comments as well.
I also recently discovered thatif you are commenting on the
(04:23):
LinkedIn news stories thetrending news stories that they
put on the right-hand side ofyour homepage do that once or
twice a week and you'll noticeyour Engage with Insights score
instantly will rise.
You also reach some new peopleby doing that technique.
So that's the third area.
The fourth and final area iscalled build relationships, and
you can get up to 25 points inhere as well.
Linkedin is measuring how westrengthen your network by
(04:45):
connecting and establishingtrust with decision makers.
Now, again, they don't reallygive me the rules to what do you
do here, but my understandingis this is both inviting people
to connect with dialogue,responding back when they do
connect with you, and it's alsowhen they say establishing trust
with decision makers.
They're looking for people at acertain job title level or
industry category level insidethe platform.
(05:08):
That shows that these arepeople who have great buying
power on the platform andthey're also leading you to
further those professionalrelationships that you're
starting with people.
So a couple other things tokeep 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 toit, look up your score and then
maybe message me on LinkedIn andlet me know what you are, but I
(05:29):
do want to let you know.
According to LinkedIn, the SSIis important for a couple
different reasons.
First, they say that socialselling leaders create 45% more
opportunities than their peerswith a lower.
I'm guessing you're listeningto my podcast because you want
more business right More thanyour competition, so your SSI
can help you to get there.
Linkedin also says that socialselling leaders are 51% more
(05:51):
likely to reach their quota.
That important to you as aself-employed person, Maybe, if
you set some goals for yourself.
Maybe not if you're no longerworking in corporate right.
Maybe you don't even like thatword quota anymore.
Finally, the third factor, theysay, is that 78% of social
sellers outsell peers who don'tuse social media.
Now, here we're gonna just talkabout the fact that you are
(06:13):
using LinkedIn, and if you arefocusing on this approach and
using LinkedIn social media tosell to, to connect your ideal
target audience, you're going tobe more effective than those
people that are maybe justsending blind emails to you all
the time or spamming withrobocalls on your phone, right?
So now that I've broken thisdown for you, giving you some
things to think about withregards to your SSI, I want to
(06:35):
encourage you to look up yourscore on LinkedIn.
I'll include a webpage in thepodcast below where I explain
the social selling index.
And there's a pink button atthe top that says see your SSI.
When you click on that, it'sgoing to take you to this really
long URL businesslinkedincomslash sales solutions.
Blah, blah, blah.
Anyways, when you get to thatpage, I want you to click on the
(06:55):
get your score.
In the middle of the page.
It's like a gray box with awhite outline, and as long as
you're logged into LinkedIn,LinkedIn will automagically
populate your score for you.
Now your current social sellingindex on the left hand side of
your screen, in the middle, iswhat you're looking for.
My score is currently 80 out of100.
And I want you to keep in mindthat LinkedIn is what I do for a
(07:16):
living.
Now I've had my score as highas I believe, an 85, 86.
And sometimes it dips into the70s, but those are usually times
when I'm so busy I just don'thave time to spend on LinkedIn.
And as I look through the fourcategories, I find that
establishing your professionalbrand and building relationships
I'm always very close to 25 inboth of those categories.
(07:38):
It's the middle two where Ihave some opportunities for
improvement.
That's probably the case withyou as well.
Finding the right people andengaging with insights.
Okay.
Also, if you poke around thispage, you're going to notice
they give you some comparisontools 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 networkof first level connections.
(08:00):
Linkedin will tell you what isyour network SSI rank.
I'm in the top 1%, and they'llalso give you some comparisons
lower on in the page and they'llsay people in your industry are
usually getting a score of 31out of 100, so my score of 80 is
placing me in the top 1%.
Similarly, people that arefirst-level connections in my
network have an average score of44% and I've got an 80, which
(08:22):
makes me in the top 1%.
What is your LinkedIn SSI andwhy should you care?
I like to look at this as abenchmark.
Essentially, LinkedIn is makingthe rules and it's their
sandbox that we're playing inhere.
So we should at leastunderstand what the rules of
social selling are, at leastaccording to LinkedIn, so that
(08:42):
we can identify opportunitiesfor improvement to further reach
our ideal target audience andbe successful on LinkedIn.
So I think it's valuable, but Idon't think it's the be all end
all.
I like to use it as a benchmarkand to see some opportunities.
What do you think?
Look up your score, look at thedata that LinkedIn is telling
you and reach out to me onLinkedIn.
Send me a direct message, Letme know what your score is and
(09:05):
whether or not you found valuein looking up your score and in
today's podcast episode.
Until then, my friend, I willsee you on LinkedIn.
Have a great day.
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