How to Increase Your LinkedIn SSI Score?

Social media has been part of our lives for more than a decade and has since grown in popularity. It plays a key role in opening channels of communication, allows individuals to keep connected anytime, anywhere, with anyone. In 2020 alone, it was reported that 49% of the planet’s population are active social media users, that’s 3.8 billion people! We are catapulting into a digital world.

Gone are the days when a 30 second elevator pitch was the standard tool to market oneself. In this virtual era, with an immediate means to interact, how could one distinctively emerge amid a plethora of professionals? LinkedIn is a valuable platform for such individuals seeking to network amongst like members, obtain resources, build relationships, gain prospective clients and ultimately promote themselves. How do you know how well your LinkedIn profile is actually performing? That’s where the Social Selling Index (SSI) becomes a handy tool.

What is an SSI Score?

Social Selling Index (SSI) is a measure of how strong your personal brand on LinkedIn is. In other words, it’s the quality of your connections, your interactions and engagement within conversations along with the strength of your professional profile.

Originally, the Social Selling Index was part of the Sales Navigator, a paid sales tool, but it was released free to all LinkedIn members since 2014. Why? No matter what role you held in your company, the purpose was to obtain more quality leads and real insights. At the end of the day, it was not just about the sales but rather to acknowledge your real value within your industry.

As a Digital Marketer, I have the privilege to connect with various professionals and I am extremely grateful to get solicited by my peers about marketing trends and solutions.

Did you know that 81% of buyers are more likely to engage with brands that have a distinct, professional social media presence? Therefore, by gaining more visibility on LinkedIn, it will lead more people to view your profile and connect with you.

Now, you might be curious to know your score straightaway, but let’s take the time to review how the SSI score is determined. First, the index is based on a scale from 0 to 100. The score measures your performance in four key areas, also known as the 4 pillars:

1. Create a Professional Brand

• This index values how complete your profile is on LinkedIn

2. Find the Right People

• Find and connect with people related to your industry

3. Engage With Insights

• Share valuable content regularly
• Comment on and share other people’s posts

4. Build Strong Relationship

• Total connections
• Acceptance rate for connection requests sent

Each pillar has a maximum score of 25, which, once tallied, will give you your final score. Here’s an interesting point: your score is updated every 24 hours, which means you must be active on a daily basis.

How the SSI tool can boost your visibility?

First things first, you need to know your audience in order to connect with them. Once you have identified your persona, positioned yourself to create value, you can find a unique content to enhance your relationships.

A Social Selling score above 60, that is combined with an All-Star profile, will allow for your posts and content to gain visibility. Are you taking notes?

Here are some useful tips to increase your SSI Score to 70:

• Complete your profile to get “the All-Star badge”(LinkedIn algorithms are designed to give priority to users with complete profiles by ranking them higher in search results)
• Add a strong headline with relevant keywords from your industry
• Aim to increase your endorsements with recommendations
• Keep track of your relationships (add and accept connections with a personalized message)
• Ensure a good acceptance rate for connection requests sent
• Create or share sharp and consistent content (don’t forget to optimize for mobile)
• Use relevant content that is helpful and shareable. (Ask yourself if your connections are looking for this piece of information. Will they like or comment on it?)
• Maintain a high engagement rate (interact within 1 hour after it gets posted)
• Connect with the right people by expanding your network with leaders and key decision-makers
• Use captivating visuals or videos to support your posts

What not to do to affect your score:

• Refrain from tagging people you don’t know. If you do, ensure they will engage with your content. LinkedIn will penalize and limit your reach if that person does not respond or remove the tag
• Do not over abuse with hashtags (approx. 3 to 5)
• Avoid sending mass invitations without consulting profiles
• Stop focusing on 1 pillar, it is important to create a balance across the 4 pillars

Is the SSI score the only metric?

While it is not the only metric to evaluate your performance, it is however, a practical tool to verify if you are on the right track. The key is to be consistent and authentic! If you are relatively new to LinkedIn, the Social Selling Index is a useful guideline to leverage your performance on this platform.

Remember! Other performance measures are just as important, such as the engagement rate, number of views and comments.

Aside from quantitative metrics, it is imperative to include qualitative ones as well: are your comments positive? Are your connections valuable?

The way in which you package your personal brand and posts could influence your network. It is a constant work in progress.

Now, what’s your SSI score? Check it out and work with the LinkedIn algorithm.

Get your SSI score