The LinkedIn Social Selling Index is similar to a search engine optimisation (SEO) for websites on Google Search.
The higher the number, 83 out of 100, the higher your position on the search is if someone is searching for someone with your skills.
Good LinkedIn profiles start at 60% approximately, and a great LinkedIn profile should be over 75%.
Let’s first explain what the numbers *Top one per cent industry SSI rank” and “Top one per cent network SSI rank” mean.
If you imagine LinkedIn will be something like a bicycle race, where 100 bikers compete, the top one per cent person is in first place among the 100 bikers in the industry and network.
In my case, if this were the Tour de France, I would be the leader in the yellow shirt, the famous “Maillot Jaune”.
Most of the time, people have better results in their industry than in their network because they are connected with people with better LinkedIn profiles than the industrial average.
Now, let’s focus on those four components of your score and how you can influence them properly.
LinkedIn is like a table and is standing on four legs,
But as you may know, they are also tables standing stable on three legs. And the same applies to LinkedIn.
The first component is called “Establish your professional brand.”
What does it mean? Your professional brand is how your profile looks when I visit for the first time (background picture, nice headshot, great headline, all available fields are populated) and how you create content that adds value to your community.
The second component is the “Find the right people.”
The right people in terms of LinkedIn are those visiting your LinkedIn profile on their behalf. You see those people only in the case when you’ve got the LinkedIn premium version.
Let’s spend some time explaining the premium version first. LinkedIn does not pay me, so I have no financial interest in recommending people the Premium version.
The Premium version has, in my eyes, three significant advantages.
1) you can write every person a message which explains why you would like to connect with them.
2) You see all people who are visiting your profile.
Go into your profile analytics and see who has viewed your profile.
If those profiles are interesting to you, you can write to them:
“Dear XY. Thanks a lot for your interest in my profile.
Should we connect?
This is an easy way to get new connections on LinkedIn!
3) The premium provides you with fantastic training opportunities. For example, you can learn hard skills like Excel and soft skills like job interviewing, leading teams, building a strategy and many more.
The third component is called “Engage with insights.”
For those on Facebook, it means that you should behave the same way as you do on Facebook. You should like and comment on other people’s content that they are producing on LinkedIn and tag the other person by hitting the @ key.
I am doing this for 2-3 minutes a day, and with this, I am reaching around 17% out of 25%.
The fourth component is “Building relationships.”
This component is self-explainable.
You want a network that is as big as possible, and you are starting to be attractive for LinkedIn when you get over 500 contacts. If you have around 1’250 to 1’300 connections, you get 25% on this component, driving your social selling index upwards again.
Please don’t look at LinkedIn as a Facebook. It’s not your private network; you don’t need to know everyone personally. If the network is vast enough, it simply starts to work for you on its own.
And last remark, the first, the third, and the fourth components positively influence each other. For example:
a) The more extensive your network, the higher your credibility as a content author
b) The higher your credibility, the more people will see your content.
c) The more people see your content, the more they interact with you (Engage with insights)
d) The more people interact with you, the more connections you can get.
Do you have any further questions? Please do not hesitate to ask me.