One of my attorneys received an email from LinkedIn regarding his Social Selling Index (SSI) score which is a new LinkedIn feature. What is Social Selling? Social Selling is a hot buzzword that basically means you convert your social media connections into clients. To be successful, you must make new connections and share content your target audience and their network of influencers are interested in.
Here are some suggestions on how to improve your LinkedIn SSI score.
- Create a professional brand on LinkedIn: It is important to have a complete LinkedIn profile that includes a rich narrative summary, experience, education, professional organizations, volunteer activities and interests. I recommend publishing on the LinkedIn publishing platform to demonstrate thought leadership and extend the reach of your digital content. Adding rich media such as powerpoint presentations to your LinkedIn profile will build your brand.
- Define and “touch” key influencers: Set a goal to engage with a certain number of key influencers weekly. Key influencers are people who already have the attention of your target audience. LinkedIn allows you to tag your connections which makes it easy to filter and communicate with them. LinkedIn notifications will alert you when one of your network publishes a post so you can comment and share.
- Add new connections: Set a goal of adding a specific number of connections weekly. The connections could be potential clients, referral sources or influencers. Join LinkedIn groups to easily find new connections. When you ask someone to connect, personalize the invitation to increase the likelihood of them accepting.
- Engage with your network: In addition to publishing posts, share updates with articles you are publishing on industry publications or other outlets, in addition to upcoming speaking engagements.
- Build strong relationships: Like, comment or share your target audience or influencers content to develop stronger relationships. Commenting in group discussions helps attract people to connect with you on LinkedIn.
This does require time, but will improve your SSI score and potentially lead to opportunities. LinkedIn has a good app for the iPad and android tablets which makes it easy to be active when you have some downtime at the airport or on the weekends when you are watching TV.