Understanding LinkedIn Social Selling Index: The Complete Guide

LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) score has become a key metric for sales and marketing professionals to benchmark their social selling skills. But what exactly does it measure and how can you improve your number?

We’ll also answer common questions about access, visibility, updates, and more. Time to level up your LinkedIn game and unlock the meaning of this critical sales activity score!

LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index, or SSI, is a score from 0-100 that measures your effectiveness at social selling on LinkedIn.

Specifically, it evaluates your use of LinkedIn to build relationships, find the right people, share valuable content, and ultimately drive business opportunities.

The SSI score aims to:

Benchmark your social selling skills and activities on LinkedIn
Provide tips to improve your score with specific actions tied to the 4 categories
Motivate you to engage more on LinkedIn to drive real sales results

The Social Selling Index was created from an analysis of over 32,000 sales professionals and which behaviors drove the most deal conversions and revenue.

So in essence, it translates effective social selling techniques into an actionable score for individual salespeople and teams.

Now that we know what the SSI score intends to do at a high level, let’s look at how it’s calculated…

Also read: LinkedIn Scams Exposed: How to Identify and Report Suspicious Activity

Why the LinkedIn SSI Score Matters

Your SSI score matters because social selling is becoming an indispensable component of sales and outreach today.

Here are some key reasons why your LinkedIn SSI score is worth paying attention to:

1. Social Selling Drives Results

Studies show that social selling can generate improved sales outcomes:

Salespeople using social selling generate 45% more sales opportunities than peers who don’t use social media. (Source: Aberdeen)
92% of salespeople using social selling outsell reps not engaged in social media. (Source: Millennial Sales Science)

Clearly, mastering social selling on LinkedIn can give your sales efforts a significant boost. The SSI score shows you how effective your current social selling tactics are.

2. Provides Benchmark for Improvement

Your SSI score provides a benchmark to improve your future social selling impact.

It highlights areas where you are doing well, and surfaces opportunities to get even better results.

With data-driven insights from your SSI, you can refine social selling strategies to become more effective on LinkedIn.

3. Credibility Factor

A high SSI score establishes your credibility as an expert and thought leader on LinkedIn.

Prospects assess your social brand and SSI before connecting with you. A higher score indicates you are serious about social selling.

Brian Clark, CEO of Copyblogger, says:

“The ability to impress complete strangers from the get-go is critical in social media. Your SSI is your trust and authority benchmark.”

4. Professional Development

The SSI enables sales managers to track team members’ social selling progress.

They can use SSI scores to identify coaching opportunities and skill development needs.

For sales reps, the SSI provides a learning tool to hone social selling tactics that deliver results.

In summary, the SSI score gives you an objective snapshot of your social selling skills on LinkedIn. Maximizing your score should be a priority for salespeople today.

How is Your LinkedIn SSI Score Calculated?

The Social Selling Index score is made up of four main pillars, each worth a maximum of 25 points:

Establish Your Professional Brand: Complete your LinkedIn profile
Find The Right People: Grow your network to build relationships
Engage With Insights: Share relevant content to establish expertise
Build Relationships: Interact and connect to drive opportunities

Within each pillar are 3-5 specific activities that can earn points, such as adding skills to your profile or commenting on posts.

Here is an overview of the 4 pillars and associated point opportunities:

SSI Pillar	Potential Points	Activities Scored
Establish Your Professional Brand	25 points	Profile photo, customized LinkedIn URL, current position, >50 connections, skills added
Find The Right People	25 points	Open profile visibility, expanded network, followers/following company pages
Engage With Insights	25 points	Share useful articles, publish long-form posts, create content with rich media
Build Relationships	25 points	Messaged connections, commented on posts, shared own updates

Your overall SSI = The sum of all four pillar scores

So if you maxed out each category, you’d have an impressive SSI of 100!

But for most members, you’ll likely fall somewhere between 0-100 based on how strong your activity is across those 4 social selling areas.

Now let’s get into the strategies and tips to start improving that score…

Also read: Craft the Perfect LinkedIn Banner size for Maximum Impact

How to Increase Your LinkedIn SSI Score

The Social Selling Index provides clear guidance on which actions can boost your overall score. So where should you focus first?

Here are the top ways to quickly increase your SSI:

Step 1: Complete the Basic LinkedIn Profile Elements

Knocking out profile completeness is essential for maxing out that “Establish Your Brand” pillar.

Be sure your profile has:

A photo – Show your face! No sunglasses or weird emoji heads.
The current position listed with full details
Background summary that sells your experience
Skills and accomplishments like licenses, certs, languages
Custom LinkedIn URL for easy sharing

Pro Tip: You need at least 50 connections for full “Establish Your Brand” points too. So don’t forget to connect beyond your inner circle!

Step 2: Follow Relevant Companies in Your Industry

The “Find The Right People” pillar evaluates how well you’re connecting to valuable audiences.

Follow at least 5-10 industry companies you want to work with or sell to. This shows engagement beyond your immediate network.

Bonus points if the pages you follow share regular content updates! 🚀

Content sharing is exactly what the “Engage With Insights” section measures.

Dig into LinkedIn’s news feed and share articles or posts you find interesting + relevant to your network 2-3x per week. Add thoughtful comments explaining why you shared it!

Sharing multimedia posts with images or video will snag you extra points too. 😎

Step 4: Message New Connections & Follow Up

LinkedIn rewards effort spent connecting personally in the “Build Relationships” pillar.

When you get a new connection request, send a friendly note back to say hello. Comment or react to posts from your wider network too.

Little outreach efforts show you’re building on relationships, not just hoarding connections!

If you focus on moving the needle in these 4 areas, you’ll be well on your way to increasing that SSI score!

But exact numbers will vary widely across members…so what’s ultimately considered a “good” LinkedIn SSI benchmark to aim for?

Also read: How to contact LinkedIn customer support through its online help center

Why your SSI score matters so much

Buyers increasingly look to platforms like LinkedIn to research vendors, read reviews and thought leadership content, and ask peers for recommendations.

You need a solid social presence just to be in the consideration set. An optimized profile and thoughtful content strategy is critical to lead generation and positioning your brand as an industry leader.

Your SSI directly measures the effectiveness of these efforts.

2. Personal connections drive conversions

LinkedIn reported 80% of B2B leads come from peer recommendations and trusted relationships. That number skyrockets to 90% for complex or high value purchases.

People buy from people they know and trust. Your SSI score benchmarks how well you’re leveraging LinkedIn to build meaningful relationships.

3. Quality over quantity

It’s not about spamming connections with generic invites or blasting content for vanity metrics. Low relevance or overly promotional actions dilute your social influence.

The SSI focuses on quality interactions, insightful content, and nurturing strategic connections with decision makers—key factors that ultimately motivate buying decisions and deals closed.

Let’s take a closer look at how the SSI is actually calculated based on your activities across LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Sales and SSI Tools

LinkedIn offers an array of sales enablement tools to improve SSI scores by streamlining social selling processes around targeting ideal prospects, engaging your network, and managing account relationships.

Here are 5 recommended tools for maximizing your social selling impact:

1. Sales Navigator

Paid Sales Navigator seats unlock premium search filters, lead recommendations, conversation insights for connections, automated alerts, and detailed SSI tracking.

2. PointDrive Presentations

Upload and embed visually stunning presentations to share natively in Messaging or InMail. Perfect for sending prospects deck snippets to continue conversion post-meeting.

3. Elevate Publishing Program

Amplify your organic content reach. Elevate prioritizes posts from program members for extended network visibility.

4. LinkedIn Ads

Sophisticated targeting and creative formats leverage the power of your network’s first-party data for unparalleled B2B advertising results.

5. LinkedIn Events

Host, co-sponsor or have a booth presence at virtual industry events directly within LinkedIn to connect with highly targeted attendees.

Combined, these tools help cut through the noise, focus your efforts on guaranteed stakeholders from targeted accounts, extend content reach, foster engagement, and demonstrate thought leadership.

Also read: Streamline Your Experience with Handy LinkedIn Windows Shortcuts

What’s a Good LinkedIn SSI Score?

Like any major index, Social Selling scores follow a spectrum across the 0-100 range:

SSI Range	Interpretation
90-100	🏆 Social Selling Master!
80-89	Excellent Social Seller
70-79	Strong Social Selling Skills
60-69	Fair/Improving Social Seller
<60	Needs Social Selling Work

According to LinkedIn, a score above 70 generally indicates you have strong social selling foundations in place.

But there’s always room for growth! Top social sellers drive up into the 80+ range by fine-tuning activities.

Ideally, aim for at least 80 to balance the effort required versus a meaningful score payoff. This means you likely have all the SSI pillars filled but could work on fine-tuning vs. major gaps.

At the end of the day, social selling on LinkedIn isn’t just about the number. However, SSI offers a tangible way to evaluate efforts and focus energy on areas that impact sales results.

Now let’s get into some frequent questions about accessing and improving that all-important Social Selling score.

FAQs: Accessing Your Score and Increasing It

Let’s recap how to unlock your personal SSI along with common questions members have around the process:

Your SSI is PRIVATE by default. No other LinkedIn members will see it.

However, some companies may pay for broader team access or choose to share scores internally.

LinkedIn refreshes SSI scores daily based on the latest activity and profile data.

So in theory actions you take today could increase your score as soon as tomorrow!

Accessing SSI requires a current LinkedIn Premium subscription. You may see some pillars locked without the paid plan.

Your account also must be associated with a current Sales Navigator license or trial to enable full SSI visibility.

An SSI score isn’t directly considered for hiring or promotions. However, the activities that increase your SSI – like relationship-building and sharing valuable expertise – do make you stand out!

So while the number itself isn’t a factor, the work you put in to boost it pays off indirectly.

Let’s recap the key SSI takeaways:

It scores your social selling skills across 4 pillars of activity
Aim for at least 70, but push for 80+ to truly excel
Improve your score by completing your profile, sharing content, and connecting
You need a Premium account tied to a Sales Nav license to access it

Pleasing the LinkedIn SSI algorithm gods takes work. But it pays dividends in the form of tangible sales growth achieved through social outreach!

Now let’s tie up a few final thoughts…

The LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) is a score from 0-100 that measures your social selling skills and activities on LinkedIn. It assesses your ability to build relationships, post valuable insights, and generate business opportunities through social engagement.

Ways to improve your SSI include completing your profile 100%, growing high-value connections, engaging consistently with your network by liking and commenting, posting valuable insights 2-3x per week, joining relevant LinkedIn Groups, and sending thoughtful connection requests.

Some reasonable SSI improvements in 30 days are:

Complete your profile: +10 points
Grow your network by 50+ connections: +5 points
Engage with your network by commenting/liking: +3 points
Share one valuable article per week: +4 points
Send 10 thoughtful connection requests: +3 points

So in one month, you could potentially increase your score by 25+ points through consistent effort.

Currently, there is no way to hide your SSI completely. However, you can opt not to showcase it on your profile. Only you will be able to view it.

SSI fluctuations of 5-10 points are normal week-to-week. If you see a significant drop, it likely means you became less active on LinkedIn over the past month. Focus on re-engaging with your network and sharing insights consistently.