4 tips to improve your Social Selling Index (SSI)
Linkedin’s definition is: “The Social Selling Index measures your effectiveness in imposing your professional brand, finding the right people, communicating the right information and building new relationships.
Since the beginning of 2015, the social selling index (SSI) has enabled LinkedIn users to know their ranking, analyse the performance of their social selling activity and finally measure their influence and audience on LinkedIn. Your score, out of 100, indicates areas for improvement.
The Social Selling Index measures your effectiveness on the 4 activities of social selling:
- Impose your professional brand
- Finding the right people
- Communicate by sharing information
- Building relationships
- Each activity is rated out of 25, and the ISS gives a cumulative score out of 100
1. How to establish your professional brand?
It is crucial to build your professional brand because, according to LinkedIn:
- this increases the visibility of your profile by an average of 35%,
- 81% of buyers feel that it is easier to communicate with someone who has a strong professional brand,
more than 92% of BtoB buyers say they prefer to communicate with opinion leaders in the sector concerned.
Build your profile with your customers in mind, so that they understand from the very beginning what you can offer them.
Indeed, your profile is intended to be seen by your potential buyers. It will therefore have 3 objectives:
- Attract your buyer: your profile must therefore be centred on your buyer, i.e. it must contain information that interests him/her, that helps him/her to think,
- Be found by those who are looking for your products and services: for this you must maximize your exposure by including the keywords of your activity,
- Stand out from the crowd, distinguish yourself from your competitors by optimizing the 5 key elements that your buyer will consult first.
The 5 key elements of your LinkedIn profile to optimize to capture the attention of your visitors:
- Use a professional photo to make a good impression,
- Create an attractive title that encourages the visitor to continue reading your profile,
- Write a comprehensive summary that explains how you help your customers solve their problems,
- Add multimedia elements: slideshare presentations, videos, guides, white papers, case studies, etc. and make your profile a real media space,
- Ask your customers to validate your skills and write recommendations related to your business. Your prospects will perceive you as an expert in your field and will trust you.
2. Finding the right people
These are your prospects and all the people you consider important for the development of your business. Thus, according to LinkedIn, 69% of Linkedin sales representatives who have visited the profiles of at least 10 people are likely to exceed their sales quotas.
LinkedIn’s search engine is very effective in helping you find the right people. Use the many options of the “Search” function by keyword, sector of activity, geographical area, job title, etc. to target your searches. Do not hesitate to invite your customers and prospects to expand your network. Ask your contacts to put you in touch with potential second and third level prospects. Be responsive to any interaction to generate new reactions. Identify and join the discussion groups of which your prospects are members. Use the “views of your profile” feature to identify who has viewed your profile and engage in conversation to find out what motivated their visit.
3. Share information
Sharing information is at the heart of your Social Selling activity. It is he who will help you find new prospects. More than 64% of B2B buyers say they would like to receive articles or information from a sales representative that are useful to them. Publish relevant content that is, in relation to your clients’ problems; they will be grateful to you and will perceive you as a reliable source of information and a credible professional. Follow your news feed every day to find new content to share. When you get interactions, “likes”, comments or sharing, thank the authors and include constructive comments in your messages.
4. Building relationships
By identifying and inviting decision-makers to connect, you build the professional network that provides you with the continuous flow of business opportunities your company needs to grow.
People buy from people they trust. Trust is essential to develop business relationships. In this regard:
73% of B2B buyers prefer to deal with sales representatives recommended by a third party,
and 87% say they have a positive opinion of a sales representative who has been recommended to them by a member of their network.
To create and maintain trust with your buyers, after the first contact, continue to cultivate and deepen the relationship by regularly sending them content that helps them in their purchasing decision, and by reacting to their news. So they will think of you when a need arises.
Conclusion
Practice daily! Every day, identify new prospects, new content, start new discussions, react to interactions. You will notice a gradual and continuous increase in your Social Selling Index, reflecting your progress in mastering Social Selling. To know more about social media marketing strategies and want to start social media activities then call us on +91-124-4207905 or contact us here. Crux Creative Solutions is one of the best social media agency in India that provides top notch services for the clients.