Who works with LinkedIn, do you measure your SSI (Social Selling Index)? If so, how often? Write in the comments.
For those who don’t know, I’ll tell you. In 2015, LinkedIn introduced a profile evaluation system that determines the SSI or Social Selling Index for each user. According to the index, all LinkedIn profiles receive their score from 0 to 100 in 4 categories, where each category can be a maximum of 25 points. All LinkedIn users can check their SSI at the link
Based on the SSI index, LinkedIn ranks profiles, assigning them to a certain group of users.
A high SSI will help you get more often into recommendations for adding as a friend, get higher in the feed with your posts, minimize the risks of account blocking, and justify your unblocking to LinkedIn support.
SSI is a LinkedIn profile scoring system, ranging from 0 to 100 points in four categories (Establish a professional brand, Engage with insights, Find the right people, Build strong relationships)
Five easy steps to increase your SSI (Social Selling Index) on LinkedIn:
- Fill out your profile completely
- Add me as a friend
- Make posts/reposts/likes/comments
- Validate people's skills and get validations in return
- Write recommendations and receive recommendations in return
Point one “Fill out your profile”
It is better to make a photo for the avatar on a light background (portrait). Make a photo for the profile header, taking into account cropping and displaying important meanings (words, titles) on it. This is a useful area that almost no one uses. The title under the photo (where you work) contains 120 characters. Many use only a small part. Use it to the maximum, tell about yourself there. Also, do not forget about the “General Information” field, in which you can tell the story of your life (in the first person), your successes and failures, what you are proud of, where you are going in life, where you work now and your strengths. You can add your contacts right here. It is ideal if you add a link to the test about yourself
Add skills, maximum 50, add all 50. Ask for reviews (recommendations) from colleagues (1-2 reviews), it's simple. Add your work experience, volunteering, etc. Describe your experience, this will be most useful for future employers, partners and colleagues.
After filling out your profile, you will have access to a dashboard (as in the screenshot) with statistics and the “All Star” mark.
Fill out your entire profile to get the “All Star” badge
Visit me on LinkedIn if you want to see a fully completed profile
Point two “Add as a friend”
Don't be afraid to add. But don't add everyone. You will be contacted by "bounty players" (those who participate in cryptocurrency bounty campaigns) and "freelancers", etc. Go to the "people" search and filter people by the criteria you need (country, industry, position, etc.). Only 2nd line contacts are available for search, and if you have few friends, you will have few people in the search results according to your criteria. What to do then?
There are two ways I see it.
First, look for companies that you like or would like to work there, look for people there who fit your desired or current position and add them (fill out your profile completely in advance, because they may not be added).
Or the second option is to search for groups according to your interests or profession, join them and add to the group participants. The recommended number of additions per day is no more than 30-40 for those who have few friends and 100+ for those who already have 500+ friends. Your goal is 500+ friends.
You add to your network, others add to you
The third point is “Make posts/reposts/likes/comments”
A little background.
A long time ago, 5-6 years ago, when I was closely studying SMM in VK, I knew that social networks have some “internal algorithms” that determine your rating (or the rating of your group). Back then, no one advertised this and SMM specialists could only guess about it (which is what we did), through trial and error.
This is now one important indicator of activity for the Linkedin network.
Look at the feed sometimes, there may be useful things for you, because you are adding friends to quite target “colleagues” or your “TA”. And like the posts that you liked or remembered. It has an impact.
Where you have something to say, write comments.
If a post inspires you, repost it with your comment.
Surely you work for a company that has a website/blog/store. You can make posts with a link to your website. This also goes to your rating. And also goes to the site's piggy bank, as an external link.
Do this 2 times a week (2 posts/reposts, likes optionally 3-5-10, comments also a couple of times a couple of comments), and you will see that your SSI rating is growing.
Point 4: “Affirm people’s skills and get affirmations in return”
If you have already decided to increase your SSI in LinkedIn, then make it a rule to confirm at least the first 3 skills when visiting a person’s page (of course, if they have been added and are not prohibited for confirmation).
A person has been added, you have seen a notification about it - go to him and confirm some of his skills. This will show that you are interested in the person and you have added for a reason. You should really be interested in adding this person, because you have a plan (if not, then come up with one). Perhaps you just want to increase your SSI, or maybe communicate, exchange experiences, agree on a partnership or sell something.
A person was added, they came in and confirmed the first three skills
The fifth, most difficult point is “Recommendations. Write and receive recommendations in response”
Logical questions: “Who should I write to?”, “Who will write to me?” etc.
This is the last point, to which you have probably already:
— filled out the profile,
— put the correct photo and cover,
- constantly add targeted friends,
- write greeting messages to people,
— write posts, comments, make reposts,
— perhaps you wrote an article or more than one (this is your tool for promoting yourself, use it 100%).
Of the friends you added, there are probably former colleagues and friends from various conferences/trainings/seminars/lectures. These are the first people who will help you with this. You already communicate with them sometimes, so no one is stopping you from writing to them asking for a recommendation. You can also offer to give a recommendation from yourself if he needs it (not everyone will need it, believe me)
Let me note right away that you need this first and foremost! In your request, write that you can compose the text yourself and send it to him. Respect other people's time.
It is enough for you to receive 1-2 recommendations per month, and work on increasing this figure.
And a little bit of my experience in the end. This is how it was on 04/27/23(Top 2% in the industry and Top 5% in my network, network less than 4k people):
The growth is not significant, but I am very pleased with the Top 1% and Top 2% figures. The second one especially, because the network has grown by 800+ people in these few months. Now there are 4.8k+ people.
I am sure that after reading this article you will be able to understand how to significantly increase your rating, and, over time, reach the TOP 1-2% in your network/industry, as I did.