How LinkedIn Sets the Bar in Social Selling

A few weeks ago I saw a post on LinkedIn about their new Social Selling Dashboard, which calculates your Social Selling Index (SSI). SSI measures how effective you are at establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. It struck me as a great way to help address one of the biggest challenges I see with social selling, which is how to assess its effectiveness.

However, after getting my score I didn’t think much of it until I read an e-mail LinkedIn sent me based on being in the top 1%. The e-mail shared insight into what they are planning to do with this SSI ranking and the potential opportunities it will create. It also included this: “The Sales Manager’s Guide to Driving Social Media Adoption and Revenue.” It’s a 37 page guide where they share five proven strategies to help sales managers successfully adopt a social media program within their organization.This book also provided social selling insights from LinkedIn employees and industry leaders as well.

I read through it, not knowing what to expect and was taken back by the value that it provides from firsthand experience of what I’ve seen my clients struggle with time and time again.  And this is why I’m writing this post.

In my opinion, at its core, social selling is about gaining insights and adding value. I also believe that’s the right approach to take with social selling – gain insight and then add value. If you look to educate yourself on topics you’re interested in (your clients, your industry, business, sales, etc) and find content you feel is relevant to that topic, you can then share that content with your target audience who should find similar value in it. This is how you improve yourself while building your professional brand and move towards being seen as a thought leader.

For example, this piece of content that LinkedIn shared with me will hit every point of value on the social selling  subject matter for me.

• I personally gained insight and value from this guide and it will help me do my job better moving forward because it offered practical tips on how to successfully adopt social selling .
• I’m writing this blog and sharing what I consider to be a high value piece of content with my target audience (you) in the hopes you will get value from it. If you do find it helpful, then the value that I just added helps build credibility within my brand.  I’m going to take this piece of content and share it with very specific clients to add value for no other reason than to make them well informed. .

I know social selling is a relatively new way to sell  and the majority of sales teams are still trying to figure out how it fits. This guide is here to clarify a lot for those who are interested in learning about social selling. Share away if you want to make the shift.

Make it happen!

Download The Sales Manager's Guide to Driving Social Media Adoption and Revenue to learn more about creating a social selling program that scales.