How effective is your social brand? How good are you at finding the right connections, sharing knowledge and building up relationships? Curious? The social selling dashboard from LinkedIn can give you all the answers. A while ago we wrote a blogpost about social selling so this post can perhaps refresh your memory.
Someone who has a high Social Selling Index gets better results. Unfortunately you have to pay for this LinkedIn’s dashboard tool that measures your SSI, but you can have one free trial. We think it is worth trying. But how exactly does it work? The social selling dashboard shows you how you perform in relation to other users. This is calculated by marking four elements on a scale of 0 to 100.

1.    Establishing your ‘personal brand’

Make your profile as complete as possible. Ensure that you have a good profile photo, a clear headline, a summary, experience and skills, etc. When you do that, always keep in mind the consumers and their needs and wishes. LinkedIn now allows you to add media to your profile. For example, you can build up a sort of portfolio which will allow your followers to look at your work. Besides a complete profile, it is also very important to share relevant, high-quality content and to interact with your followers.

2.    Finding the right people

Finding the right people is of course also important in a commercial context. LinkedIn offers a number of tools to help you with this. By joining groups you can meet prospective clients, which ultimately can lead to a relationship. Furthermore, LinkedIn shows you who has looked at your profile. By monitoring this occasionally, you can make contact with relevant visitors.

3.    Engaging with insights

In a commercial context, the concept of customer insights is important. Clients feel that they are well understood and businesses that respond to these insights get better results. Ensure that you are a reliable and trustworthy source of information by posting relevant content. Keep on top of news in your sector so that your LinkedIn profile remains up-to-date. Also, it is important that you react to content that your followers share. Finally, LinkedIn provides a great deal of relevant information about your followers and visitors, so make use of this information when you get in touch with people.

4.    Building relationships

Building up relationships and a strong network can work to your advantage in a commercial context. A large network offers more chances to meet your prospective clients. Connect with this network and with prospects. Relationships with decision-makers are also very important as these are people with a lot of influence. So engage in relationships with multiple decision-makers. And last but not least, don't just focus on the outside world; devote time to the people inside your company too. Connect with them as well because they are your link to the outside world. Of course, it is not just about connecting once; building valuable relationships requires more time and effort. Ensure that your followers regularly see your business, with relevant content, so that you remain uppermost in their minds.

So these are the four elements that form the basis of social selling. Each of these elements is scored out of 25. You will be given an average score to show you how you are doing in comparison to your branch of industry and a personal score relating to your own network. By devoting attention to each one of these four aspects you can improve your score. Let’s give it a try!

Authors: comma, brand strategists - Belgium
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