Four fun secrets about the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Social Selling Index

(*These tips are useful regardless of whether you subscribe to LinkedIn Sales Navigator or have a premium subscription.)

If you market your services on LinkedIn, you probably know about LinkedIn Sales Navigator. As a content marketing writer, I use Sales Navigator to find potential clients. If you don’t know Sales Navigator, you should. LinkedIn Sales Navigator empowers you to reach your customers through rich search options, capabilities, and features.

If you already use Sales Navigator and you want more success, know that it comes with a tool that provides metrics on your achievements. The Sales Navigator Social Selling Index (SSI) helps you gauge your progress in four areas: establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships.

If you haven't seen your SSI, take mine as an example.

My SSI score is 75 out of 100. If you’d like to leverage and improve your SSI, read on for four fun secrets you can use to boost your SSI and your engagement on LinkedIn.

Secret # 1: LinkedIn says you can establish your professional brand in two ways: by completing your profile with the customer in mind and becoming a thought leader by publishing meaningful posts.

First, your LinkedIn profile

Put yourself in your customer’s place. What would you expect to see on a LinkedIn profile for someone with a brand like yours? With that in mind, fill out your profile completely and improve on it regularly, clarifying your brand messaging.

LinkedIn will guide you and dub you an All-Star when your profile achieves excellence. I fill in everything on my profile and make everything public. I open my profile to the internet and allow search engines like Google to index and publish it in search results.

Second, become a thought leader.

According to Buffer, these are thought leaders: “They create thoughtful debate. And in doing so, we come to know them as people who are passionate, intelligent, and engaged in their particular areas of expertise. We come to know them as thought leaders.”

LinkedIn has published its “Executive Thought Leadership Quick Start Guide,” so you can become what LinkedIn defines as a thought leader. It’s free.

Post an excellent daily post that demonstrates your thought-leadership, interests your desired audience, and aligns with your brand.

Write LinkedIn articles. You can write LinkedIn articles with headings, links, and images like this one.?Think carefully about what to say. Does it help you to establish your brand? If you don’t know your brand, here’s a great resource to get you started.?

Secret # 2: “Find the right people. Identify better prospects in less time using efficient search and research tools.”

LinkedIn search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator is highly customizable. You can search for people by their title or a particular role at a company you specify. There are many search parameters you can apply.

Here is a powerful secret about LinkedIn search in Sales Navigator: under Spotlight, go to Activities and shared experiences, and select Posted on LinkedIn in 30 days. This selection will limit your search to people who use LinkedIn regularly. Because you want to find people who will see your messages, you'll want to use this setting.?

Secret # 3: “Engage with insights. Discover and share conversation-worthy updates to create and grow relationships.”

Like, comment, and share your favorite LinkedIn posts that align with your?audience and your brand. Sharing allows you to add your?account and comments to the top of someone’s post. This approach will help you to demonstrate?your thought leadership and engender likes, comments, and conversations. ????

A potential client may reach out to you because of shares like these.

Secret # 4: “Build relationships. Strengthen your network by finding and establishing trust with decision-makers.”

Search and target the decision-makers you want to attract. These Google search results contain choice morsels about establishing trust with decision-makers.

It works!

A significant degree of my performance and success as?a content marketing writer for the cybersecurity industry is due to?LinkedIn, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the Social Selling Index, and how I use them. This success can be?yours, too. Start here, use and build on these secrets, and leverage your SSI metrics.

You get high-caliber content marketing writing in the cybersecurity niche. You want a voice with decision-makers, and I speak cyber ?. Serving B2B clients since 2000. Learn more in my “ABOUT” section in my profile here on LinkedIn.