S3 Social Selling: Class project translates into professional success

We teach social selling in the Sports Sponsorship & Sales curriculum (Pro Sales for Sports I & II), as well as in the two sports analytics courses I teach.

As many know, LinkedIn provides a Social Selling Index score (click here for yours) based on establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights and building relationships. We began a semester-long challenge for junior S3 majors to increase SSI scores from a benchmark in January until the end of the semester on May 1.

Some new majors were just beginning LinkedIn profiles. Most had some presence, as we used LinkedIn for our professional resumes. (Click here to view a list, including recent placements.) At Baylor University, we have dozens of professionals visit campus and classes each semester. The students have plenty of warm networking leads available.

The challenge is to consistently engage with other professionals and to share "remarkable" insights that spark others to interact or share. In my observation, some of the most remarkable posts allow others to encourage and support students (and professionals) in career growth.

When we recognize and are grateful to others, we allow others to show grace to us.

How did we do? The graph at the top is a static version of the online Tableau dashboard (viewable here) for all 31 students. The data can be filtered by Sales or CRM/Analytics track students. You can also sort the beginning, ending and difference SSI scores to see relative performance. How do you compare to our S3 students?

The LinkedIn SSI Challenge allows no room for hiding. The SSI is calculated the same way for everyone. Some may start at a higher level, but the level of change shows who puts in the effort to build their professional brands. You may see this as a good challenge for your (sales) classes or sales force.

You may want to take it as a personal challenge for yourself. Let us know how you're doing at the end of the summer!