Social Selling Index: How to Get a Higher Score in 2025
Social sellers generate 78% more opportunities than peers who skip social media altogether. That’s a measurable edge tracked by LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI).
The SSI score is more than a vanity metric. It predicts performance: top scorers create 45% more opportunities, and hit quota 51% more often than those with lower ratings. If your score breaks 70 out of 100, you’re already ahead. Cross 75, and you’re in elite company, among the most effective LinkedIn users worldwide.
Why does this matter? Because personal profiles generate 8x more engagement than company pages. And comments over 15 words? Double the impact. Your SSI is the data-backed mirror of how well you’re building trust, engaging prospects, and converting conversations into connections.
Updated daily and shaped by your activity over the last 90 days, the SSI is a living score built on four pillars. In this guide, we’ll break each one down, with actionable strategies to raise your score fast.
What is the Social Selling Index (SSI) and Why It Matters in 2025
Image Source: LinkedIn
LinkedIn's Social Selling Index measures your mastery of relationship-building on their platform. This score spans 0 to 100, benchmarking your performance against industry peers and revealing your social selling effectiveness.
Definition of the Social Selling Index (SSI)
Four equally weighted pillars comprise your SSI score, each contributing up to 25 points:
- Establishing your professional brand - Profile completeness and content sharing consistency
- Finding the right people - Your ability to identify and connect with relevant professionals
- Engaging with insights - How you discover and share valuable content
- Building relationships - Your capacity to connect and strengthen industry relationships
Your score reflects the previous 90 days of activity, updating daily. Originally designed for sales professionals in 2014, SSI now serves anyone engaged in business development.
Why LinkedIn SSI is important for B2B sales
Your SSI score indicates your potential for commercial success. Sales representatives with higher scores generate substantially more opportunities and reach quotas more consistently.
The B2B lead generation market is projected to rise from USD 11.23 Billion in 2025 to USD 29.51 Billion by 2034. Your SSI score becomes increasingly important for capturing market share as LinkedIn remains central to this expansion.
High-scoring sales representatives receive promotions 17 months faster than their lower-scoring counterparts, according to LinkedIn's analysis of over 150,000 professionals. SSI impacts both sales results and career progression.
Scores above 70 indicate effective LinkedIn usage, while scores over 75 place you among industry thought leaders. This benchmark provides a concrete target for your social selling development.
How SSI impacts visibility and engagement
Higher SSI scores increase your visibility through LinkedIn's algorithm. The platform shows your content to broader audiences when your score reflects consistent engagement. This exposure generates more profile views, connections, and sales opportunities.
Brand visibility correlates directly with SSI performance. Higher scores produce more inbound leads, better engagement rates, and accelerated network growth. LinkedIn rewards users who consistently connect, engage, and share relevant content.
Social selling differs fundamentally from traditional approaches. Rather than focusing on quantity over quality in lead generation, social selling builds authentic relationships with the right people using data and social signals to initiate targeted conversations.
Your SSI serves as a window into your online sales performance. This score provides valuable feedback on your digital sales strategy and personal branding efforts, helping you identify strengths and improvement areas across all four pillars of effective social selling.
How to Check Your LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score
Image Source: TaskDrive
Your Social Selling Index score sits waiting for you:
Step-by-step guide to accessing your SSI dashboard
Three pathways lead to your Social Selling Index:
- Direct Link Method (Simplest approach)
- Log into your LinkedIn account
- Visit www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi
- Your SSI dashboard loads with your current score
- Sales Navigator Method
- Log into LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Click your profile image in the top right corner
- Select "Social Selling Index" from the dropdown menu
- Expandi Dashboard Method
- Monitor your SSI score directly in your Expandi dashboard if you use this automation tool
LinkedIn evaluates every user. Free accounts and paid subscriptions receive equal scoring treatment. Set a monthly reminder to track your progress consistently.
The four-pillar breakdown
Your dashboard displays your total score with a breakdown across four pillars. Each pillar contributes up to 25 points to your total:
Establish your professional brand – Profile completeness, multimedia presence, endorsements, and published content. This measures how well you present yourself as a trustworthy professional.
Find the right people – Advanced search usage, prospecting activity, leads saved, and search patterns. Your ability to identify relevant prospects and decision-makers.
Engage with insights – Content engagement, shares, messages sent, and group participation. How actively you demonstrate expertise through discussions.
Build strong relationships – Network expansion, connection quality, acceptance rates, and executive-level connections. Your skill at nurturing connections to build trust.
Benchmark against industry and network averages
Your SSI dashboard offers context through two key comparisons:
Industry Rank – Your standing compared to other professionals in your field. Top 10% means you outperform 90% of people in your industry.
Network Rank – How your SSI compares to your direct LinkedIn connections. This reveals whether you're outperforming your immediate network.
The dashboard displays:
- Your industry's average SSI score
- Your network's average SSI score
- Weekly performance changes
What makes a good score? SSI above 70 indicates effective LinkedIn usage. Scores above 75 place you among industry thought leaders. Average users score 40-50, while top performers achieve 65+.
LinkedIn gamifies social selling through this scoring system. The process becomes more engaging while providing actionable feedback on your performance.
The Four Pillars of LinkedIn SSI
Image Source: LinkedIn
LinkedIn's Social Selling Index operates through four interconnected pillars. Each pillar contributes exactly 25 points to your total score. These pillars form a systematic framework for social selling mastery.
Establish your professional brand
Your professional brand becomes your digital foundation. LinkedIn measures this through specific components:
- Profile completeness with professional photo and detailed "About" section
- Multimedia presence on your profile
- Endorsements and recommendations from your network
- Published articles and follower growth from your content
This pillar reflects how you present yourself as a trusted expert. Your profile serves as your digital storefront—the first impression for potential connections and clients.
Find the right people using advanced search
The second pillar evaluates your prospecting effectiveness. LinkedIn tracks your ability to identify and connect with relevant decision-makers through:
- Your use of advanced search functions and filters
- Prospecting profile views and saved leads
- Search activity frequency
- Inbound profile views indicating search relevance
Quality connections matter more than quantity. Advanced search filters help you target professionals who align with your specific goals and ideal customer profile.
Engage with insights through content and comments
Active participation drives this pillar. The platform measures:
- Engagements given and received on posts
- Content shares and reshares
- Messages sent and InMail response rates
- Group participation and saved accounts
Thoughtful engagement demonstrates expertise while building visibility. Your consistent participation in conversations positions you as a valuable contributor to your professional community.
Build strong relationships with your network
The final pillar focuses on connection quality and relationship strength:
- Overall connection growth
- VP+ level connections indicating strategic networking
- Internal connections within organizations
- Acceptance rate for connection requests sent
Trust builds before transactions occur. Personalized messages, thoughtful follow-ups, and consistent engagement create genuine relationships that support future opportunities.
Each pillar connects to the others. Your brand attracts the right people. Your search skills identify quality prospects. Your engagement builds credibility. Your relationships create lasting value.
Understanding these connections helps you identify improvement areas and develop targeted strategies for higher scores.
Proven Strategies to Improve Your Social Selling Index Score
Image Source: LinkedIn
Your Social Selling Index grows through consistent implementation across all four pillars. These strategies increase your score and expand your sales opportunities.
Optimize your LinkedIn profile for visibility
Select an inviting profile picture and professional banner (1584 x 396 pixels) that showcases your value proposition. Complete every section with your customer in mind—describe who you help, not just who you are.
Your headline extends beyond your job title. Include who you support and how in 220 characters. This functions as your mini elevator pitch.
Keywords matter. Incorporate relevant terms naturally throughout your profile to improve searchability when prospects seek your expertise.
Post thought leadership content consistently
Valuable content positions you as a trustworthy advisor rather than a seller. LinkedIn's algorithm favors high-quality, engaging posts—leading to 30% higher engagement rates.
Focus on your ideal customer's pain points rather than promoting products or services. Aim for 3-5 quality posts weekly. Mix content types: articles, videos, and text posts keep your audience engaged.
Use personalized connection requests
You can add personalized messages to five connection requests monthly, with a 200-character limit. Always explain why you're connecting and how you might add value to their network.
Engage with prospects first. Build rapport before sending invitations. This demonstrates genuine interest rather than transactional intent.
Engage with your ICP's content regularly
Your ideal customer profile engagement strategy affects both your SSI score and sales results. Leave thoughtful comments exceeding 15 words—these deliver twice the impact of shorter responses.
Connect with your ICP first. Your connections see your posts first in their feeds. Engage with peers whose connections align with your target audience. When they interact with your content, you effectively borrow their reach.
Sales Navigator for targeted outreach
Advanced filters help you build laser-targeted prospect lists based on industry, company size, geography, and job titles. Save searches and leads to demonstrate active prospecting to LinkedIn's algorithm.
Create alerts for company updates, leadership changes, and prospect activity to time your outreach naturally. The TeamLink feature identifies mutual connections that can provide warm introductions to decision-makers.
Tools and Metrics to Track and Grow Your SSI
Image Source: Neil Patel
The right tools simplify SSI improvement without endless manual work. We explore platforms that measure progress and automate key activities contributing to higher scores.
SSI tracking in LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator users save approximately 65 hours annually through AI-powered features. The platform provides detailed analytics on your SSI performance compared to industry peers.
Over 50 advanced search filters help identify prospects using past customers, company headcount, and buyer intent signals. This directly strengthens the "finding the right people" pillar.
Sellers with four LinkedIn connections at target accounts close deals 16% more often. Building strategic networks matters for both SSI scores and actual results.
Third-party tools for SSI analytics
Caution becomes necessary with unauthorized third-party analytics tools. Many violate LinkedIn's Terms of Service, potentially resulting in account suspension.
Use only official LinkedIn partners like Agorapulse for legitimate data access. How valuable is your LinkedIn account? If central to your strategy, stick with authorized tools despite limitations.
Key metrics to monitor
Focus on metrics that directly impact your SSI:
- Engagement rate tracks audience interaction with your content. Higher engagement correlates with increased SSI scores.
- Connection acceptance rate measures request acceptance percentages. Personalized connection requests increase acceptance rates by 40%.
- Content reach indicates post visibility. Ten quality comments daily for one month can increase profile views by 40% and content engagement by 25%.
These metrics serve as leading indicators of SSI improvement. Adjust your strategy before seeing changes in your actual score.
Turn Your SSI Into Real Business Outcomes
The Social Selling Index isn't just a score. It tells you how well you're building trust, visibility, and momentum on LinkedIn.
Sales reps with high SSI scores get promoted 17 months faster. The score correlates with more profile views, stronger connections, and more closed deals. If your number is growing, so is your influence.
To raise it, take consistent action across four key areas:
- Complete your profile with your customer’s perspective in mind
- Post valuable content 3–5 times a week
- Send connection requests that clearly explain why you matter
- Engage directly with the content your ideal customers share
- Track your metrics to stay accountable and focused
These habits drive measurable results. 15+ word comments double your engagement. Personal profiles get 8x more traction than company pages. Every quality interaction boosts your reach and relevance.
SSI gives you a clear benchmark. It tracks how you compare to peers and shows where you’re making progress—or falling short.
Check your score at linkedin.com/sales/ssi. Then start building. Raise each pillar with intent and consistency.
When your score climbs, your pipeline follows.
FAQs: Social Selling Index (SSI)
What is the LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI)?
The LinkedIn Social Selling Index is a score out of 100 that measures how effectively you use LinkedIn for sales activities. It's important because a higher SSI correlates with more sales opportunities, better quota achievement, and faster career advancement in sales roles.
How do I find my SSI score?
You can easily check your SSI score by logging into your LinkedIn account and visiting www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi. This will take you directly to your SSI dashboard, where you can view your current score and performance across the four pillars.
What are the four pillars of the LinkedIn SSI?
The four pillars of the LinkedIn SSI are: establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building strong relationships. Each pillar contributes up to 25 points to your total SSI score.
How do I improve my LinkedIn Social Selling Index?
To improve your SSI score, focus on optimizing your LinkedIn profile, consistently posting thought leadership content, sending personalized connection requests, regularly engaging with your ideal customer's content, and leveraging Sales Navigator for targeted outreach.
Are there any tools that can help boost my SSI score?
Yes, there are several tools that can help improve your SSI score. LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers advanced search and tracking features, while automation tools like Expandi can help with engagement activities. However, it's important to use only LinkedIn-approved tools to avoid potential account suspension.
What is an example of social selling?
An example of social selling is when a sales professional shares valuable content on LinkedIn, like industry insights or case studies, and then engages with potential clients by commenting on their posts, answering questions, and building relationships. Over time, this interaction builds trust and can lead to direct conversations and sales opportunities.