Social selling has become an essential part of a modern business development strategy, and LinkedIn is the best place to do it.

For years, by sharing insights and articles relevant to their industry on LinkedIn, people who are responsible for generating new business or expanding client relationships have leveraged the business social network to establish themselves as thought leaders in their field. It has also been a great platform for those people to learn about others’ opinions or perspectives on timely topics.

“Erm…I’m on LinkedIn but I’m not doing any of that.”

I know you’re not. Know how I know? Because I see you.

I see you “liking” posts but rarely adding a relevant comment to someone else’s post, let alone creating your own.

And I see your recent activity is sorely lacking any original posts of your own.

“Gah, ok. What am I supposed to be doing then?”

Great question! I’m so glad you asked.

Being a social seller on LinkedIn starts by creating content. That means writing posts that engage an audience, ideally your intended audience.

You can’t just post links or sales pitches – you need to contribute valuable insights, comments, and advice. Sharing articles about your area of focus is one way to add value, by sharing insights from trade publications or other thought leaders.

Don’t focus too much of your time talking about yourself. Join in on the discussion, but stay true to your brand by adding value and insight rather than just trying to sell your firm or your practice.

You can also share blog posts directly on LinkedIn, which is a great way to get more eyes on your content. Link to relevant related content on your website if you feel it adds value to the content, and use this longer form content to summarize key points and reveal relevant industry statistics.

Finally, add your perspective to another post and engage in valuable conversation with other commenters on the platform.

I hear your objection, “LinkedIn is so much work.”

You’re right. This may take more time than simply dropping links on Twitter, but the time you spend on LinkedIn pays off in quality instead of quantity (and isn’t that what you want anyway?)

“I don’t see my clients posting or commenting on LinkedIn. Why should I do it if they are not?”

Another great question. Consider this: Only about 1% of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly users share posts, and those 3 million or so users net 9 billion impressions, according to Kinsta’s 2022 LinkedIn Statistics report.

I’ll boil that down for you: Almost no one is leveraging the power of this network, so those who do have a platform with very little competition for attention.

If you’re consistently active on LinkedIn it will grow your followers who are actually interested in your services. When they see you post there even though they may not be posting or commenting themselves, that will show them that you’re worth following.

Plus, when people engage with you on LinkedIn it makes your posts look much better for new viewers.  If one of your posts has multiple comments and/or reactions, then a person looking at your profile can assume that each one of those people recognized something special about what you said. This may make them more likely to follow through with reading the whole thing instead of simply scrolling past it in their feeds.  

“I always heard I shouldn’t accept invitations from people I don’t actually know. How am I growing followers if everyone already knows me?”

First, this is outdated thinking.

In the past you might not have wanted to connect with people you don’t know because LinkedIn was mainly used for business prospects and opportunities. The thinking was that by accepting invitations or connecting with people you didn’t actually know, you diluted the value of first-degree connection searching. (Meaning: you were less able to use connection searching to find inroads into new opportunities.)

But times have changed!

In my opinion, this change was building for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic hyper-charged how people leverage LinkedIn. Consider: in a world where we couldn’t/shouldn’t see each other face to face, how is a person supposed to network and discover new business opportunities? Would you go to an in-person networking reception and only talk to the people you already knew? Nope.

So why do it on LinkedIn?

By accepting invitations or following people you don’t know, your overall network will grow more quickly, which increases the value of each new connection instead of having a few connections where most are dormant profiles. This is because each new connection that interacts with your content inherently expands that content to their own network. You’ve seen this in action on LinkedIn: When one of your connections reacts to or comments on a post, it shows up in your feed, even though you don’t follow that person or company. So, multiply that by each new connection you add and think of how far your content could reach!

“OK, so what is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index?”

It’s their system for figuring out how well you’re doing at social selling, i.e., at adding to your leads and revenue through LinkedIn connections and your other LinkedIn prowess.

You can check your score here.

There are four components to your social selling score. With a potential score of 100, you can have a maximum score of 25 in each of the following categories:

• Establishing your personal brand
• Finding the right people
• Engaging with insights
• Building relationships

“How do I establish my personal brand?”

This means completing your profile with your ideal client in mind, and establishing yourself as a thought leader by publishing valuable content via posts or articles. This will help you to become an influencer in your space and be recognized by more people. (Our blog post, 5 Steps for Building Your Personal Brand on Social Media, is a great place to get started.) 

“Who are the ‘right’ people?”

This includes making connections with decision-makers, influencers, thought leaders and experts, and maybe even potential lateral candidates.

Remember that not all connections are created equal – especially those who occupy a similar role or have a higher social selling score than you do. You want to engage with them so they can share your content with their respective network members. And of course, you want to engage with decision-makers at your clients or prospects. As far as LinkedIn is concerned, this is VP-level and above.

Here’s a trick to help boost your score in this area: use the search function. Even better if you use the search in LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator tool. But even if you aren’t a Nav subscriber, using the search function within LinkedIn to find worthwhile connections helps boost your score.

“What does ‘engage with insights’ mean?”

See the beginning of this article.

Commenting on articles adds value by contributing unique insights, which makes you stand out when compared to other thought leaders in your industry. While many people focus too much of their time trying to sell themselves or jump into conversations uninvited, adding valuable insight when asking questions or making comments shows that you’re truly invested in the discussion.

When commenting on posts, look for topics where you have something unique or interesting to contribute. Even if no one else has commented yet, jump in with a well-thought-out perspective or insight. Use your comments as an opportunity to show what makes you different from other thought leaders in your industry.

“And how do I build relationships on LinkedIn?”

Interact with the people who are interacting with you! Do you see second or third-degree connections interacting with your content? Reach out to them and say hi! And maybe even shoot them a connection request while you’re at it.

“That sounds great. But I’ve been using LinkedIn for years and my score is still low.”

You’re not alone. It’s estimated that only 25% of professionals have a high social selling index on LinkedIn. The reason? The other 75% don’t see immediate results from their efforts and give up, or they don’t know how to work the system.

I hate to say it but…you’re probably doing something wrong. The structure of your posts, the way you comment on others’ content, and even the frequency with which you add to your profile all contribute to your reach on the platform, and by extension your social selling score.

Don’t worry – the things we discuss in this article are actions you can take to boost your reach. And doing so will help determine whether your content gets seen by more people at all levels in your ideal client companies. By focusing on these four areas, with an emphasis on building relationships, you’ll be primed for success as a social seller!