Glossary
What is social selling?
Using LinkedIn, X and other networks to find prospects, build credibility and start sales conversations through posts and messages.
Definition
Social selling is the practice of using social networks, mainly LinkedIn and X, to find prospects, build credibility and start sales conversations through useful posts, comments and direct messages. Instead of pitching strangers cold, the seller becomes a familiar, helpful name before asking for a meeting.
How social selling works
- Fix your profile. Make it clear who you help and how, written for buyers, not recruiters.
- Find the right people. Search by role, company and industry, and follow accounts you want to reach.
- Engage first. Comment thoughtfully on their posts and share useful ideas of your own.
- Start a conversation. Connect or message with a reason tied to what they posted or care about, then move to a call when there is real interest.
LinkedIn's Social Selling Index (SSI)
LinkedIn offers a Social Selling Index, a score from 0 to 100. LinkedIn says it measures how well you establish a professional brand, find the right prospects, engage with insights and build relationships on the platform. It is a useful nudge, but treat it as a rough guide, not a goal: a higher score doesn't guarantee more pipeline. The SSI page on LinkedIn's site links to where you can see your own score.
An example
Say you sell HR software to companies with 50 to 200 employees. You follow 40 heads of people at target companies, leave a few genuine comments a week, and post twice a week about common onboarding problems. After a month, one of them comments on your post about remote onboarding. You reply, connect, and later send a message asking how they handle it today. The first sales conversation starts from a thread they joined, not a cold pitch.
Common mistakes
- Pitching in the first message right after a connection is accepted.
- Generic, automated comments that add nothing.
- Posting without ever engaging with other people's content.
- Measuring likes instead of conversations and meetings.
- Treating it as a two-week campaign. Familiarity builds over months of showing up.
How Siela AI uses it
Siela's Social Media agent runs LinkedIn and X posting, comments and replies, and you can choose "show me every post first" or "post without asking".
Questions
What is a good LinkedIn SSI score?
LinkedIn scores SSI from 0 to 100 across brand, finding prospects, engaging with insights and building relationships. There is no official cutoff for good. Use it to spot which area you are neglecting, and judge success by the conversations and meetings social selling actually produces.
Is social selling the same as social media marketing?
No. Social media marketing is usually a brand or company effort aimed at broad audiences. Social selling is done by individual sellers or founders, from their own profiles, to build relationships with specific prospects and start one-to-one sales conversations.
Sources, checked 25 October 2026: LinkedIn: The Social Selling Index (SSI).
Less jargon, more conversations.
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