You will be able to separate measures that predict sales from those that only look good.
Arjun's post about emergency funds for new parents got more likes than anything he'd written. Hundreds of people saw it, according to LinkedIn's numbers, and dozens reacted. He spent the evening refreshing the page. A week later he noticed that nobody had messaged him about it, and no meeting or client had come of it. Meanwhile, a quiet comment he'd left under a parenting page's post had led to a conversation with Marcus, and Marcus was now a client.
It's easy to measure the wrong things in social selling, because the wrong things are the ones platforms show you first. This lesson is about separating the measures that predict sales from the ones that only look good.
LinkedIn tells you how many people saw your post and how many reacted. These numbers are visible, they change quickly and they feel rewarding. They're also mostly vanity numbers: figures that make you feel good without telling you whether your activity is bringing in business.
Likes and impressions measure reach, which is how many people your content touched. Buyer interest is a separate thing, and they say little about it. A post can reach thousands of people who will never buy from you: your colleagues, other salespeople, people in other countries, people who liked it because they liked you. Arjun's popular post was liked mostly by other financial advisers and by friends. The couple who became his client never reacted to anything; they read his comment and got in touch.
Reach isn't worthless. You can't start conversations with people who never see you. But it's the beginning of the process, and you shouldn't judge your social selling by it.
Better measures sit closer to a sale. Four are worth tracking for social selling.
Profile views from target buyers. Not total profile views, which include recruiters and curious former classmates, but views from people who match your target buyer. How much of your viewer list LinkedIn shows you depends on your account type and on each viewer's privacy settings. From whatever you can see, count the buyers.
Conversations started. Direct message conversations with buyers that came from your social activity, where the buyer replied at least once. Your tracker from lesson 4.4, Run your comment-to-meeting pipeline, already counts these.
Meetings booked. Meetings with buyers whose first contact came from your social activity.
Deals closed. The deals that came from those meetings. This is the measure that matters most, but deals take time, so you'll see the others move first.
Each step is a stronger signal than the one before. Profile views show interest, conversations show engagement, meetings show intent and deals show results.
Referrals have their own set, and you've already been recording most of them in the tracker from lesson 6.4, Build your referral system.
Start with asks made, the number of referral asks you made at the right moments. Then introductions received, how many of those asks led to an introduction or a name with consent. Then meetings with referred contacts, and finally deals from those meetings.
Asks made is the measure you control directly. If introductions are low, look first at whether you're asking at all, and then at your timing and your words. Wei Ling found she was asking far less often than she thought: twice in a month when she'd meant to ask weekly.
LinkedIn provides a score for your account called the Social Selling Index. It rates your activity on the platform, such as how complete your profile is, how you engage and how you build your network. LinkedIn explains on its own help pages what goes into it, and it can change, so check there for the current details.
The score can be a useful guide to whether you're active and consistent. A rising score suggests you're doing the activities this course teaches. But what it measures is activity on LinkedIn. A high score with no conversations or meetings behind it means you've been busy without anything to show for it. Treat it as a guide to activity, never as a sales result, and never chase the score for its own sake.
You won't track everything. Pick five measures that cover both social selling and referrals, and that you can actually collect. A typical set: profile views from target buyers, conversations started, meetings booked from social activity, referral asks made, and introductions received. Add deals closed by source once you have a few months of data.
For each measure, note where you'll find the number: LinkedIn's profile view list, your conversation tracker, your calendar, your referral tracker or your CRM. If you can't name where a number comes from, you won't collect it.
In the activity below, you'll list the five measures you'll track for social selling and referrals and where you'll find each one.
List the five measures you will track for social selling and referrals and where you will find each one.
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