What is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI)?

Before we get to the Social Selling Index, Let’s see what it is first and then go for the index part since it is the elephant in the darkroom for a lot of people. So, you need social selling to be successful as a business in today’s market. Statistics suggest that more than 4.76 billion people are currently using social media platforms daily. This vast population includes people of every age; no one can define its real potential for selling. That is why it is vital to use social media marketing strategies. You can convert leads to prospects, prospects to customers, and regular customers to advocates if you use social selling correctly. That is why experts suggest concentrating on how you are presenting a product or service on social media platforms while doing digital marketing instead of focusing on sales strategies.

What is social selling?

What is LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI)? The LinkedIn Sales Solutions Index (SSI) is a rating system ranging from 1 to 100, which evaluates the success of your sales activities on the platform. The SSI takes into account four key components: creating a strong professional image, fostering connections, interacting through meaningful insights, and identifying suitable individuals.

The strategy in which they use online platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc. to communicate and interact with the audience to sell products or services is called social selling. Communicating with customers and gaining their trust in social networks defines a group of users among whom you can find your real customers more easily. Also, communication with customers through social networks allows your brand to stick in their minds. Therefore, when they intend to buy a similar product or service from your competitors, your brand name shines in their minds. The process of building relationships by sellers can start by producing valuable content on social media and introducing their brand by providing high-quality photos or promotional teasers. Then by answering users’ questions and promoting products and services, this process will end in sales.

Hootsuite defines Social Selling as “The practice of using a brand’s social media channels to connect with prospects, develop a connection with them, and engage with potential leads. The tactic can help businesses reach their sales targets.” Hootsuite defines what Social Selling is not as well. It says: “Social Selling is certainly not about bombarding strangers with unsolicited Tweets and DMs. That’s spam. Don’t do it. Social selling is not just about adding new contacts to your list. It’s about making those interactions meaningful and presenting your brand as having a solution to a problem. When you do that, you’re more likely to build trust and loyalty.”

Social selling only applies to social media sales and you only see a result if you do it properly. So maybe before we go for how to design an effective social selling strategy, it is better to see how it works exactly.

As mentioned this kind of selling is a very popular digital marketing type, so it is only natural for it to be much cheaper than the traditional selling methods and it will only be done on social media platforms like LinkedIn, not to mention that it is much more effective than the outbound methods. Since you can find your target audience, interact and engage with them as your company or yourself, etc. you can do social selling on so many different platforms and only need your team to have a strong presence and demonstrate their expertise in these platforms to elevate your sales. There are some things you need to bear in mind while doing social selling:

1. First, the needs of potential customers should be determined.
2. How to meet the needs of the audience by buying the product or using the service should be clarified.
3. Short-term and measurable goals, such as determining the number of customers created in three months through social media platforms, should be determined by managers.
4. Identify the platforms where the customers of that business are most presented.
5. Create user accounts for the business on the popular online platforms where they are already active.
6. The process of producing valuable content in line with business in the desired social network should be planned and implemented.
7. The strategy should be constantly evaluated and compared with the designed plan.
8. Updating and changing predetermined programs according to new insights is also one of the rules that must be followed in the social selling strategy.

Why should we use social selling?

Well, although social selling is taking root more and more in the world of marketing, sales, and prospecting, it is still an almost new concept. Yes, we’ve all heard great things about it, even if some marketers disagree, it can be said that most businesses can benefit from social selling. As the option-monster website claims: “A full 71% of all sales professionals and 90% of top salespeople are already using social selling tools. That percentage gets even higher with the younger generation.”

According to LinkedIn statistics, 78% of salespeople who use social selling are ahead of their peers in sales who do not use social media platforms. Because even if you have worked in a sales team for a short time, you are well aware of the importance of interacting with leads, prospects, and of course customers. Well, strong interaction and creating lasting connections with people are the strong points of social selling. So it is not surprising if we say that social selling is very profitable.

Maybe you like to have a look at social selling benefits to help you decide whether it is necessary to use it or not, so let’s dig in.

1. Building trust

Trust is one of the most important elements of a business relationship, both with other companies and with potential and actual customers. It can cause a lot of trouble down the road, not to mention how difficult it is. Since in the age of social networks, it is much easier for potential customers to research the opinions that have used a product (both negative and positive), it has become more difficult to gain trust. Fortunately, they have access to these platforms, and you can also be active in them, and gain their trust with leads and opinions. The questions you ask can get you some critical reviews about your business and you won’t believe how much they can help you get better. Social selling also allows you to build long-term relationships with prospects.

2. Sales cycle

The long sales cycle is one of the main weaknesses of outbound marketing. This issue not only frustrates the sellers but also creates many problems in the internal departments of the companies, both at the financial and management levels. For example, a salesperson may make a cold call to introduce a product to prospects, usually, the distance from the first cold call to the final sale is too long, while you can immediately interact with the lead or prospect and answer their questions and get results much faster in social selling.

3. More buyers

In social selling, not only do you have access to customers at critical times and you can interact with them, but you can also reach many more leads and prospects in much less time without traditional intermediaries and barriers. For example, it is recommended to be active in groups for more successful social selling. While in traditional marketing you have access to much fewer leads if we do not mention the long process of gaining their trust, many calls that should be made, flyers that must be distributed, and cold mails that are to be sent. etc., and we do not mention that most of them are in vain. Meanwhile, Social Selling goes directly to the interested people. Whether you’re communicating with them via InMail or other means, it’s no surprise that you’ll easily reach more buyers and your efforts will get much more results than the traditional marketing methods.

4. Brand visibility

Let’s face it, increasing brand visibility is a hard thing to do. But thankfully social selling made the process much faster and easier. I mean there are millions of people using every platform if not billions, and it is understandable that with a good profile, strong product presentation, and valuable content, people get attracted to your company page and website.

5. High-quality leads

Social selling has many advantages, one of the most important ones is the information that is available to the company’s sales team. People put a lot of information on their social media profiles, especially on LinkedIn, which can be of great help to salespeople. This makes it much easier to find quality leads that can help sell a product in the future. In addition, the information in people’s profiles can make interaction and negotiation with them much easier. You can use this information to understand their needs and interests so that your sales team can show their professionalism to them more easily. You can also use this information to find common ground with them and use it to generate quality leads.

6. Website Traffic

As mentioned, social selling increases the visibility of your brand, so naturally the traffic to your website and company page will increase because you have attracted the leads’ attention on social networks and people are looking to learn more about Know Your Business. Obviously, when the traffic of your website, company page, Instagram page, etc. increases, the entry of the sales funnel will be much higher and you can eventually convert more prospects into loyal customers.

These are just some of the benefits you can have using social selling, there is a lot more to it. LinkedIn reports that social selling creates 45% more opportunities than traditional marketing, social selling leaders are 51% more likely to reach quota and 78% of social sellers outsell peers who don’t use social media.

What is the best social media platform for social selling? Honestly, it is not possible to give a straight answer to this question. The best platform depends on you and the nature of your business. So, you can use Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or even TikTok, etc., and get perfect results. Just see which one of these platforms has a better social selling result for you.

LinkedIn social selling index: definition and importance

As I mentioned in another article about how to check your SSI on LinkedIn, SSI (Social Selling Index) consists of a set of analytics and metrics, which are crucial to improving your marketing strategy. It is a very exact tool to measure your marketing strategies’ performance on LinkedIn and to know where you need to improve. The digital marketing institute defines it as the “Social Selling Index (SSI), a tool that measures our capability with regards to selling a brand or product via social channels. Having a sense of our SSI allows us to become better marketers and salespeople and observe how successful we are with engagement. The better our SSI is, the more we’ll be able to sell ourselves and our products.”

It was some years back that LinkedIn introduced SSI and it suddenly got so popular among salespeople. I mean, sure it depends on each salesperson’s capabilities, but somehow SSI suddenly became an interesting initiative for those trying to boost their professional image via the site itself.

SSI was in fact LinkedIn’s way of advertising its Sales Navigator account. It is just a 1-100 score that tells you how effective you can be at LinkedIn-based sales efforts. LinkedIn SSI does not talk about traditional conversion rates and effectiveness at making efforts, it is about building your network and engagement factors. This score consisted of four different sub-scores which we will describe in a little while but for now, let’s just say the subscores are:

• Establish a professional branding,
• Find the right people,
• Exchange information,
• Build relationships.

Thankfully you can see your SSI score for free, and the more interesting thing is that it gets updated every day. So you can actually check its development every day and analyze it to determine how to progress faster. In fact, LinkedIn assesses your ability to sell, to be active, and to be interesting on the platform. Bear in mind that SSI is an indicator and that means not only will you be ranked based on your own performance, but also based on other users’ performance.

LinkedIn claims that those users with a higher SSI score are more successful in achieving their sales goals. Their stats suggest that highly active LinkedIn users gain 45% more sales opportunities, 51% are more likely to hit their goals and are 80% more productive. Although you need to know that SSI ensures no guarantee for your success in sales, it still makes a strong connection between specific and targeted networking activities which elevate sales opportunities and your access to prospects. Why is it important?

SSI indicator follows different people on LinkedIn to estimate the result, however, if even one percent of them are in sales, marketing, branding, etc., four subscores will show them if they are on the right track or not. There are many opinions on whether the LinkedIn Social Selling Index is useful or important at all! Well, I believe it is important. This indicator can evaluate the effectiveness of your activities on LinkedIn. Now what are these four sub-scores?

Establish a personal brand

What this sub-score measures is the relevance of the articles and content published on LinkedIn to the industry and profession in which you work. For this reason, it is recommended not only to optimize the profile in the best way and consider the opinion of customers but also to be careful with the posts you publish. Not only will you tell your target audience that you are a professional, but you can also demonstrate yourself as a thought leader and boost your LinkedIn network.

Finding The Right People

This sub-score tells you how much you know who you should be looking for and if you are using the right keywords in your searches. Fortunately, LinkedIn’s search tools and search filters are so powerful that you can easily find the most ideal customers for your business.

Engaging With Insights

This sub-score tells you how much you have been able to find and interact with similar and enthusiastic people in your industry by engaging with insights. One of the best ways to interact with like-minded people is to join LinkedIn groups. This will help you showcase your expertise without having to jump into the sales process.

Building Relationships

Networking is very important on LinkedIn. Well, it’s ideal to seek to connect with the CEO of a company for B2B business, but honestly, what’s always better, and many forget is to connect with the employees of that company. According to the LinkedIn report, 73% of B2B buyers prefer to make their purchase from a company that was introduced by someone they know. So, build that relationship network.

What is my LinkedIn SSI score?

As humans, we generally love to measure everything! It doesn’t matter what it is, from the time of work, blood pressure and pulse rate, the height of a building and the weight of the carton of milk, points for buying pizza, etc. Now a reliable and popular social platform like LinkedIn with more than 870 million users is providing its users with the opportunity to measure their performance, especially in terms of sales and marketing on the platform. The better thing is that there is no concept here, the score is shown with numbers, and they can easily try to improve it. Obviously, even if you are not in sales, you still want to see what your SSI score is. SSI score is so attractive to everyone that even the secretary of my company checks it every once in a while.

As mentioned, the SSI score is a LinkedIn-specific indicator that shows how effectively you promote your brand, whether you find the right people to connect with, engage with insights, and whether you have a strong network. So, how should we see this score now?

• Log in to your LinkedIn account
• Visit this link: https://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi.
• There should be a dashboard containing your overall score and data for each key metric.

Another way is to:

1. Click on the “Work” menu in the right corner of the navigation bar.
2. Click on “Sales Solutions”.
3. On the “Sales Solutions” page, hover over “Resources”.
4. Click on “Social Selling Index”.
5. On the banner, click “Get your score free”.

Well, now you know what your SSI Score is, you can plan to increase it, for example, by producing more content related to the industry you work in, choosing the right people, joining different groups, and engaging with like-minded people. Get to know your brand more and more, spend more time on LinkedIn build a stronger network, etc. Is this really worth it?

Well, according to LinkedIn’s claim, those who have a higher social selling index on LinkedIn find more quality leads and generally have better sales than others. At the same time, a large number of experts believe that this score has been given too much credit, and in fact, the SSI score has now become something that people can brag about rather than indicating a person’s sales and marketing ability. According to some of these experts, the reason for this issue is that the points mentioned depend more on the performance of other active members in your industry than on your own performance. So they believe that this score does not fully prove your ability. However, even these people believe that SSI scores can be used to improve social selling performance.

What is a good LinkedIn SSI score?

It is generally said that industry leaders should have a Social Selling Index score above 75. If you have entered your occupation in your profile along with the industry associated with it, you can see what the average score for your industry is on the SSI Score page. In fact, this is not only useful for finding out whether your score is good or bad, but you can also use it to design strategies to increase your score. These numbers tell you what the average score is in your industry and where you are in the crowd, you can see how your score and rank have changed in the last week. It becomes more interesting when you use the paid account of Sales Navigator since it enables you to compare your SSI score in your organization and with your colleagues.

Although we said that it is better for your Social Selling Index to be higher than 75, we have to remind you again that this score is compared to other people who are active in your industry, that’s why people like marketers or sales professionals always have a higher score, while other users, such as recruiters or jobseekers, engineers, finance professionals, etc., have a lower SSI Score. That’s why there isn’t an exact number as a good score here, but the goal always is to be in the top 10% of your industry.

How to increase the Social Selling Index?

So, as mentioned, the LinkedIn Social Selling Index is a determination to see how your sales team is doing on a scale of 1 to 100 and as I mentioned LinkedIn claims that 78% of salespeople who use social selling are ahead of their peers who do not use social media platforms. Also, it is claimed that the ones with higher SSI, are 51% more likely to obtain opportunities to outsell peers with less SSI score. All right, how should we increase our SSI then?

Well, when you take a look at different websites claiming that they know a way to increase your SSI score, you see that most of them are just reviewing how to work on those four sub-scores:

• Establish your professional brand
• Find the right people
• Engage with insights
• Build relationships

So, is there another way to increase our LinkedIn SSI? You know, considering all the claims and stuff…there might be, but they are still somehow based on those sub-scores.

Nurture your connections

As someone who works in sales and marketing, you probably have a lot of connections on LinkedIn, so it’s time to engage more and connect with them every week. Try to show a genuine interest in their content, they can sense fake interest.

Connect with your prospects

We are always insisting people connect to the prospects they find on LinkedIn and do not just leave them be. A two-way engagement is a very critical condition in the prospecting funnel, so make sure to add them as a connection to your professional network.

Grow relationships with your accounts

Connect with industry leaders, influencers, etc. in different groups and with different accounts you have. Unlike personal accounts, you have no limit for company pages, why should you limit yourself to one?

Share company content

Have you shared valuable content on your company page and think it hasn’t been seen as much as it should be? Share it with contacts and strangers (via InMail). Also, don’t forget that keywords are always a shortcut to attract more engagement. Your prospects and leads are looking for a way to solve a specific problem, and the keywords you think they’re using can always help increase the visibility of your company page content and of course, attract more followers to your page.

Publish your own posts

Well, there is no problem in reposting other people’s content on company pages or personal feeds, valuable content is valuable in any case. But based on my personal experience, the value of your own content is much higher and definitely has a much greater impact on increasing your credibility and SSI score on LinkedIn.

Use Lead Builder

Fortunately, LinkedIn Sales Navigator accounts are equipped with a Lead Builder function that makes advanced search much more effective. Using this function, you can use any filter you want to find Leads in any organization and then easily save those leads in one place under the named account.

Search smartly

What if we use the basic version of LinkedIn? So, search smartly, and use related keywords and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, or AND NOT). This will help you get more accurate results in your search.

Find the right people

This is one of the sub-scores of LinkedIn’s SSI score. I must say that if you are a LinkedIn Premium user, you can easily use the highly advanced LinkedIn search filters and find and connect with industry leaders, thought leaders, organizations’ decision makers, etc. Plus, finding the most relevant and quality leads is much easier with these advanced search filters to find the right people.

Engage with insights

Another subscore is engaging with insights. As you know, engagement on LinkedIn is one of the conditions for increasing connections. For this reason, we always recommend to not only comment under the posts in your feed and show them a reaction, but also never turn off the comments of your posts that you share on your company page or feed. Since these insights are one of the most important tools for convincing the LinkedIn algorithm to show your post to more people. Be sure to reply to all the comments that people leave under your posts to help get more views for your content.

Manage your content

It is very important that both the content you share and the content of your profile convey enough value to the target audience that they subconsciously trust you and if you sell something, buy it more easily. Remember, LinkedIn is no longer just an online base for resumes, as it was in the past. Your every activity is monitored by prospects and is effective in their future decisions on this platform.

Complete and optimize your profile

Whether you’re a job seeker, a marketer, a thought leader, etc., your profile is your most important online asset on LinkedIn. From the title you have planned for yourself to the content of the experience. Include your job duties & descriptions, projects, certifications, education, volunteer work, skills & endorsements, and other relevant information that can boost your professional brand, all should be optimized in the best way.

There are still other ways to increase your SSI score on LinkedIn, but I chose to suggest the most effective ways.

Related Questions & Answers

LinkedIn SSI score check

LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index) score is a measure of an individual’s effectiveness in social selling. It is a ranking system on a scale of 1-100 that measures how well a salesperson is leveraging LinkedIn’s four pillars of social selling – establishing a professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. To check your SSI score, you can visit the LinkedIn SSI page, where you will be prompted to log in to your LinkedIn account. Once you log in, you will be able to see your SSI score and how it compares to your network and industry peers. You can also track your progress over time to see how your social selling efforts are paying off.

It is important to note that while the SSI score can provide valuable insights into your social selling performance, it should not be the only metric you rely on. Other factors such as engagement rates, conversion rates, and revenue generated should also be considered when measuring the effectiveness of your social selling efforts.

What is a good LinkedIn SSI score?

The LinkedIn SSI score ranges from 0 to 100, and a good SSI score varies depending on the industry and role. Generally, a score above 70 is considered excellent, while scores between 50-70 are above average. Scores between 30-50 are considered below average, and scores below 30 are considered poor. It’s essential to note that SSI is not the only factor that recruiters and employers consider when evaluating a candidate’s LinkedIn profile. However, having a high SSI score can indicate that a user is actively engaging with the platform and utilizing it effectively to build their personal brand and professional network.

LinkedIn profile score?

The LinkedIn profile score is also known as the Social Selling Index (SSI). It is a measure of a user’s social selling skills and effectiveness on LinkedIn. The score ranges from 0 to 100 and is based on four categories: Establishing your professional brand, Finding the right people, Engaging with insights, and Building relationships. LinkedIn calculates the score based on your activities and engagement on the platform, such as the number of connections, the frequency and quality of posts, and the interactions with content.

A high SSI score indicates that the user is actively engaging and building relationships with their network, sharing relevant content, and effectively using LinkedIn to generate leads and sales. The average SSI score is around 40, but what is considered a good score varies depending on the industry and role. For example, a sales professional may aim for a score in the 70s, while a marketer may aim for a score in the 50s. Ultimately, the score should be viewed as a tool to measure your LinkedIn activity and identify areas for improvement, rather than a definitive measure of your social selling skills.

What Is Social Selling on LinkedIn?

Social selling on LinkedIn is about using the platform to connect with potential customers, build relationships, and boost sales. It’s different from traditional sales because it focuses on finding the right people, engaging with people, sharing useful content, and being authentic. Instead of just selling, it’s about building trust and credibility over time. 

By interacting with prospects genuinely, sales professionals can establish themselves as trusted advisors and grow their businesses through meaningful connections.

Why Is LinkedIn SSI Important?

The selling index on LinkedIn is important because it provides a measure of your effectiveness in using LinkedIn as a tool for social selling. It evaluates four key elements: creating a professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships. 

A high SSI score indicates that you’re effectively leveraging LinkedIn to 

• connect with your target audience, 
• share valuable content, and 
• build relationships, which can ultimately lead to increased sales and business growth. 

It serves as a benchmark to track your performance and identify areas for improvement in your social selling efforts on LinkedIn.

Social Selling Index LinkedIn How to Check

Checking your Social Selling Index (SSI) on LinkedIn is quick and easy. 

Begin by logging into your LinkedIn Sales Navigator account and going to your social selling dashboard. 

Once there, locate the “Get your score” icon and click on it. 

Voila! Now, you can check your SSI score on LinkedIn.

This score provides valuable insight into how effectively you’re utilizing LinkedIn for social selling.

If your LinkedIn SSI score isn’t high enough, don’t worry! You can improve it quickly by following several practices, such as optimizing your profile section, messaging, asking your friends for recommendations, etc.

LinkedIn SSI Login

Accessing your LinkedIn SSI score requires a simple login process. 

• Sign in to your LinkedIn Sales Navigator account using this link: LinkedIn.com/sales/ssi
• Once logged in, proceed to your social selling dashboard.
• Go to the Admin tab and click on the User Report option. 
• From there, you’ll be able to view your SSI score directly.

This lets you stay informed about your social selling efforts and track your progress over time.

How to Increase SSI Score on LinkedIn

Elevating your SSI score on LinkedIn involves strategic actions aimed at enhancing your social selling effectiveness. 

• Focus on bolstering your professional brand by optimizing your profile with relevant keywords and engaging content. 
• Expand your network by connecting with industry peers, prospects, and thought leaders. 
• Regularly engage with insights by sharing valuable content, participating in discussions, and nurturing relationships with your connections. 

By consistently implementing these practices, you can incrementally raise your SSI score and strengthen your presence on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn SSI Score Calculator

LinkedIn offers a special SSI scoring tool through the Sales Navigator account.  You can effectively track and manage your score within the platform by logging into your LinkedIn Sales Navigator account.

Continuously engage in social selling activities and observe how they influence your SSI score. 

By monitoring your progress over time and analyzing the impact of your efforts, you can refine your strategy and optimize your social selling performance on LinkedIn.

Conclusion

We live in the age of social media and this is the first reason why we had to reconsider the type of marketing and sales we have used. Fortunately, social selling was so effective that most people started using it and soon the method dominated the market. Of course, it’s not that other sales methods are no longer used, but to be honest, social selling is much more effective and cheaper. It was a few years ago that LinkedIn introduced the Social Selling Index (SSI), and marketers and anyone even remotely involved in sales quickly got interested in it. But, many marketing and sales professionals in social networks today believe that people are using their SSI score just to show off their sales professionalism. However, many of us are still looking to increase our social selling score on LinkedIn and use various tools to achieve this goal, because, why not?

FAQ

What is LinkedIn’s social selling index?

LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI) is a metric that gauges how effective you are at establishing your professional brand, finding the right people, engaging with insights, and building relationships on the platform. The index provides insights into your social selling performance and how you stack up against peers in your industry or network. By understanding and improving your SSI, you can enhance your ability to connect with potential prospects and partners on LinkedIn.

What is SSI in social selling?

SSI stands for Social Selling Index. It’s a measure used to quantify a user’s effectiveness at implementing the pillars of social selling on platforms like LinkedIn. These pillars typically include establishing a professional brand, focusing on the right prospects, sharing meaningful insights, and nurturing genuine relationships. The SSI score can help sales professionals understand how well they’re leveraging social media tools in their sales strategies.

What is the SSI value on LinkedIn?

The SSI value on LinkedIn is a score between 0 and 100. It reflects how effectively an individual is engaging in social selling practices on the platform. The score is divided into four components, each representing a pillar of social selling: personal brand, finding the right people, engagement with insights, and building strong relationships. Each component can earn you up to 25 points, making up the total SSI score. A higher SSI indicates that you’re effectively leveraging LinkedIn for social selling.

Is LinkedIn’s social selling Index free?

Yes, LinkedIn provides its users with a basic Social Selling Index score for free. Any LinkedIn user can visit the dedicated SSI page on LinkedIn to view their current score and see how they rank against their industry peers and network. However, more detailed insights or breakdowns might be available to premium users or might require additional subscriptions or tools.

How is SSI measured?

SSI, or Social Selling Index, is measured based on four key pillars:

1. Establishing your professional brand, which looks at how well you’ve built and optimized your profile and how often you post meaningful content.
2. Finding the right people, which evaluates how effectively you’re identifying and connecting with potential leads or decision-makers.
3. Engaging with insights, which gauges how frequently you share, post, or engage with relevant content that resonates with your audience.
4. Building relationships, which assesses the strength and relevance of your LinkedIn network, focusing on how you nurture and maintain professional relationships. Each pillar is scored out of 25, leading to a total possible score of 100.

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