The nuclear magnetic moment of the ground state of $^{55}$Ni ($I^{pi}=3/2^{-}, T_{1/2}=204$ ms) has been deduced to be $|mu$^{55}Ni)$|=(0.976 pm 0.026)$ $mu_N$ using the $beta$-NMR technique. Results of a shell model calculation in the full textit{fp
} shell model space with the GXPF1 interaction reproduce the experimental value. Together with the known magnetic moment of the mirror partner $^{55}$Co, the isoscalar spin expectation value was extracted as $<sum sigma_z >=0.91 pm 0.07$. The $<sum sigma_z>$ shows a similar trend as that established in the textit{sd} shell. The present theoretical interpretations of both $mu(^{55}$Ni) and $<sum sigma_z>$ for the $T=1/2$, A=55 mirror partners support the softness of the $^{56}$Ni core.
