The right way to engage: Stop being selfish on LinkedIn.
- Jamie Hughes
- Nov 25, 2024
- 3 min read
Having a consistent posting strategy will only get you so far on LinkedIn.
Remember, just like the rest, LinkedIn is a social media platform. You need to be social.
Engagement: Why is it important?
Meaningful engagement is the cornerstone of building a personal brand on LinkedIn. It's not just about responding to comments or replying to messages but also about adding value to the conversations and posts you interact with.
LinkedIn tends to push your content more if you engage with other people's content. The platform's algorithm favours active users who interact with the community.
Strengthening the algorithm's connection:
LinkedIn identifies you as an engaged and active user when you like, comment, or share others' posts. This activity increases the chances of your own posts being shown to your connections and beyond. Engaging with content signals to LinkedIn that you're participating in meaningful interactions, which aligns with its goal to promote professional networking.
LinkedIn prioritises showing content from users who have been recently active. By engaging with others' posts, you demonstrate activity, which may lead LinkedIn to prioritise your posts in the feeds of your connections.
Reciprocity:
Engaging with someone else's content makes them more likely to reciprocate by engaging with your posts.
Expanding your reach:
Each interaction with a post exposes your name and profile to that person's audience. If they engage with your content in return, it can be shown to their network, increasing your reach.
Building relationships:
Meaningful engagement strengthens relationships with your connections, making them more likely to interact with your posts. Posts that garner likes and comments early on are more likely to be pushed further by the algorithm.
Commenting: The right way to do it.
The best way to start engaging is by spending some time commenting on other people's posts every day. You may think, well, this is easy. But you could tarnish your personal brand if you don't do it right.
Avoid:
AI-written comments. Especially if you have no desire to edit them at least first.
Short, boring comments, such as "great post," "interesting," and "insightful."
People can tell you have engaged for the sake of engaging rather than reading the posts.
Do this instead:
Read the post.
Think about why you enjoyed the post/how it relates to you/if you could add another piece of valuable information/a funny comment.
Write that instead.
Your comments don't need to be paragraphs long, perfectly curated, and with perfect grammar and punctuation. They need to show the creator that you've taken the time to read the post and write a comment that gives them some value.
It's all about building human connection. This can not be done through AI and lack of effort.
Engagement: The lazy way to do it.
Not everyone has the time to spend hours a day scrolling through LinkedIn and sending hundreds of messages. I know I don't. So steal my engagement strategy:
Find a time.
How can you habit stack your engagement into your day? Is there an activity in your day where you can add engagement? On a morning treadmill walk, on your afternoon coffee break?
15-minute rule.
It is better to spend 10-15 minutes every day leaving 5-10 meaningful comments than spending an hour one day and forgetting about it for two weeks.
5 connections a day.
Connect with 5 new people every day. Pick these people wisely. Narrow down the search to your target audience, people who work in the same industry, or people you want to learn from.
Always reply to comments on your own posts.
If people have taken the time and effort to comment on your posts, reply. If you neglect that, they're probably not going to comment again.
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