Joe Gannon x Pragya from Shield
When you create content on LinkedIn, a good measure of success is the real conversations you start with people. The simple way of doing that is by taking the time to engage with other people's content. And doing it consistently. The more you appear on someone's comment section, the more likely they will engage with yours.
This might sound simple but it is often overlooked. It's not always easy to track how many times someone has interacted with your content, or wrote a comment, or even sent you a DM. But these touch points create familiarity. And the benefits from having your face appear in someone's feed are many.
So, why should you spend time commenting and engaging on LinkedIn? Here are our top reasons why.
Engagement gets more eyes on your profile
Engagement builds relationships and grows your network
Engagement creates a chain reaction
Engagement makes up for the lack of posting
Let's look at some examples to understand how thoughtful engagement is always a good thing.
1. Engagement gets more eyes on your profile
When you comment on other people's content, you get noticed. We encourage all creators alike to regularly engage with content. This can be done efficiently in a few easy ways.
Reply to all the comments on your content.
Use your breaks during the day to engage with posts.
Follow your favourite content creators and write thoughtful comments on their posts. This gets you noticed by not just the creator but others too!
A real example from the Shield team
When you're just getting started on LinkedIn, you won’t have many eyes on your profile. This is one easy way to start.
2. Engagement builds relationships and grows your network
Imagine a scenario where people only posted content. Nobody ever took the time to engage or to leave a thoughtful comment. LinkedIn would very quickly lose its appeal. LinkedIn thrives on discussions and meaningful conversations.
LinkedIn is unique as a social media where it's not just content creators who see the benefit but the audience who engages does too.
For new creators, engaging is arguably even more important. When you start creating content, you might not have many followers or connections, and you are yet to put yourself out there and be a household name. We love the article 1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly, which shows that you do not need millions or hundreds of thousands of followers. You only really need 100 or 1000 (the magic number) of people who are interested in your content for this to have an impact on your life. When you're new to content creation, engagement is the fastest way to build your network in a meaningful way.
Do more of this
Write meaningful comments on other's posts
Send people a connection request when they engage with your content, write a short nice message along with it
Don't do this
Sending bulk connection requests to people you've never engaged with before
Pitching and selling your services a second after connecting with someone
3. Engagement creates a chain reaction
The power of LinkedIn's organic reach is immense. When you comment on other people's posts, your network will be shown their content, even if they are not directly connected to the content creator. The same is true for your comment appearing in a new user's feed. The "network effect" works its magic and spreads your content far and wide.
If you take time to write thoughtful comments, there are three things you will see happening:
If the comment gets many reactions it stays on top of the section, driving many new profile views and inbound connection requests
You start a conversation within a conversation. You show your expertise and your personality without actually publishing new content
You can repurpose that comment in a brand new post
4. Engagement makes up for a lack of posting
If you have ever stepped away from LinkedIn for a month or two, you may have realized your engagement rate has slowly declined. When you come back and start posting, you may feel that not enough people are seeing your content. An easy way to build your visibility back up is by engaging actively with other people's content.
Engaging on LinkedIn is a meaningful activity, which is worth your time. It really doesn't need to take hours. There is definitely a diminishing marginal rate of return for how often you spend engaging and the benefits. Just 10 minutes a day is enough to really create a meaningful network on LinkedIn.
For more LinkedIn tips check out our blog and our YouTube channel.
- Joe Gannon x Pragya from Shield
