Last week, I carried out a soul-destroying experiment.
I spent ยฃ100 testing LinkedInโs newly released โboost postโ feature.
Why? Because Iโve got a business to run!
Goal: Newsletter Subscriber Growth
Link: This Post
Amount: ยฃ100
Length of time: 5 days
Audience: Thought Leaders
Pre Boost: 17,458 impressions | 154 likes | 522 comments | 2777 newsletter subs
Post Boost: 37,417 impressions | 156 likes | 4 subscriber requests | 4 new subscribers.
The verdict? Not exactly money well spent (not to sound ungrateful to my newest 4 subscribers!).
Given how well the post had performed organically, I thought this ยฃ100 bet would be a no brainer. Turns out it wasnโt, and it got me thinkingโฆ
If I had to start out on LinkedIn again, from scratch. How would I go about it?
Answer: Well, it wouldnโt be with a posting strategy, with a commenting strategy.
Let me explainโฆ
One of the reasons LinkedIn (in fact, any kind of social platform) is so damn hard to get any traction on is because if youโve got no reach (followers) every post is going to feel like youโre shouting into the abyss - because you are!
So youโre going to need a different way to get noticed.
Cue the most underrated growth strategy on LinkedIn, the humble comment.
Step 1: Turn your LinkedIn Profile into a Landing Page
Hereโs what Iโd do before writing a single comment:
Optimise your headline
Every time you comment, other people will be able to see the first ~47 characters of your headline. So you need to make those characters count.
My suggestion would be to structure your comment like this:
Specialism | Mission | Credibility
In my case:
Public speaking coach | I turn Founders into Thought Leaders ๐ค | Founder of MicDrop | Author of Make It Count | Ex-COO | Ex-TEDxClapham Founder
Notice how all the right bits of my comment show up?
2. Optimise your โAboutโ section
Your About section should answer two questions: Why you and why now?
And the best ones are written like a LinkedIn post that speaks directly to the people you want your profile to attract.
Far from perfect, but good enough.
Add a clear next step
Include a Calendly link or a โbook a callโ button in your featured section, so itโs as frictionless as possible for someone to take action when theyโre ready. Bonus points for sharing a newsletter (because thatโs the strategy that will algorithm proof your business.
When youโve done these three things, everything you then do has the best chance into driving an enquiry home.
Step 2: The Commenting Strategy that Actually Builds Authority
The commenting strategy that so many people are adopting on LinkedIn, seems completely nonsensicle to me...
I'm not talking about AI or VA ghostwritten commenting.
[I'll save that for another post]
I'm talking about 'echo chamber' commenting.
When I hit 20k followers I noticed multiple 'strategic comments' from other public speaking coaches on my posts. Now, first off, I should say I don't mind this at all.
I'm very grateful to everyone who comments on my posts.
[Not least because I've experienced more than my share of tumbleweed along the way]
But as a strategy to build authority, it baffles me.
My guess is their goal is one of two things:
Hope that I return the favour and comment on theirs โป๏ธ
They're hoping to attract some of my audience ๐งฒ
The logic being...
'If I'm visible enough in Alex's comments, maybe some of his following might check out my profile.'
Logical yes, but not particularly strategic.
So hereโs what I would do instead.
I would create a shortlist of 10-20 popular accounts who:
Have a mutual audience ๐ฏ
Are solving complementary problems to me ๐งฉ
Regularly post the kind of content that I feel I could add a disproportionate amount of value to (in my case video content) ๐ฟ.
That should give me enough material to be able to deliver consistent value in my comments on a weekly basis.
Example 1: TED
They have a massive audience, regularly go viral and they post videos of their talks.
Every time they posted a video, Iโd a write a comment sharing the keynote speaking tips that the speaker was using. Like this:
A good strategy. The only problem with it is that TEDs audience is vast so Iโd get more followers, but they wouldnโt necessarily be my target market.
Example 2: Daniel Priestley
Same audience as me. Non competing, complimentary businesses. High effort comment, got noticed.
Example 3: High Performing, Topic
In this case, someone complaining about being asked to speak for free.
Step 3: A posting strategy to compliment it
So that when they click on your profile, they have a reason to follow you.
Iโve been posting 3x a week since 2020.
It wasnโt until June 2023 that I started to get traction and audience growth and this was the post that changed everything.
It was the first time Iโd ever managed to get people to engage with a post on my topic - in 3.5 years(!!). It taught me three things:
Show is more powerful than tell.
It doesnโt need to be about you and what youโre doing.
If you can find content thatโs gone viral before and add your own take to it, youโve got a better chance of it gaining traction, than if you donโt.
From that day onwards, the most important part of my LinkedIn posting strategy has been the research. Finding golden clips that allow me to showcase my expertise whilst helping people.
12 months later, I posted that same clip again (and felt extremely guilty after pressing post because it wasnโt brand new anymore). These were the stats:
The lesson here is simple (please donโt ignore it!)โฆ
Your ability to communicate your expertise will live and die by the quality of the stories and examples you share.
(This rule applies in public speaking too!)
This means you donโt need to talk about yourself nearly as much as you might think you do. This is GOOD news.
Instead of chasing the spotlight, you get to become it.
And paradoxically, that is how you create a sense of magnetism around your subject. The other thing that happens, is you start getting messages like this from complete strangers:
Which is extremely rewarding.
Step 4: Actively Curate your connections โ
Once your profile is optimised, your comments are doing the heavy lifting, and your posts are pulling people in, thereโs one final lever that compounds everything else: deliberately adding the people youโd love to work with.
Iโm talking about:
Decision makers whoโd make dreamy future clients ๐ฎ
E.g. Heads of departments and decision makers at companies youโd love to work with. Organisers of conferences youโd love to speak at one day etc.Perfect audience members ๐ฅ
These are the people who become the unexpectedly loyal followers, the ones who quote you in rooms youโre not in.
Make it a habit.
10 of each, every week and youโll personally curate 1000 high-quality connections of your own every single year.
No need to DM them ๐คฎ.
Let your content do the talking over time
One more thingโฆ
A number of people have told me privately that theyโre giving up on LinkedIn as a platform given the inconsistency of the algorithms of late. To be honest, Iโve been equally frustrated, and itโs made me question the effort vs reward myself.
The question I keep coming back to isโฆ
If I were to leave, what would I replace LinkedIn with?
I donโt yet have a better answer. And if the attention of your audience is still there, neither should you.
It took me 3.5 years to create any kind of excitement around my topic (quite embarrassing given what I do really). So I hope this gives you the confidence to keep going when the times are tough.
Alex
This is the kind of work we focus on inside MicDrop, my community for founders using talks, workshops and podcasts to grow their businesses. Find out more
