LinkedIn Commenting - Too Much or Not Enough?

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Are you commenting too much or not enough when it comes to using

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LinkedIn for business growth?

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In today's episode, let's find out.

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G'day everyone.

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It is coach Michelle J Raymond.

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And as this episode goes live, I have already begun my World Page Advocacy Tour.

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That's right.

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I'm going to speak at Uplift Live in the UK and then heading over to Social Media

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Marketing World in the US to share about my new framework to help people get better

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engagement out of their Company Pages.

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But if it wasn't for comments on LinkedIn, this trip would never have happened.

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Let me rewind the clock four and a half years.

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Once upon a time, I wrote a comment and I wrote a comment on a post about

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Company Pages and the person who I wrote that comment on, he was based in Vienna.

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And lucky for me, that comment, which had a pretty strong opinion on

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Company Pages, which went against the grain was seen by somebody in Dubai.

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Now that person in Dubai, they also had a podcast and invited me on as a guest

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to discuss Company Pages some more.

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After that podcast went live, a listener in New Zealand who heard that and heard

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me talking about Company Pages reached out and asked me to write a book.

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Shout out to Lynnaire Johnston, co author of Business Gold, the world's

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first and only book on Company Pages.

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As we keep fast forwarding into the future.

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Here I am the person that is known for Company Pages that has been invited to

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speak on these international stages.

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This listeners is exactly the power of comments.

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And as we've seen recently, LinkedIn have just updated LinkedIn comments.

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They're changing lots of little things about how they're counted, showing

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us the power of the impressions that they create so we can measure

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the impact of our comments.

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And if I go back a couple of episodes ago, I also did an episode on how many

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times should you post per week on LinkedIn if you want to grow your business.

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And lots of you really enjoyed that.

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It's pretty much been the most popular episode I've done.

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Beyond just posting content on LinkedIn there was a lot of follow up questions

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about how often should you comment?

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So we're going to cover that in today's episode, because honestly

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commenting is just amazing.

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It's a power tool for you.

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And especially if you're not somebody that feels confident to

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create your own content as yet.

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You don't need to just sit on the sidelines in the

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background and be invisible.

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Before we go into the benefits of having an amazing commenting strategy, I have

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got some exciting news from my friends at Metricool who sponsor the podcast.

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They have been doing some epic research into LinkedIn.

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So here's a quick word about what's coming up.

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In today's episode, we're talking about the power of comments and comments are

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amazing because they are your way to not only show off your thought leadership,

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contribute to somebody else's success and be discovered by new people.

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And they are kind of the three elements that you need to build

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a really amazing personal brand or business brand on LinkedIn.

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And so there's so much upside with commenting.

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And I know for some of you, you're like, but how many times should I comment

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versus how many times should I post?

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And the answer is, it depends.

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How big are your goals?

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What else do you have on your plate?

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For those of you who aren't posting content at all, which is totally fine.

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For you, my numbers of comments would be much higher.

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So I would expect you to be spending 15 minutes to half an hour every

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day, commenting on as many posts as you can find in your subject matter

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area, to an ideal audience and really just start discovering who else is

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interested in that topic as well.

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And, you know, always show up and be helpful and be supportive and

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don't spam other people's posts cause that's very uncool, let's be clear.

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If you are somebody that is posting, let's say you're doing that two to three

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times a week, you may not have as much time to be contributing to commenting as

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a person that's doing no posts at all.

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But I would still aim by five posts, five days a week to getting

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comments out there because you are leveraging somebody else's community.

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If you've been listening to the show for a while now, you know that I

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really dislike strongly and I'd go as far as saying I hate prescribing

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a particular number of times that I would recommend that you do things.

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And I do this because, again, I don't know where you're at, I don't know

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the resources you have, I don't know the goals that you have, and so if I

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say to you, go and post five times a week, but you have a really big

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product launch coming up, or you're just starting out and need a community,

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or you're super busy, like giving you an arbitrary number that I pluck out

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of the air is not going to be helpful.

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The bigger the goal, the shorter the timeframe, the more

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effort that you need to put in.

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So this really comes down to you.

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Like how much are you doing?

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Are you maximising your time on LinkedIn strategically?

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Because besides being wary of giving you a number because I don't

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know your circumstances, there is something that freaks me out even

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more about prescribing numbers.

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And what happens is if I tell you go and comment 50 times a day or

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something silly like that, then there are people that would follow that.

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And that's when tools like automation of commenting become really attractive

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because people think more is better.

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And it's not always the case.

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Not all comments are created equal.

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There are comments that are going to help you get towards

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your goal and build your brand.

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And there are going to be comments if you do that at a crazy scale with not

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much thought that are just going to reflect poorly on you and I'm never

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going to be an advocate for that.

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So those people and Company Pages especially, that have it set on

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autopilot, just basically spray and pray that it lands somewhere.

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The comments that we see, we know that it's just regurgitating

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whatever has been posted in the post.

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It is so awful and it looks terrible for you and your brand.

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We know what you're doing, so please just stop it.

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And especially if you are somebody that is doing it on my posts, like there is

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one Company Page that keeps doing it.

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And I literally, every time I see it, it makes me angry and I'm working to

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try and get that stopped with LinkedIn.

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How amazing would it be to be able to block Company Pages that spam comments?

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That is something that I would love to do.

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So not all comments are created equal.

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What I encourage you to do is adjust that number way back down, go for

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quality over quantity at all times.

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That should always drive every action that we've got on LinkedIn anyway, but

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in case it wasn't obvious to somebody that might be new to this podcast,

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firstly, thank you for listening.

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But again, I am never going to tell you to go and do something at

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volume at a compromise of quality.

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Besides the number of comments, I want you to stop and think, where am I commenting?

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Are you commenting in places that are going to help you get closer

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towards your business goals?

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Or are you commenting in places that you find interesting or entertaining

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or probably a big distraction?

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Because LinkedIn is designed to keep you on there for long

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periods of time so you watch ads.

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They are going to keep serving up the things that you engage in.

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Now if you're always supportive of your friends posts, and I'm, you

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know, certainly on board for that.

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But if that's all you're focusing on and you're distracted away from your

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business goal commenting, then you are not going to achieve your goals no

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matter how many comments that you do.

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So just take a moment and just check, are you spending time

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commenting in the right places?

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It's not to say that there are times where there are swings and roundabouts, you

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know, we all need those moments where, you know what, it's not all about business.

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We just need a break.

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We just need to use LinkedIn for fun.

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I totally I'm on board for that, but ultimately just make sure that that

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doesn't become a newly formed habit.

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And it can be so easy to slip into.

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It just starts with one here, one there.

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And then all of a sudden it snowballs.

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So just go back and check.

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You can go to the comments tab on your profile and go back and have

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a look and see, is this getting me closer to my business goals or has

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this been a distraction and, you know, adjust things accordingly

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or know, yep it was a distraction.

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That's okay.

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With where I'm at right now, business is good.

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I've checked in, I know what I'm doing and that's fine as well, but just, just have

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a look and make sure that you're on track.

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Let's talk about some advanced commenting strategies.

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So we've said here that not all comments are created equal, but what

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are some different advanced strategies that you could use that would mix

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things up and really help you elevate your game, stand out from the crowd

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and be top of mind for other people.

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And one of the ways that you can do that is I call them the mini

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thought leadership comments.

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And that is where you really go deep and it's offering real valuable

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insights based on your expertise, based on your knowledge, based

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on your own personal opinion.

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Like give me something that is a view of how you see the world that may

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be different to something else that I can regurgitate from elsewhere.

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That's what I'm most interested in.

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That is what true thought leadership is.

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So these comments quite often are more than one or two sentences.

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And the cool part about this is you can go and turn these into posts.

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You know, they're often the trigger for an idea, and you can go and expand that

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further on and continue that conversation, continue leading that conversation.

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That's what thought leadership content is, and it can certainly

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happen in the comments.

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Another advanced strategy for commenting is what I would

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call the tag and engage method.

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So this is where if I came across a post and we're going to say it's on the

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topic of Company Pages, then I would write my opinion on Company Pages.

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And then I could ask someone in my network who I know It is also a fan of

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Company Pages and ask for their opinion.

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So I would tag them and say, what are your thoughts?

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So shout out to Dario Valente, for instance, I would say, I've been asked my

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opinion on Company Page engagement rates.

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What are you seeing with the pages that you manage?

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So that is one way that you can do this.

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Again, it shows that other person, Hey, I'm thinking of you.

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I'm keeping an eye out.

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I want you involved in this conversation.

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So the tag and engage method is really great to show that you've got a really

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strong community, strong opinions, and you're supporting the person

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whose content you are commenting on.

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And it expands their communities, it gets us all out of those echo chambers.

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And it's always nice when you get to meet new people, as introduced by somebody

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else, but think about who can you tag that would come to the post and engage

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with it and expand that conversation.

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The third advanced commenting strategy that I would like to share about is

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all about the call to action comment.

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And this is a comment where you are driving the action of whoever reads

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it, asking them to do something.

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A perfect use case, I have Company Pages set up for my podcast or also my books.

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So if somebody is looking for book recommendations

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or podcast recommendations.

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I use the identity switcher, switch over to my book and I would say,

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Hey, come and check this out.

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This is where you can find it, right.

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And put a link to where someone could buy the book.

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Same goes with podcast recommendations.

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I'm also doing it on my personal page.

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It might be that I comment as my Company Page and say if you want a

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free intro call, go to my website.

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Here's the link, right?

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So it's an action that you want the reader to take.

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Now, this can be helpful because we know that LinkedIn doesn't love links in posts,

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and I'm not sure that they really love them in comments, any more than that, but,

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you know, ultimately sometimes it's a good chance to put a comment like that, where

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you are sending someone off LinkedIn into the comments and put those links in there.

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So that's another option that you've got.

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So you've got mini thought leadership ones.

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You've got the tag and engage method.

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And you've also got the call to action comment.

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And they're three advanced commenting strategies.

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To quickly recap what we've covered in today's episode.

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Not all comments are created equal.

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So giving you a straight out number is not going to be helpful, but do make

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sure you're investing time and energy into commenting because it will help

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your brand, build your community and ultimately keep you top of mind with

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your audience and what goes around comes around so other people will help

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you and support your content as well.

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The second thing that we're looking at is that not all comments are created equal.

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So think about how can you use those comments more strategically and certainly

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stay away from automation tools.

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As we wrap up today's episode, I hope I've inspired you to leave more strategic

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comments in the right places because you never know where you will end up.

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So for those of you who've been following along, I'm now officially

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on my Page Advocacy World Tour and UpLift Live in the UK is my first stop.

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So if you're a listener and you are going to be there, please come and say hello.

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Introduce yourself, if I don't already know you.

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I can't wait to share a Tim Tam with you all.

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So until next week, listeners cheers.