What Really Grows Your LinkedIn? Posts, Comments or DMs?

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Is it posting, commenting, or sending DMs that is the best use of your time

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to drive business growth on LinkedIn?

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Let's discuss.

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G'Day everyone, it is Coach Michelle J Raymond, your trusted guide for

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building your brand and your business on LinkedIn, and we're gonna be talking

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about an important topic this week.

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Should you be spending your time on posting content, commenting on

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other people's content or sending direct messages to your connections.

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And the reason I wanna have a talk about this is because lots has changed

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over the last few months on LinkedIn.

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We had a significant algorithm change that happened in June and is impacting content

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and the way that we play things out and our processes on LinkedIn right now.

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For me, I'm seeing a lot of people really struggling.

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And often they reach out to me to work with me, they book in for a session

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and want to do training because I've spoken to people that have spent

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one year being active on LinkedIn, they're posting content, they're doing

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all kinds of stuff and not getting any closer to their business goals.

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That my friends, is not how it should work.

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Yes, things are slow on LinkedIn, but they shouldn't be that slow.

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So if you are struggling to generate business results for you or for the

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business that you work for, then this episode is gonna be for you.

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We're gonna be talking about pros and cons of posting, pros and cons

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of commenting and also sending direct messages to your connections on LinkedIn.

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They all have their place, of course.

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And it's up to you to ultimately decide where you should be investing your time.

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But I have this feeling that people are doing too much of some things, not enough

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of others, or skipping some steps in between and things are just falling apart.

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And unfortunately, you're busy being busy, not busy growing your business.

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So let's get that sorted today, right after this quick word from

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our podcast sponsors, Metricool.

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First up, let's talk about posting content on LinkedIn.

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This is where you get to build your visibility and your credibility, and

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there's lots of upsides to putting out a billboard with pretty much the words

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that you wanna say sharing your thoughts, creating that thought leadership content.

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Sometimes it's just getting attention.

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But ultimately you are leaving things to chance and the algorithm gods.

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What do I mean by that?

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Well, when we do a post, the thing is we don't know where it's gonna go.

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We don't know who's gonna see it.

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We don't know how LinkedIn determines what's relevant content

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to people on the other side.

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We know that LinkedIn's gonna be doing a lot of assessment to see who

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would most likely enjoy or find value from the post that you've just done.

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But realistically, it's out of our control.

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At the end of the day, it does take a lot of effort to create content.

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I would estimate for most people a minimum of one hour is what it takes per post.

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Now, some of you out there might be listening and you've been creating

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content for a long time, and you can smash them out in 15 minutes, but

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others, one hour might be too short.

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Because by the time you sit down, you get organised.

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You do your research, you figure out what you wanna post about, you fight off those

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voices in your head that say, don't post.

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You're gonna get trolled.

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It's all been said before.

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All of those things.

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The mind games that we spoke about in last week's episode, kick in and time drags on.

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Posting content, yes, I think it's a must.

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I would recommend that you do one to two posts per week, if you are

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leveraging LinkedIn for business growth.

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I would aim to try and get it up to three times a week, even maybe four,

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if you can squeeze another one out.

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But that takes some time to build that up.

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So if you're just starting out, start at one, get consistent.

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Do that for four weeks in a row, then move up to two posts per week.

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Do that for another four weeks, and then continue to build from there.

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It is very difficult to go from zero to three or four posts a

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week if you're not in that habit.

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Making sure that you show up week in, week out over the long term

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is how this is gonna work out.

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Now that doesn't mean that you can't have breaks.

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We all have breaks.

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I've been having a little bit more time away from LinkedIn recently,

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while I focus on some other things that I need to get done.

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But ultimately, one to two posts per week every week.

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As long as you wanna leverage LinkedIn and you know your audience

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is there, you have to keep showing up, consistency and persistency for the win.

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But what if you're one of those people that the thought of posting

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content is too much, then we need to talk about commenting.

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When it comes to leveraging LinkedIn for business growth, commenting

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on other people's content is a non-negotiable in my eyes.

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And the reason being is that number one, this is where you

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are building your connections.

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It's where you are building your engagement.

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It is where you are building your community.

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It also allows other people to start trusting you because they get some

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insights into how you are showing up, and we're seeing the importance that

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LinkedIn is placing on commenting by the new analytics that we got just

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a few months ago that show us the number of their impressions that come

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from each of the comments that we do.

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Why are the impressions on comments just as important as

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those that come from your post?

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The comment impressions are typically going to come from people that

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you are not connected to, so those second and third degree connections.

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Why?

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Because you are showing up on somebody else's post and they've

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built a unique community.

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Sure, there might be some crossover, but you will get discovered by a lot of new

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people, and this is a great way to build your community of like-minded people.

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So commenting on other people's posts, one, it shows that

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you are supporting them.

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Yay.

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Big tick.

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What goes around comes around two, when we're having a look at it, it can also

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warm up these relationships, so you move away from being a stranger into someone

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that I'm familiar with, so that when we move onto the next stage, which would

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be direct messaging people, you are not just one of those randoms that shows up

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unannounced, knocks on the door and says, hey, I'm here to sell you something.

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People have already got a sense of who you are and what you do because

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you've been there supporting them.

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So commenting can be a great way to get discovered, but at the end of

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the day, what's the downside to just commenting on everyone else's post?

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Why couldn't you just do that instead of posting your own?

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You're never sharing your own original thoughts in those posts.

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Ultimately, I want you to have your own voice.

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If you are just commenting, it's not a bad thing, but there's an opportunity

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for you to really express yourself and show yourself as the expert

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that I know that you really are.

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After this, let's talk about sending direct messages on LinkedIn

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'cause direct messages, it's kind of where the business gets done.

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Direct messaging on LinkedIn really should be that place where you take

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those relationships that you've built with people that are engaging

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on the content you create or that you are commenting on their content

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and taking it to that next level.

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So we're going from public activity into a private space to have that one-on-one

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conversation, which is amazing and I love, and it's really important and

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it's often the place where deals get done, but we have a small problem.

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The problem is all of those people right now that are giving social selling a

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really bad name by using automated tools that try and automate relationships.

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Or people that are connecting and then pitching straight away.

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You know the ones, Hey, we're connected.

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Buy my stuff, and you're like, you know what?

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At what point did I look like I was somebody that needed to buy

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farming equipment in the U.S.?

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I don't know what's going on there.

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I need that about as much as I need lead gen services on LinkedIn.

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I don't know why people keep offering me that.

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That is a sure sign that they don't know what they're doing when

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they're offering me my own services.

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But that's what's going on right now and that's what makes the art of sending

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direct messages really tricky right now.

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If I cast my mind back to 10 years ago when I first started

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on LinkedIn, you could literally send a DM to anyone in the world.

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Didn't matter what their position was and they would respond.

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These days I think their guard is up.

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But that's not a reason not to send direct messages to people.

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Direct messaging, you take it into your own hands, but you have to go in with a

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clear strategy and take things slowly.

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Take away the pressure that you were out to get something from those people

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that you direct messaging and just be interested in them and start to

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build up rapport and conversations.

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And I've done an episode on the podcast, I don't know, three or

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four episodes ago where I talk about the power of DMs specifically.

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So if you missed it, go back, check that one out, it would be really helpful.

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I think too many people avoid them because they don't wanna come across as salesy,

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and I think if you are just relying on posting content in 2025, I actually

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don't think that that works anymore.

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I think those days of posting and getting inbound leads are long

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gone and probably have been for about, I don't know, 12 months.

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We have to take things into our own hands.

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If you're struggling to figure out how can I send messages to people, or

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how do I even discover people I could send messages to, then that's what my

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G.R.O.W.T.H Masterclass is all about.

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I can always send you details, just book a call with me in the show notes, you'll see

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the link and let's have a chat about how I can actually get you over this hurdle.

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As we come around to the end of the episode.

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I've discussed with you the pros and cons of posting, of commenting

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on other people's content and also sending direct DMs, but how do

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you find the right mix of each?

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Let's talk about that next.

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When it comes to using LinkedIn to grow your business we're all

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different and we all have different skills and experience and strengths.

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I know that there are people out there that never post, but have a

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super strong direct messaging game.

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I know that there are people out there that don't post but

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do a lot of commenting, and that's part of their strategy.

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But if you are just starting out or trying to fine tune the amount of effort

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that you're putting into LinkedIn, let's have a think about some numbers.

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If you're starting out, I think one post per week is more than enough, but we're

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aiming for three to four posts per week.

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If we can get to that, that's great.

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Something to build up to.

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Most people I don't think are doing enough work when it comes to trying

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to generate opportunities on LinkedIn.

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It's hard work right now.

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We have to do the reps, we have to do the grind.

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So let's talk about commenting.

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I want 10 good comments on other people's posts in your target audience

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as much as possible on a daily basis.

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This is going to really supercharge your results and get you discovered

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by more people, which is important if you're starting out and

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looking to grow your community.

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Right now, If you're invisible and not taking any of these actions,

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then people don't know you exist.

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And if they don't know you exist, they can't buy from you, which is

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why you're not getting the leads, and that is why you don't get sales,

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and that is why at some point, you'll realise that this isn't actually

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a business if you don't get sales.

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Let's talk about sending DMs next.

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Now, this one's a little tricky because depending on the quality or

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the number of responses, this one would probably be around 10 a day

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as well, If you're going hardcore.

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Start with five, see if you can get that done.

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A great place to start is with those people that you've

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recently connected with.

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So send them a message, ask them a question about themselves, right?

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Discover more about the people that you're actually connected to.

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So let's talk numbers again.

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So posting, once a week If you're just starting, aim to get three or

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four times per week, If you are built up over time, then we're gonna look

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at doing about 10 comments per day.

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Thoughtful comments, supportive comments.

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Comments that really stand out to other people.

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And third, direct messages.

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Five to 10, and that is in line with those kind of numbers of

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people that you should be connecting to on a pretty frequent basis.

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So think about those numbers.

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Adapt it to your circumstances.

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Like this should come with one of those disclaimers that

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shows up on like insurance ads.

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Just check if this is right for you.

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That kind of disclaimer is what this episode needs to have.

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But it's a place to start because honestly I do think that people are not doing

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enough and LinkedIn right now is rewarding those people who go the extra mile and

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having the right mix of these three things is how you'll grow your business.

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So I'd love to hear from you like what ratios are you using to

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grow your business on LinkedIn?

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Are you doing lots more posting?

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Are you doing more commenting?

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Are you sending more DMs?

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I'd love to know what's working for you.

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So drop it in the comments or drop me a DM over on LinkedIn

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and I'd love to hear from you.

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Until next week, cheers.