LinkedIn : The art of commenting... (guide)

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LinkedIn offers more and more visibility to comments and posts that generate them. Here are some explanations... and a short guide of best practices to take advantage of this trend.

Like me, you may find it difficult to comment on other LinkedIn members' posts. Fear of being perceived as opportunistic, intrusive, inappropriate... Fear of giving your opinion... Fear of wasting your time...?

More and more weight

And like me, you may be wrong! For months now, LinkedIn has been giving an inordinate amount of visibility :

• to comments, in the news feed of your direct connections
• to posts that generate rich comments
• profiles that not only publish engaging content on a regular basis, but also react in comments to other members' posts

In the algorithms that govern the visibility of members' profiles and their posts, the "rich" comment (more than 5 words) weighs more and more. It generates and feeds relationships. At the heart of the audience of commented profiles. And among your 1st level relations, since your comments are exposed to some of your direct relations.

More than a content platform, the Microsoft subsidiary is trying to gain ground in the attention economy... and in the conversation, preferably "qualitative".?

And to accelerate the movement, LinkedIn makes commenting relevant regardless of the main motivation of its members:

• To increase the visibility of their (personal) brand
• Be found, for a job for example, by demonstrating your expertise
• Improve your monitoring, as the comment acts as a prescriber for LinkedIn's algorithms, by pushing LinkedIn to display more similar content and/or similar profiles

11 good practices... and 1 very bad one

It remains to master the art of commenting... Hence these 12 tips:?

Choose the right posts... according to your targets. Don't comment on the wrong things. What is your direct target type? Which LinkedIn member is in contact with your targets? What is the size of their audience? How mature is your relationship on LinkedIn? And of course, to remain consistent with your profile and your publications, on what topics close to your own expertise / editorial line does he/she express himself/herself?

Be very reactive. Timing is important. To get maximum visibility, bounce on a recent post or comment (max. a few hours), not on a publication that has already been published for most of its life (48-72 hours). Choosing a recent publication will naturally increase the visibility of your comment, which will be attached to the post for a longer period of time... and therefore more likely to generate engagement... and therefore to be pinned at the top of the comments. The circle is virtuous.

Attention: if you are posting to several time slots, choose your timing according to your primary target (see next point).

Identify your primary target. Who are you addressing? The @author of the post? Representatives of a @company? From an #industry? The inhabitants of a #region? Mention them at the outset, to grab attention.

Summarize the context of your speech. Rephrase the post or thought that makes you react. Some magic formulas to get you started: "You think that...", "I agree with you on...", "If I understand correctly, you....".

New (among other things): LinkedIn is apparently planning to encourage us to comment, increasingly by suggesting comment starters. Pre-formatted text that I've only spotted a few times so far.

Rather than "selling", add value. Comments posted for direct commercial purposes, especially via link placement, are absolutely to be avoided. As well as simple "bravo", "congratulations", "proud of..." that feed the author's ego but don't bring any added value to the (silent) majority of observers.

To put it differently: in a few sentences, explain why you appreciated the post (or not, but in a respectful and constructive way), but above all demonstrate your expertise, your added value. You can use a reference, a personal experience, statistics, a photo, a GIF, an emoji, a meme...

If possible, try to prolong the conversation. For example, by ending your comment with an open question (or even by limiting it to one question), by mentioning other @members or by eliciting other actions (click on a branded hashtag (follow #LinkedInWithXavier ?? ), on a link, on your profile photo, name or beginning of title... But let's be clear: the most successful comments are the ones that generate others.

Don't (necessarily) turn your comment into a post. LinkedIn is suggesting this more and more often. But the best thing is to combine and alternate posts and comments. And, above all, avoid shares to which you add a few words... of comments. Even if the platform defends it, sharing is one of the worst formats you can use on LinkedIn.

Quick tip: if you've spent time building a rich comment, you may be able to recycle it into a carousel (a .pdf document).

"Revive" a post at the end of its life. Commenting on your own post is not really recommended. And even less to be the first to do so. But by commenting on one of your posts.... at the end of its life (24 to 48 hours on average), for example with additional information, you give it a chance to regain some visibility.

Follow up. Have you commented with added value? An interaction has been generated? Don't hesitate to extend the pleasure, via a LinkedIn invitation, a private message, an email, a phone call... In short, use the comment to build relationships!

Comment as a page. Although profiles are much more favored by LinkedIn than pages, you might be tempted to comment on a post with your page's hat on. And why not. It's an emerging trend full of potential... Technically, there are several tricks to achieve this (page hashtags, URL rephrasing, browser extension...). They will soon be obsolete, as LinkedIn is rolling out the possibility to select, under a post, the entity that will carry the comment (or the reaction): your profile or one of the pages you are an admin of. Let's hope the spam rate doesn't explode...

Manage your notifications.?Starting to comment will shake up your use of LinkedIn, even in the notifications, which will be much more numerous... unless you (re)set them, here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/psettings/communications

In any case, avoid PODS. These groups of LinkedIn members join to like and comment each other, quite systematically, in order to whip the algorithms and thus boost their respective visibility. This practice is contrary to the rules set by LinkedIn (which is increasingly able to detect this kind of abuse and promptly punish it). In addition, it often generates generic, even off-topic comments. Often distressing. Far, in any case, from the values of a healthy community, based on trust.

Practical exercise?

So, convinced to start commenting more? Do you have in mind the best practices to comment? Why don't you start directly, by sharing your feedback on this little guide in the comments ;-?

Xavier Degraux

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