Three easy ways to get engagement on your LinkedIn posts

If you want to attract leads and sales for your business, you need to publish regular content on LinkedIn.

But if you’re posting content that’s not getting any engagement (i.e. likes, comments and shares), frankly, you’re wasting your time.

Read on to find out why it’s important to get engagement on your LinkedIn content (and how to make it happen).

Just to be clear, I’m focusing mainly on posts on this article (read about the difference between articles and posts).

Why it’s important to get engagement on LinkedIn

Imagine you’re walking around an unfamiliar town or city looking for a restaurant for dinner. Restaurant A is packed with people, enjoying their food. Restaurant B is empty. You’ll likely assume (rightly or wrongly) that Restaurant A is better - just because it’s looks busy and popular.

That’s exactly how it works on LinkedIn. If I visit your profile and you're getting hardly any comments, likes and shares, I'm will assume (incorrectly perhaps) that you're not influential or authoritative in your industry/space.

If you’re starting interesting conversations and people are engaging with your content enthusiastically - with tons of comments, likes and shares - I'm going to get a very different impression of you. Which means I’m far more likely to remember you, trust you enough to want to work with you and/or recommend you to others.

Plus the way the LinkedIn algorithm works means that the more engagement you get on your content, the more people will be shown your content. Which means every time you post a piece of engaging content - one that attracts comments, likes and shares - you’re increasing your ‘pool’ of prospective customers and clients.

Not only that, when your second and third degree connections spot their connections commenting on your posts, they may well head over to your profile to check you out. And if they find your content engaging, they’ll want to reach out and connect with you. So it’s a ‘win win’ situation all round.

With that in mind, here’s three things you can start doing in your LinkedIn posts to get more engagement today.

1. Ask questions

One of the easiest ways to get engagement on your content is to ask a question, as technical copywriter John Espirian does in this post:

There is an art to asking effective questions though and the key is to make it as easy as possible for people to respond.

The most important thing to remember is to asked closed questions i.e. ‘how long does it take you to write a blog post?’ (which requires a specific answer which can be given in minutes or hours) rather than ‘how do you feel about writing blog posts?” (which doesn’t lead towards a specific answer)

The more specific you can be, the better, which is why asking people to state ‘agree/disagree’, ‘yes/no’ or ‘true/false’ can work well.

Giving readers specific options to choose from, as shown in the example below, can also work well.

And this one:

2. ‘Shout out’ other LinkedIn users

While it might seem counterintuitive, praising other LinkedIn users - including your competitors - can be a great way to get engagement on your own content.

This is exactly what digital marketing expert Dan Knowlton does in this helpful post on how to get more engagement on your LinkedIn content.

First off, this is a genuinely useful piece of content which will add value to Dan’s network, meaning it’s likely to attract engagement. Plus it’s video - and videos generally get better engagement than text-only posts (especially as Dan has added captions - remember most people will be watching with the sound turned down).

Bonus tip: Use Rev.com to generation captions and Kapwing to add them permanently to your video.

But Dan takes this a step further. Highlighting five LinkedIn users who are great at getting engagement on the platform (myself included) and sharing the strategies they are using is a smart move for several reasons.

• Dan is guaranteed at least five comments from LinkedIn users who already have large networks (when people are flattered, they’ll always take the time to comment).
• When their followers see them commenting on Dan’s post, they’re likely to head over to his profile to find out who this Dan Knowlton guy is.
• People love knowing who the best people are to follow on a particular topic - because it saves them time (and can even save them money).

So if you’re looking to get more engagement on your LinkedIn content, consider creating a ‘shout out’ post that highlights the knowledge/expertise of others in your industry/space.

You don’t need to create a video like Dan has. A simple text/photo led post like this from Sam Rathling one can work well too.

Notice how Sam also include a call-to-action (inviting participants to share their one key takeaway). Clever!

3. Give a clear call-to-action

Of all the social media platforms I’m active on, LinkedIn is by far the best for generating inbound leads i.e. your ideal customers/clients reaching out to you rather than the other way round.

In fact, I get people reaching out to me every single day to enquire about attending my masterclasses and/or other ways they might work with me - based solely on the content I'm sharing.

But if you want prospective clients/customers to reach out to you, you need to tell them what to do. You can do this by issuing a clear call to action e.g. ‘Shoot me a DM if you want to know more’ or ‘post in the comments below of you’d like me to send the details' as in this example below (which has generated several leads for the next masterclass).

Want to up your game on LinkedIn? Get your LinkedIn Content Strategy Playbook here.