LinkedIn is officially a virtual networking platform for professionals. A place where you can easily connect and reach out to people you would have problems getting in touch with previously.

In one of my previous posts, I've also covered how to utilize the "new LinkedIn" to amplify your career and business opportunities.

And I've also written about my experience of writing over 60,000 words worth of comments on LinkedIn within three months and how the effort grew my LinkedIn network significantly.

So, if you haven’t tapped into the power of virtual networking, I will break down the most underrated strategy to grow your personal LinkedIn network in this article.

Before we jump into it, I want to highlight that the pre-requisites to reap the benefits of networking on LinkedIn begins with making sure your profile is up to date and you have a professional LinkedIn profile photo (of yourself!) to make the first right impression prior to that first contact.

Outdated ways to grow your LinkedIn network

Similar to other platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, LinkedIn IS a social media platform. The difference between LinkedIn and the other networks is — this platform is targeted specifically at professionals.

Working professionals and business owners and students.

They are people who seek opportunities to

• learn and grow with like-minded individuals.
• grow their network to get more leads and open doors.
• pave their career path or climb the corporate ladder.

In the past, we typically connect with these three main groups of people

• Recruiters
• People we work with — current and ex-colleagues, customers/suppliers
• People we used to go to school or college with

Aside from that, it’s perceived to be rather random to connect with other unknown professionals on the platform. And people think twice about accepting an invitation from a stranger on LinkedIn.

The first thought that crosses their mind, "Why does this person want to connect with me? What does he/she want?"

The preferred ways to connect with someone — to do a search by their job role or company name and send a connection request usually for potential collaborations. Or if you know someone from your previous company, it’s normal to add them on LinkedIn too.

Of course, that also includes accepting an invite from a recruiter especially if you are looking out for future opportunities.

However, those outdated ways to grow your LinkedIn network are over.

Sit up to learn all about the modern way of growing your LinkedIn network.

The LinkedIn Platform Today

It’s about conversations. Being social.

Socially acceptable to connect with someone you’ve never spoken to beforehand nor met before.

As a professional virtual networking platform, LinkedIn encourages communication between members.

Publishing articles and videos become the spark for discussions and (polite) disagreements. Or as I like to call it — exchanging ideas!

Encouraging learning and growth through content and comments. (On a side note, you can also learn all about the best content types to post on LinkedIn to generate the best engagement.)

If you are ready to expand your network yet not ready to write a post or article yet, this is what you should do:

Start writing long comments!

Instead of lurking in the shadows or tapping only on the like button, share your thoughts. Begin a dialogue!!

Why do longer comments help you to grow your connections?

✔︎You voice your thoughts and exchange ideas with others.

It creates a conversation. And the conversation is the starting point of a connection & leads to a relationship.

★Communication is the foundation of relationships★

When you only tap on the like button or don’t elaborate on why you agree or disagree, people don’t get to know what goes on in your head. They don’t feel connected to you.

It’s not just me.

What do you think of the LinkedIn commenting strategy?

When I posed this question to my LinkedIn network, I received over 500 likes and over 200 people responded with their thoughts.

Jules White, Entrepreneur Sales Coach and Podcast Host responded:

This is such a great strategy — you wouldn’t meet someone in a bar, listen to what they say and then do a thumbs up and walk away?! It’s the same thing online ! Have a conversation !!!

Eduard Smit, Marketing Strategist Designer talked about the value in comments:

There is more value in comments. Not only is it one of the only ways to truly show who we are but also build meaningful relationships with your audience and the audience with you. It also builds familiarity and from familiarity trust, which is essential in friendships, business and being better connected humans.

AJ Kulatunga, Keynote Speaker and Entrepreneur Advisor replied:

It provides the highest return on investment on LinkedIn because it’s about being human. And a lot of people forget that because we’re perceived to be living in a tech driven world.

What are the benefits of writing longer comments on LinkedIn?

Ginny LeMarie, Marketing and PR Professional shared the rewards she has reaped:

I like to write longer comments, usually because I am interested in the post subject. I like to share my opinion and expertise and also to continue building a rapport with both my connections and the wider LinkedIn audience.

Duncan Garrood, CEO at Bill’s Restaurant, regular commenter on LinkedIn emphasized:

Comments create a story line and exchange views so we all learn. They are the golden nuggets!!! Likes are easy but we don’t learn from them, so please comment everyone!!

Beth Campbell, Senior Project Manager of Patrick Engineering highlighted how longer comments has helped her to grow her LinkedIn network:

I have recently put a rather lengthy comment on a post, adding a personal experience related to the post topic. I got TONS of activity — likes, views on my profile, even a few new connection requests. It surprised me how much more engagement I got on one comment vs most of my direct posts or articles.

The Golden Result of Longer Comments

When everyone adds in their perspective and illustrates with a personal experience, it becomes a goldmine. A repository of great ideas plus the opportunity to network.

Longer comments gives others a chance to know you better. Sharing your inner thoughts unlock the doors of communication.  When we don't voice our thoughts, nobody knows what we are thinking about. At least one person needs to take the first step to be more open. That is how relationships are initiated.

I encourage you to take the first step out and leave longer comments!

Let’s look at this scenario:

When you leave a thoughtful comment on A’s post updates or article and catches the attention of A’s connection, Z.

When Z (who is not connected to you!) replies to your comment, you get the chance of Z’s connections reading your comments and getting to know you too!

That’s the incredible power of commenting!

As an added bonus, after you’ve written a long comment, you can repurpose it for your own source material as an article, post update or even a video!!

The next time you comment, keep this in mind, each comment is the building block of a relationship 💙

What comes after long comments?

After several long-comment interactions, it naturally transits into private messaging, a virtual coffee chat or even a face-to-face meetup if both of you live in the same city.

Long commenting is similar to a warm-up run. You find out a little about the other person, what they think and if there's a common interest, you can dive into the in-depth conversation and bring the relationship to the next level!

All because you have built up a common foundation through dialogue in the comments section!

Adopt the modern way to communicate with other professionals. It will definitely grow your LinkedIn network and enrich your relationships.

What are your thoughts about dropping longer comments on articles and post updates?

If you need help with growing an engaging network on LinkedIn, I offer a tailored approach to amp up your LinkedIn presence.

Are you active on LinkedIn YET? If you are in the B2B space, LinkedIn is the social media platform you want to be on. If you are in the B2C space, LinkedIn is also the platform to build up a network and participate in virtual networking.

Simply put, the NEW LinkedIn is the place to be where you can amplify your career and business opportunities.

There’s loads of information published on LinkedIn in the second half of 2017 — about how you should behave, what to do or say on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been around for well over a decade and this professional platform has been undergoing a huge transformation especially this year.

LinkedIn today is not meant purely for recruiters and job seekers anymore. And I'm speaking from experience. Between August to October 2017, I wrote over 60,000 words, just by commenting and engaging with other LinkedIn users. From strangers, a great number of them have become my close supporters.

One of my top articles - The Most Underrated Strategy to Grow Your Network on LinkedIn - details my experience and how I 10x my LinkedIn reach from a mere 200 connections.

Original Focus:

• Recruiters and companies to look for candidates
• Job seekers — graduates to look for a new job
• Job seekers — existing workforce who want to seek greener pastures or those who have to look for new employment.

Current objectives of using LinkedIn have stretched far beyond the original purpose of being on LinkedIn.

• Businesses looking for clients
• Clients looking for new partnerships
• Networking — to learn, to get support, get mentorship

On the surface, this looks radical. The rules of engagement seem to have changed. And LinkedIn users who haven’t been as active before are now at a loss. They don’t seem to know what they do.

In my mind, it’s pretty straightforward.

No matter what you want to do here: this should be your primary objective on LinkedIn.

To stand out and build relationships.

Because once you achieved your primary objective, whatever secondary goals you are after — getting new clients, looking for new jobs, getting support etc — that will fall into place.

So how do you stand out effectively and let people remember you?

You have to open your mouth and talk. You have to sell yourself.

On LinkedIn, this means you voice your thoughts - whether it's through publishing words or a video, you let people know you exist.

Whether you are on LinkedIn for virtual networking, looking for a new job or selling your services and products, you absolutely need to:

• Sell your personality, sell your strengths, sell your skills.
• If people like you, they want to connect & learn from you. If you are skilled, companies want to recruit you & customers want to buy from you.

If you are quiet, No one knows you SHINE! 🌞

Let us take a close look at two scenarios:

During a class, when the teacher poses a question, A frequently puts up the hand to ask & answer questions.

✔Result: Teachers like and remember A who speak up often!

At work meetings, B always has an opinion, idea, recommendations & asks questions.

✔Result: The manager sees B as a thought leader & peers go to B for advice. B is likely to be promoted.

So now you know speaking up works…

How do you apply this tactic on LinkedIn?

You can either start conversations or join in the conversation. If you have a LARGE network on LinkedIn but have never been very active before, here are the options:

How to initiate conversations:

• Start a thread in a LinkedIn Group you’ve joined
• Write an article (like what I’m doing right here!)
• Write a post update — 1300 characters or less
• The engagement levels in LinkedIn Groups haven’t been catching on as fast as Facebook Groups (as of yet), I would recommend you to start with creating your own conversations.

Writing an article is fantastic to showcase your expertise and skills. However, keep this in mind: these are busy professionals on LinkedIn and many of them are time-poor — that means they are selective on what they read.

If your network knows you have a track record of quality content and they will learn something new, they would invest their time to read your long article. Else they will just skip through or ignore.

If you are starting out, writing a long article is not the best tactic.

Before you embark on your LinkedIn content creation journey, don't forget to make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date and you've selected the best (recent!) professional-looking photo to make an awesome first impression on the professional platform.

Start with “showing off” snippets of your knowledge using LinkedIn post updates

Let me explain how it works:

A post update is limited to 1300 characters — that’s about 100 to 200 words.

An average reader will take about 1.5 minutes to read a post while a slow reader would spend about 2 minutes.

Everyone has a couple of minutes to spare in between the transition of activities to read a quick post. That’s a small time commitment.

However, if your article takes about 5 to 10 minutes, it means the individual needs to allocate a time period to actually read your article. This is a big-time commitment!

It’s also a win-win situation where your audience gets a flavour of who you are and what you know while you don’t have to spend a ton of time writing a 1000–2000 word essay that nobody is going to read!

Following? Awesome!

Writing a post is cool for starting a conversation but…..this wouldn’t be as effective if you are starting out on LinkedIn and have a SMALL NETWORK to begin those conversations!

Uh-oh..

Not to worry — I have a solution for you.

Join in conversations that others have started by commenting on other people’s post updates.

Why commenting on LinkedIn is an underrated strategy

Before I began logging into LinkedIn every day, I only had 171 connections — people whom I’ve met, old classmates and ex-colleagues — the majority of whom were not active on LinkedIn.

There’s an underlying assumption that you can only write posts to grow your network. That’s B.S. When you start out, honestly — you are a nobody — why would people want to interact with your content? Who are you?

I came up with a solution to grow my network. I wanted people to notice me, know me, who I am, what I do and my expertise. The only way possible was for me to speak up and join ongoing dialogues.

Joining ongoing dialogues is the same as going for other mini virtual networking events. Talking to other attendees (commenters) and the host (author of the post) puts my name and my face in front of them!

If I don’t know much about a topic, I demonstrated interest in the topics by asking questions in the comments section. Showing interest is the opener to the initiation of a relationship.

Nobody opens up to someone who is talking about themselves — unless of course it’s a topic you know they are keen about.

I’m going to share with you my strategies to excel and build up your network.

LinkedIn Commenting Strategy Lesson 101:

Commenting is an art itself.

It’s not scientific. There are no magic formulas.

BUT if done right, commenting makes you stand out and people are keen to connect with you and know more about you!

What’s commenting about? After you’ve read a conversation opener — aka a post update:

Use my COMMENT framework:

CONVERSE — think of commenting on a post as talking to a friend — a reply — having a conversation.

OUTLOOK — give your outlook, your standpoint about the post

ME — talk about your experience or your knowledge or your skills and how it relates or even possibly contradicts the author of the post. Do this RESPECTFULLY!!

MEANINGFUL — share a similar incident that happened before through empathy or add an alternative view or idea that will put the perspective in a different light.

ELABORATE — don’t stop at one or two sentences. When you share a story or anecdote, write it out. What happened, how you felt, what you learned!

NO — NO — avoid answering with just a no or yes.

THINK — how can you add value to the conversation?

Beginner tutorial for you: When you next read a post, here are four things you can do:

✔Agree, disagree & explain why.

✔ Talk about 1 thing you learned from the post.

✔ Pick up 1 part you relate to & explain WHY.

✔ Know nothing about the topic? Be curious and ask questions

LinkedIn Commenting Strategy Lesson 102:

#Linkedin is a virtual networking platform.

At any physical networking event, you talk to people, join in conversations & connect.

It’s precisely what you do here!

What happens if you see an interesting post & have no comments?

You might hit the “Like” button or you might say “Great post, thank you!”?

❌Stop doing that!

Rather than stopping at “great post!”, scroll through OTHER comments to see if there’s something you can add on. Even if you don’t know the commenter!

✔ Interact with a commenter who has a similar opinion, add to the viewpoint.

✔Ask a commenter if you want to know more about what he/she is talking about.

✔Or if you disagree with a commenter, politely explain your stand and why!

You exchange ideas, add dynamics to the dialogue & know new people!

Next time, don’t be shy, just jump right in!

Want to develop your people skills?

How do you bring professional relationships to the next level? Follow my approach:

Let’s say, last week — you talked to a new connection Z on LinkedIn.

During the chat, you found out Z is very interested in marketing hacks in the e-commerce space.

Coincidentally, when you log onto LinkedIn today, you found a very interesting post on this topic.

You realized: “Ah..Z would be very excited about this!” And you know Z doesn’t know about it! So you tag Z in the comment and invite Z into the conversation.

Or you PM Z and send the link to him/her.

It took you only 1 minute to do this.

But because you responded without asking, and offered a solution to Z.

✔ Z realizes you were genuinely interested in understanding him/her.

✔ Z feels supported and valued in the relationship.

And it helps to bring the relationship to the next level.

Building genuine relationships is about Listening and Responding.

If you want to stand out and initiate quality relationships on LinkedIn, sell yourself and combine Commenting Strategies 101 and 102 — you’ll reap intangible benefits.

I recommend you to level up your LinkedIn strategy by reading three of my other LinkedIn related articles:

• Most Underrated Strategy To Grow Your LinkedIn Network
• What's the best content type to post on LinkedIn
• No, Linkedin Post View Is Not Simply a Vanity Metric

Are you new to the “new” LinkedIn?

If you are committed to amping your professional presence, I offer a personalized approach to help bring your A-game to LinkedIn.

Learn why there is more beyond the LinkedIn post view and how you can tap into this metric to grow your community and generate leads on LinkedIn