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

to drive business growth on LinkedIn?

Let's discuss.

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

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

about an important topic this week.

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

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

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

over the last few months on LinkedIn.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That my friends, is not how it should work.

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

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

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

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

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

They all have their place, of course.

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

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

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

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

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

our podcast sponsors, Metricool.

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

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

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

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

Sometimes it's just getting attention.

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

What do I mean by that?

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

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

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

to people on the other side.

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

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

But realistically, it's out of our control.

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

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

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

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

others, one hour might be too short.

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

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

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

You're gonna get trolled.

It's all been said before.

All of those things.

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

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

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

leveraging LinkedIn for business growth.

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

if you can squeeze another one out.

But that takes some time to build that up.

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

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

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

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

week if you're not in that habit.

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

is how this is gonna work out.

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

We all have breaks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When it comes to leveraging LinkedIn for business growth, commenting

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

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

are building your connections.

It's where you are building your engagement.

It is where you are building your community.

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

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

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

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

from each of the comments that we do.

Why are the impressions on comments just as important as

those that come from your post?

The comment impressions are typically going to come from people that

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

Why?

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

built a unique community.

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

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

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

you are supporting them.

Yay.

Big tick.

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

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

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

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

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

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

you've been there supporting them.

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

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

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

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

Ultimately, I want you to have your own voice.

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

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

that I know that you really are.

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

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

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

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

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

and taking it to that next level.

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

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

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

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

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

Or people that are connecting and then pitching straight away.

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

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

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

farming equipment in the U.S.?

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

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

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

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

they're offering me my own services.

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

direct messages really tricky right now.

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

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

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

These days I think their guard is up.

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

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

clear strategy and take things slowly.

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

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

build up rapport and conversations.

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

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

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

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

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

don't think that that works anymore.

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

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

We have to take things into our own hands.

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

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

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

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

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

As we come around to the end of the episode.

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

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

you find the right mix of each?

Let's talk about that next.

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

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

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

super strong direct messaging game.

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

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

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

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

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

aiming for three to four posts per week.

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

Something to build up to.

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

to generate opportunities on LinkedIn.

It's hard work right now.

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

So let's talk about commenting.

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

as much as possible on a daily basis.

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

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

looking to grow your community.

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

then people don't know you exist.

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

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

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

a business if you don't get sales.

Let's talk about sending DMs next.

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

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

as well, If you're going hardcore.

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

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

recently connected with.

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

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

So let's talk numbers again.

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

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

at doing about 10 comments per day.

Thoughtful comments, supportive comments.

Comments that really stand out to other people.

And third, direct messages.

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

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

So think about those numbers.

Adapt it to your circumstances.

Like this should come with one of those disclaimers that

shows up on like insurance ads.

Just check if this is right for you.

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

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

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

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

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

grow your business on LinkedIn?

Are you doing lots more posting?

Are you doing more commenting?

Are you sending more DMs?

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

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

and I'd love to hear from you.

Until next week, cheers.