How to Build Your LinkedIn Network Through Content Likes and Comments

There’s a lot of content being shared through LinkedIn these days. If you’re like me, though, you’re more of a consumer of content rather than a constant producer.

Can you still build your network if you’re not uploading your own unique content? Of course! Here’s how.

Like and Comment

I don’t create a huge amount of content on my feed. What I tend to do more of is consume content. Instead of just passive reading, though, I do a lot of commenting and sharing. In a lot of cases, the content that I share is my comments on other people’s posts or articles.

In many social media platforms, a like or a comment becomes a vanity metric. If you like or comment on a post on Facebook, then you’re just making that post popular but it has nothing to do with your own Facebook account.

LinkedIn is different. If you like or comment on a post, then that act brings that post into your network. So, you’re bringing the content creator into your network and you’re entering their network as well. This makes liking or commenting a powerful tool for network building.

There’s No Right or Wrong Way

Everyone has their own way of doing business. Even though some organisations manage profiles, at the end of the day, it’s still the individual that builds that human relationship.

You may want to upload a video of your achievements. You may want to upload content that you feel your network will read. It’s all up to you, but you need to constantly think which techniques will effectively connect you to the right people and to have those people look at your network.

The Power of Likes and Comments

I’m a third-generation breast cancer survivor. This cancer runs in my family. My mother had it, her grandmother and there’s a chance that one day my daughter or neice may get it. So, I volunteer for a breast cancer network in Australia by publicly speaking and sharing my family’s story with this illness. One day, a lady I did not know came up to me and thanked me for sharing my story. She said that I inspired her to get a mammogram and the doctor was able to detect the early onset of breast cancer so she could get treated right away. She said that I saved her life.

You can imagine how much of an impact her words were to me. From that moment on, I decided that if someone makes a difference to me or makes a difference in my life, I try to tell them about it whenever I can. I practice this even on LinkedIn.

I once read an interview that Daniel Roth, VP at LinkedIn News, did with Kai-Fu Lee, an artificial intelligence (AI) expert. I was listening to the interview, which was a high level of technical discussion, when Daniel started to talk to Kai-fu about his cancer journey and how his cancer impacted his business.

It was such a great example of high-level thinking that was brought back to a human level that I shared the post and tagged Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn. I just wanted to comment on how great Dan’s soft skills were and how much we all need to develop and hone such skills. Within 15 minutes, Jeff liked my shared post.

Here is a man who probably gets tagged millions of times in a day and possibly has more posts coming up on his feed, and he liked my post almost right away.

I also sent a mail to Daniel (since I’m not connected to him) just saying that it was a great interview. He replied that I would get more reach by sharing the interview as a post. Now, I didn’t share the post just to get some reach; I really, genuinely liked the interview and thought that it made a difference in my life. So, I told him so. Instead of another reply, he liked and commented on my post. Now that post has about 55,000 views.

Conclusion

It takes a lot of courage to reach out to people and talk about your views through likes and comments. But, if you take that scary first step, you might just develop a network that goes beyond what you can imagine.

What strategies do you use with your LinkedIn content? Share them with me.