Wanna build your LinkedIn network fast? Don’t wanna spend hours crafting connection request messages only to be left “pending” forever? Not to fear: all you unquestionably need to do is scuttlebutt on other people’s posts.

But what kind of comments are best? Where do you leave them? What should you say? How long do they need to be? Turns out, maybe not as long as you think…

As the world’s most popular business-focused social platform with over 950 million people, LinkedIn is the weightier place to build your professional network. This can lead to heady opportunities, like a new job or rhadamanthine largest known in your industry with a strong personal brand.

Here’s what really works to build your network.

Hypothesis: Longer LinkedIn comments get you increasingly connection requests

We’ve all seen those one or two-word LinkedIn comments, like “Well said!” or “Agree!”.

Any scuttlebutt is largest than no scuttlebutt when it comes to attracting new LinkedIn connections. But my proposition was that leaving increasingly personalized, specific, longer comments would result in increasingly profile views and connections.

It’s kinda like stuff at a party. Who do you remember talking to most: the ten people full of weather updates, or the two people you unquestionably had something in worldwide with?

In real life, we all like a bit increasingly substance in our interactions, right? I figured this experiment would be a slam dunk for all of us nerdy n’ wordy people.

But LinkedIn isn’t real life, is it? When you’re purely looking at growing your network and opportunities instead of making a new BFF, which type of scuttlebutt was increasingly effective? I found out.

Methodology

To test whether short or long comments get largest results on LinkedIn, I ran a two-week experiment. Each week, I left the same number of comments on the same types of posts well-nigh topics I usually engage with. I did this so the LinkedIn algorithm didn’t transpiration what it showed me week-to-week, which would’ve potentially skewed results. Plus, I only commented on posts by people who weren’t once my connections.

To remoter ensure the verism of this rigid scientific endeavor, I moreover kept everything else I did on LinkedIn the same as usual. Meaning: I stayed too shy to reach out to anyone, didn’t initiate any connection requests, ignored the 431 recruiter DMs in my inbox, and unfurled to put links in the soul of my posts even though I know I shouldn’t.

The tools I used for this experiment were:

• My smart-ass for wondrous comments
• Hootsuite to auto-schedule my content at the best possible times and analytics
• LinkedIn Premium for personal profile analytics

My scientificprocess for this experiment was:

• During Week 1, I left a total of 40 short, generic comments on posts by people I wasn’t once unfluctuating with.
• During Week 2, I left a total of 40 longer, personalized comments on posts by people I wasn’t once unfluctuating with.

Here’s what I did each week in detail.

Step 1: Found posts to scuttlebutt on

Every day, I logged into LinkedIn and found posts to scuttlebutt on in a few ways:

• Scrolling my home feed
• Searching for posts well-nigh topics I usually read well-nigh (e.g. social media, marketing, freelancing, dogs wearing sweaters, etc)
• Posts within groups I’m in

Step 2: Leaving a comment

In the first week, I wrote the shortest possible comments I could think of, like this one-word wonder.

Sometimes I didn’t use any words at all.

After a few days, I became surprised at how many new connection requests I was getting, and that my short, meaningless comments were moreover getting replies.

In the second week, I focused on leaving personalized comments that showed I really read the person’s post or tried to add something new to the discussion.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these longer comments earned increasingly replies than the previous week’s short ones. Even though many of those “conversations” didn’t result in new connections, it was nice to discuss new ideas with others.

Step 3: Tracking the data

The main proposition of this experiment was to see whether short or long comments got me increasingly profile views and connection requests. But, I moreover tracked how many new followers (not connections) I got as well as how many reactions and replies my comments received.

Each day, I tallied up those metrics. I used LinkedIn Premium to see the precise data for profile views and manually counted reactions, replies, and connection requests.

Results

TL;DR

• Longer, personalized comments did bring in increasingly connection requests than short, generic ones — though it was not a huge difference (10 vs 8).
• Longer comments had a much increasingly significant impact on profile views, earning 24 vs. 14 from Week 1.
• Longer comments received way increasingly replies (14 vs 6) than short comments.
• Strangely, shorter comments got increasingly reactions (e.g. likes) than longer comments (20 vs 12).

Overall, here’s all the data from the two week experiment:

So, if new connections are your goal, short and generic comments can get you there.

That said, longer comments brought in increasingly replies and opened up unconfined discussions with others. While not proven (yet), it’s realistic to think that this tumor in engagement could be picked up on by the LinkedIn algorithm, potentially bringing increasingly eyeballs to your content.

What do the results mean?

As I unchangingly suspected, I’m not that popular. But what does this experiment midpoint for you?

Well, if you’re just without new connections, much as I hate to say this, you could probably spend 10 minutes a day leaving generic comments and quickly grow your LinkedIn network to hundreds — maybe thousands — connections. Ugh.

This really isn’t a bad strategy, as shallow as it sounds. LinkedIn recently updated their algorithm to prioritize “professional” content that focuses on “knowledge and advice” (e.g. no lunchtime selfies!). The changes moreover midpoint you’re increasingly likely to see content from people you’re unfluctuating with (or follow).

That ways to get the most reach on LinkedIn in 2024, you should focus on getting lots of connections. Quantity over quality.

I’ll leave the moral dubiousness of that to you, but when it comes to time vs. value, it is largest to leave short comments and get a lot of connections/followers for the least value of time and effort.

Really, though? Isn’t it largest to have 1,000 true fans instead of 10,000 followers who don’t superintendency that much well-nigh your content?

It depends on what your LinkedIn goals are. Do you want to wilt an original thought leader and expert in your field? Land speaking gigs? Book interviews? Weightier to stick to longer, personalized comments to build in-depth connections and your personal brand.

Or do you want to scale up quickly, towers a large pursuit first without focusing as much on your original content or brand, at least for now? Then go along and spray n’ pray those short, AI-like comments.

There is a middle ground here. Your comments don’t need to be totally generic. Sometimes short comments can still be highly relevant to the content.

Original, thoughtful comments sound like they’re largest but when it comes to getting results on LinkedIn, this experiment shows you can get very similar results with a lot less time and effort.

Or, combine the weightier of both worlds and use an AI tool like EngageAI to automate leaving personalized comments on LinkedIn that are still insightful, but take a fraction of the time to write. (Oh yeah, and it integrates with Hootsuite too — woo!)

You can be the smartest thought leader that has overly lived, but what good is that unless you have an regulars to see your content?

Whichever method you segregate for towers your LinkedIn network, never forget the basics; ABC: Unchangingly Be Connecting.

Easily manage and grow your LinkedIn presence slantingly all of your other social finance with Hootsuite, your all-in-one social media management tool. Besides scheduling content, you can monitor and reply to comments, alimony tabs on competitors, and uplift your posts for increasingly reach. Try it today.

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