Peculiarities

LinkedIn allows users to unfollow an account without removing it as a connection. This encourages people to curate their feed and get rid of posts they don't like without removing connections.

Many interact and post in their native language and each country has its own "universe" with a language barrier separating it from others. As we've covered in one of the previous lessons, this applies to non-English-speaking countries. This is good news - it's easier to find your place and get noticed, even by the best.

Accepting connection requests from people you don't know is very common, so don't be afraid to send them, too. Do it wisely, though, and pick your connections - LinkedIn has a weekly limit of connection requests, and there likely are some overall limits, too. The point is that you should use this to establish a solid base of people who see your posts and then only add people you know or genuinely want to connect with rather than treat adding new connections as your growth strategy.

Commenting on others' posts is a great and time-effective way to reach new people and demonstrate your expertise. Just make sure your comments are on-point and useful. You won't fool anyone.

You will also notice that there are LinkedIn groups for almost any topic and industry, but they're known as a dumping ground for spam. The only exception can be highly curated groups of people who mostly know each other, but they are very rare.

Opportunity for new accounts

The good news is that most users don't generate content - and if they do, it's not much. It certainly can't be compared to the average posting frequency on X or Instagram. A relatively small number of people generates the vast majority of content on LinkedIn. The distribution algorithm is pretty favorable to posts that prove engaging.

Post signature

A very useful trick professional creators use is to put three dashes at the bottom of the post and introduce themselves in one or two sentences below it. This helps people who see the post learn who the person is without visiting the profile. It also signals that the person is into creating content and that connecting with or following them may be a good idea.

Comments

One of the indicators that signal to LinkedIn that the post is engaging is comments. When someone comments, reply and try to foster further discussion. Also, people's comments are shown to some of their followers, further expanding the post's reach.

Link in the comments

When you want to share a link, don't do it in the post itself - rather, do it in the comments. It's been tested that posts with a link in the comments have more impressions and better engagement than posts with a link in their body. The post has to be engaging, though, and provide value for the reader on its own, even without him reading the full article. Summarize the main points from the article, but make it look like a usual post and just add a line saying there's a link in the comments. Don't start the post with the words "In my new article…".

Examples of posts that work

The idea behind these posts isn't just to get the maximum number of views and engagement. The main goal should be to demonstrate your knowledge. We'll use examples from specific professions, but they're easy to apply to yours, too.

Short case studies

If you're a branding expert or designer, you can pick and redesign popular products. Post the picture of the current logo, brand, or packaging next to your concept, along with the description of why you've chosen, removed, or added certain elements, colors, etc.

Explaining decisions or problems

If you're the CTO of an e-commerce company, you can describe your reasoning behind choosing a specific online store solution.

Tips from your profession

If you're a lawyer, you can post 10 things you recommend new entrepreneurs to think about when starting a business. You can then examine each problem in depth and post it once a week.

Bad experiences

If you're an HR professional, you can write about an interesting interview and how you spotted a bad apple even though all the credentials were spotless.

Make sure these posts always have educational value - you don't want to look like you're just venting. You don't have to shy away from confronting others, but always be polite, never make it personal, and stick to the topic. Also, consider whether you're not tapping into a controversial topic that would needlessly offend and turn off people, some of whom may have been considering working with you. Of course, you may have a good reason to post it, just be prudent about it.