4 unconventional tactics to skyrocket LinkedIn growth

For the last six months, I’ve been surveying every person that joins this newsletter. And the results are pretty clear:

• 34.3% of you say growing a valuable audience is your biggest challenge
• And 60.7% of you are using LinkedIn as your primary platform

So today I’m going to teach you four lesser-known strategies that you can use to create valuable content and build your LinkedIn following.

Let’s dive in.

Strategy #1: The Value Add Commenter

You’ll see this strategy being talked about often on X/Twitter, also known as being a “reply guy/girl”.

It refers to a person who is quick to comment and always has something valuable to add to the conversation.

And this commenting strategy works wonders on LinkedIn too.

So instead of focusing entirely on your own posts, make it a habit to leave a thoughtful comment on five to ten posts related your niche every day.

But here's the key: “Agree, Justin! The sky is blue!” doesn’t count.

You have to make your comments so valuable that they could be a standalone posts all by themselves.

It’s not easy. But it is worth the effort. Because smart commenting positions you as an expert and naturally leads to more profile visits and new followers.

To give this a try, simply use the "CEA" formula for your comments:

• Compliment the post
• Expand on one point with your own insights
• Ask a thought-provoking question to gain a reply

When you do this, you drastically increase your potential for being the “most relevant” comment and (if the post goes viral) you can even rack up hundreds of engagements and profile views.

Bonus Tip: Make sure your profile tagline is short enough to be read on each comment so people know what you do. Keith left a great comment that got some love, but his tagline cut off below so we don’t get to see his offer.

Strategy #2: The Micro-Interview

Another way to grow your account is through collaboration.

You could reach out to three influencers in your niche every week for a "micro-interview."

Ask them one specific, thought-provoking question related to their expertise. And then share their response as a post, tagging them. This is a great way to get a comment and some engagement from a big account.

You’ll provide a ton of value to your audience, and your content will get seen by the thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of people who follow the person you interviewed.

Eddie Shleyner uses this technique very effectively.

Strategy #3: The Trend Translator

Being relevant and timely is one of the most powerful plays on social media. And here’s a simple way to do this:

Set up Google Alerts for key topics in your industry. Then, when a major news story breaks, be among the first to translate what it means for your niche on LinkedIn.

You can use this simple formula to create trend translator posts:

"Breaking News + So What? + Now What?"

This recipe helps generate a ton of engagement around popular topics and current events.

Strategy #4: The Contrarian Spotlight

People love contrarian takes because they’re sick and tired of reading the same old recycled thought leadership. And you can take advantage of that.

Once a week, find a popular opinion or trend in your industry that you disagree with.

Create a post that respectfully challenges the popular opinion, and back up your position with data and/or experience.

Here’s a format you follow:

• Popular opinion: [State the common view]
• Unpopular opinion: [Your contrarian take]
• Here's why: [3-5 bullet points with your reasoning]
• What do you think? [Encourage discussion]

This helps position you as a thought leader, sparks good debates, and helps you stand out in a sea of plain vanilla content.

It also attracts followers who actually care about critical thinking and fresh perspectives. And those are the types of people you want to follow your account.

Your 30 Day Challenge:

Decide which of these strategies feels right for you, and add them to your social media process. Remember that consistency is the key here — so I want you to commit to doing this for at least 30 days to see some real results.

Keep track of your follower growth and engagement rates, and let me know how it goes.

And if you want to build a large following that you can turn into a side hustle or business, check out The LinkedIn Operating System. It includes 8 modules dedicated entirely to mastering growth and monetization on LinkedIn, including techniques that have helped my students grow their audiences by up to 500% in six months.

Join 23,000+ students and 60 LinkedIn Top Voices who are already seeing results.

That’s all for this week.

See you next Saturday.