Fifteen minutes a day spent commenting on the right people's posts will usually do more for a small account than another post, because a comment puts your name in front of an audience you have not built yet.
That is our view, and we cannot prove it with a controlled test. What we can do is explain the mechanics LinkedIn has published, set out a routine that fits in a lunch break, and show you how to tell whether it is working.
It is one part of our wider guide to social media marketing agencies in the UK, and a natural partner to a 90-day LinkedIn posting plan.
Why comments reach people that posts do not
A post reaches your followers and some of their connections. A comment on someone else's post reaches that person's audience, many of whom have never heard of you.
LinkedIn's engineering team has described how comments are ranked. In its post on serving top comments, it says the model weighs the commenter's relationship with the viewer, including connections, follows, profile similarity and past interactions. It also looks at the commenter's reputation, such as profile view counts, and the comment's own engagement.
It adds that comments can appear in your connections' feeds when you comment on a popular post. So a good comment on a busy post can be seen by your own network and by the author's.
The post is from 2017 and LinkedIn has changed its feed since, so use it as evidence of the principle, not of today's exact weighting. The full explanation is in LinkedIn's engineering post on comment ranking.
What the evidence does not show
No independent study we could find compares the business results of commenting with posting. Plenty of agencies and tool vendors claim commenting is better and give numbers, but none we found explain their sample or method.
Socialinsider, a social analytics vendor, says comments from relevant people in the first two to three hours of a post help its distribution. We cannot verify that, so we treat it as a reasonable working assumption.
That is why we phrase our own claim as a view. The reasoning is simple and testable: you can count the profile views, replies and conversations a week of commenting produces, and compare them with a week of posting alone.
The 15-minute routine
Run this on weekdays, at the same time each day. Early morning or just before lunch works for most people because fresh posts have a few comments but not hundreds.
Minutes 0 to 4: reply on your own posts
Answer everyone who commented on your last two posts. Use their name and add a point, a question or a thank-you that means something. "Thanks" on its own wastes a free conversation.
If you posted nothing yesterday, use these four minutes on a comment thread you joined earlier.
Minutes 4 to 12: comment on four to five target posts
Open your target list of 30 people (see below) and find their latest posts. Write one real comment on each of four or five of them.
A real comment adds one of four things: a fact from your own work, a question the author did not answer, a respectful disagreement with a reason, or an example. Two to four sentences is enough.
Minutes 12 to 15: one human follow-up
Send one connection request with a short note, or one direct message to someone who engaged with you. Mention what they said, not what you sell.
Stop at 15 minutes. The routine is only sustainable if it stays small.
How to build the target list of 30
Your list should mix four groups in roughly equal numbers. Take current customers, past customers who might refer you, prospects in your sectors, and people who refer work to your sector, such as solicitors, accountants and advisers.
Include a few peers whose audiences overlap with yours. They post for the people you want to meet.
Write the list in a spreadsheet with a column for the last date you commented. Review it monthly. Drop people who never post and add people who started.
A law firm will have different referral sources from a retailer: accountants, financial advisers and other firms whose clients need legal help. Know yours before you start.
What a good comment looks like
A good comment makes the original author look good and also tells the reader something about you. Here are three shapes that work.
The extension adds one fact: "On the VAT point, the threshold works differently if you also sell through a marketplace, and it is easy to miss." Add a case from your own work if you have one, and never invent one.
The question asks something the author might want to answer: "Does this hold for firms under ten people, or does the cost change the maths?" It invites a reply, which reopens the thread for others.
The respectful disagreement gives a reason: "I would push back on the six-month figure. In our sector the cycle is closer to twelve, because the decision involves a regulator." Disagreement with a reason attracts replies. Disagreement with none starts an argument.
Avoid "Great post!", emojis in a row, and any pitch for your services. They mark you out as a bot or a salesperson.
A sample week of the routine
Here is what four weeks of the routine can look like in a log. The numbers are a template, not results, and your own will differ.
| Week | Comments written | Replies received | Profile views | Conversations started |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (baseline, no routine) | 0 | Your count | Your count | Your count |
| 2 | 20 | Your count | Your count | Your count |
| 3 | 20 | Your count | Your count | Your count |
| 4 | 20 | Your count | Your count | Your count |
Fill in the baseline week before you start. Without it you will not know whether a rise in profile views came from the routine or from a post that happened to do well.
Look for two things after four weeks. The first is whether anyone on your target list now replies to you or sends a message. The second is whether the profile views come from the kinds of people you want to reach, not from recruiters and vendors.
What to do when you have five minutes
Some days will be short. On those days, do the first four minutes only and reply to people who commented on your own posts. They have already shown interest, and an unanswered comment is the cheapest lead you can lose.
On a travel day, save three posts from your target list and comment on them in a queue later. Early comments matter more than late ones, so do not let more than a day go by.
Examples by sector
A solicitor might comment on an adviser's post about probate delays with a note on how the process differs for a business owner. An accountant might add a short point on a payroll rule under a recruiter's hiring post. A consultant might ask a question on a client's case study that the client would like to answer in public.
Each comment helps the author, answers a reader's likely question and shows what you know. None of them mentions fees, services or a link. That restraint is why the commenter ends up trusted.
For accountants, consultancies and other professional services firms, this approach fits a long sales cycle, because the reward is a name that people recognise when the need arises.
What not to do
Do not use auto-comment tools or AI-generated comment bots. LinkedIn publishes a list of prohibited software and extensions, and accounts that break the rules risk restriction. A bad comment from a bot also does your reputation more harm than silence.
Do not comment on 50 posts a day. The routine is five good comments, not fifty thin ones.
Do not copy a comment across several posts. Readers who follow the same people will see it.
Do not hijack a thread with your own links. If someone asks for a resource, offer it once and move on.
How to tell whether the routine is working
Track four numbers each Friday in a spreadsheet: comments written, replies received, profile views and conversations started. After four weeks, compare them with your pre-routine baseline.
Add one more habit. When an enquiry arrives, ask whether they had seen a comment of yours before. Many people remember a comment better than a post, because it appeared in a thread they were already reading.
Edelman and LinkedIn's 2024 report shows where this can lead. Ragan's summary says 86% of decision-makers are somewhat or very likely to invite consistent, quality thought leadership creators to a tender. Comments that show expertise count towards that kind of reputation.
How comments fit with posting
Comments do not replace posts. Posts give people a reason to look at your profile after they see a comment, and a profile with nothing on it ends the trail.
A sensible week for a founder is three or four posts and five days of the 15-minute routine. Our guide to founder-led LinkedIn against a company page explains why the personal profile should carry most of this.
If you manage the routine for a partner, such as an assistant or an agency, keep the commenter as the partner. The comments need the partner's judgement, and a delegated bot-like voice is easy to spot.
Who should skip it
Skip the routine if you cannot spare 15 minutes on at least four days a week. Doing it for two days and stopping teaches you nothing.
Skip it if your buyers are not on LinkedIn. A trades business selling to homeowners should look at local Facebook groups and Nextdoor first.
Next steps
Growthcart is a Northampton agency that works with B2B firms on social media. If you would like help building the target list, setting the routine and tracking what it produces, get in touch. We will give you a view on whether it suits your sector.
