There is a specific flavour of LinkedIn failure where the numbers look fine and the business result is zero: forty comments a post, all from other people who do what you do. Encouraging, useless.
The diagnosisWhy your comments are all from peers.
Peers comment because your post is about the craft. Buyers comment because your post is about their problem. Most founder content is quietly written for peers, because peers are who the founder talks to all day.
Two versions of the same post
Openers that invite a real answer.
The reliable pattern is a specific situation your buyer has personally been inside, described in their language, with the outcome stated up front. Then a question they have a real opinion about.
Avoid the two dead ends: the question so open it is work to answer ("what do you think about AI?"), and the question so closed it needs no typing ("agree?").
Question types, by reply rate
The warm-up that decides your reach.
Fifteen to twenty minutes of thoughtful commenting on other people's posts, before you publish, changes the distribution of your own post. Not by trickery: it puts your name in the feeds of the exact people whose engagement you want, at the moment you are about to appear there.
Comment on posts by your buyers, not by your peers. This is the single most-skipped step in every program we take over.
The real channelReplies are where the business happens.
Every comment gets a reply, written by a human, that adds something. Not "thanks!" and not an AI paraphrase of what they said. Ask them a follow-up. Disagree politely. Tell them the part you left out of the post.
A comment thread with six real exchanges outperforms a post with two hundred likes, both in the algorithm and in the only place that counts: the DM that arrives two weeks later.
Frequently asked questions
Why are only my peers commenting on my posts?
Peers comment on posts about the craft. Buyers comment on posts about their problem. Most founder content is written for peers without the founder noticing.
What kind of question gets the most comments?
A question that asks for a judgement call, or asks which of two things is worse. Avoid questions that are so open they feel like work and ones that only need a "yes".
What is warm-up commenting?
Fifteen to twenty minutes of thoughtful comments on your buyers' posts before you publish your own. It puts your name in front of the people whose engagement you want right before your post appears.
How should I reply to comments on my posts?
Reply to every comment yourself and add something: a follow-up question, a polite disagreement, or the part you left out of the post. Skip "thanks!" and AI paraphrases.
Is a high comment count a good sign?
Only if the comments come from buyers. A thread with six real exchanges does more than a post with two hundred likes, both for reach and for the DM that arrives two weeks later.
