How to Become Visible Through Comments

If you are relying mainly on publishing content on LinkedIn® to keep you visible, you may be overlooking one of the most useful visibility opportunities available to you right now: the comments you make inside other people’s conversations.

For example, LinkedIn® has changed significantly over the past and this year. Your content is no longer guaranteed to be shown predominantly to the people already connected to you, which means creating more and more posts is not necessarily the only, or even the most effective, way to stay visible.

A thoughtful comment underneath someone else’s post can put your perspective in front of people who may never have seen your own content. But that only works when the comment actually says something.
“Great post” or “I completely agree” might be friendly, but it tells the reader almost nothing about your experience, your expertise or the way you think.

Comments are increasingly a form of visibility, in written and in verbal conversation, on social media and particularly LinkedIn.

And one of the main verbal conversation opportunities happen inside professional networking conversations.

You have more than one opportunity to become visible

When you participate in a networking meeting, you usually have one obvious opportunity to say something about yourself: your introduction.

But I have learned from my own experience that the way you use that introduction can either make people curious about you or make them stop listening before you have finished.

I know this because I used to make that mistake myself.

When I was expanding my marketing agency globally, I wanted people to know all the different types of marketing I could help with. I would mention social media, SEO, websites, email marketing and other services because I thought that if I left something out, I might miss the person in the room who needed exactly that service.

Then I would add my qualifications and background because I wanted people to understand that I had experience behind what I was saying.

I was a qualified photographer and had moved into marketing through advertising and marketing photography. I loved the visual side of marketing, became increasingly interested in how advertising worked, and later studied for my marketing diploma.

All of that felt relevant to me.

The problem was that I was trying to fit years of experience, several services and my professional background into one networking introduction.

And I could see what happened.

In physical networking rooms, people’s eyes started to glaze over. Online, people would begin looking away from the screen or doing something else while I was still talking.

The issue was not that I had too little to say.

It was that I was saying too much at once.

The more you try to explain, the less people may remember

I still see experienced coaches, consultants and experts doing this today.

They have several services, multiple qualifications, years of experience and perhaps more than one type of client they can help. Then, when they get 30 or 60 seconds to introduce themselves, they want to make sure nothing important is left out.

The thinking is completely understandable: “If different people need different things, I should mention all the things I can do.”

But that is where the introduction can come undone.

When people hear too much information in a short space of time, they do not necessarily remember more. Quite often they remember less.

That became one of the lessons I carried forward from my own networking experience and into the online networking I’ve now created.

Your introduction does not need to explain everything you have ever done.

It needs to help people understand what you want them to remember about you.

That is why I created my Impact Introduction Templates for Global Business Networking LIVE Online. They are designed to help you position your expertise clearly without feeling you have to squeeze your entire professional history into one minute.

But that created another question.

If we deliberately make introductions shorter and clearer, where do people get the opportunity to demonstrate all the depth behind them?

That is where the second commenting opportunity comes in.

The Guided Discussion lets people experience how you think

Every one of my Global Business Networking LIVE Online Boardroom session includes a Guided Discussion.

The purpose is not simply to fill time with another networking activity. It is deliberately designed to give every participant another opportunity to become visible through their contribution.

Instead of telling people more about what you do, you can show them how you think about something relevant.

You can explain what you have seen in your work.

You can share an example.

You can add a different perspective.

You can respectfully disagree with something another person has said and explain why your experience has led you to a different conclusion.

You might begin with something as simple as:

“In my experience working with leadership teams, I see this differently because…”

Or:

“One thing I have noticed with my clients is…”

That contribution immediately gives the other people in the room more information about you than another list of services ever could.

They begin to understand your thinking, your values, your experience and the way you approach problems.

That is where familiarity can begin turning into trust.

The same principle works on LinkedIn®

This is why I see such a strong connection between LinkedIn® commenting and networking conversations.

A good LinkedIn® comment is not there simply to get your name underneath somebody else’s post.

It is an opportunity to contribute something useful enough that another reader becomes curious about the person who wrote it.

A good networking discussion contribution, at my online networking, works exactly the same way.

You are entering someone else’s conversation and adding enough value for people to notice how you think.

In both cases, I would suggest asking yourself:

Can I add something here that helps people understand my expertise?

That might mean sharing a short personal experience. It might mean adding an angle nobody has mentioned. It might mean challenging an assumption. Or it might simply mean explaining why something matters from the perspective of the work you do.

The objective is not to turn every comment into a promotional message.

It is to become recognisable through the quality of your contribution.

This is becoming more important, not less

I have relied on networking throughout very different stages of my business life, from my jewellery business and office supplies business through to my marketing agency and later my book writing, publishing and marketing work.

What I repeatedly experienced was that business opportunities grew when people did more than simply know my name.

They knew enough about me to understand what I did.

They had heard me talk.

They had seen how I thought.

They had conversations with me.

And eventually, when somebody in their network needed something connected to my expertise, they could think of me.

That experience is one of the reasons I have built Global Business Networking LIVE Online around a 3-Pillar Trust-Building Visibility System.

The ‘Impact Introduction’ helps you become clearer and more memorable.

The ‘Guided Discussion’ gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise rather than simply announce it.

And ‘Visibility Through Others’ helps that understanding travel further through the people who hear you, remember you, introduce you, recommend you and connect you into their own networks.

LinkedIn® may continue changing the way it distributes our posts. AI may continue making it easier for everyone to produce increasingly polished content.

But conversation still gives people something different.

It lets them experience the person behind the words.

And that is why I believe one of the most valuable visibility skills we can develop now is knowing how to contribute well — whether that is a comment on someone else’s LinkedIn® post or LIVE inside a professional networking conversation.

…and if you would like to experience my LIVE Online Networking Boardroom Visibility, use below link and get access to a Guest Pass to the next networking opportunity.

You will receive the ‘Impact Introduction Templates’ with your registration and have the opportunity to introduce your expertise clearly and participate in our Guided Discussion.

Because sometimes becoming more visible does not require another piece of content.

It requires entering the right conversation — and giving people something worth remembering.