How to Turn People Who Engaged With Your LinkedIn Post Into Real Conversations

Most people treat post engagement as a scoreboard. Forty reactions, six comments, nice. Then they move on, and the people behind those numbers drift back into the scroll.

Those people are worth more than the number. Each one saw your post, thought about it for a second, and did something visible about it. This guide is about turning a few of them, every week, into actual conversations, without coming across as someone who stalks their likes.

Why engagers are the warmest list you have

They acted in public

A reaction on LinkedIn is not private. LinkedIn's help page says: "Posts and comments that you like or react to will be shared with your network, and they'll be informed of the reaction you chose."^[1] Commenting is even more public. So an engager has chosen to attach their name to your post where their own network can see it. A cold contact has done nothing of the sort.

You already have context

The hardest part of any first message is the reason for writing. With an engager, the reason is right there: the post, and what they said about it. You do not need to invent an excuse or open with a compliment about their profile.

People like being contacted more than we think

In experiments with more than 5,900 participants, people who reached out to others "significantly underestimated the extent to which recipients would appreciate the act of reaching out." The gap was bigger when the message was more surprising or "the social ties between the two participants were weak."^[2] Engagers are often exactly that: weak ties who would not expect a personal note from you.

A related finding: after conversations, people "systematically underestimate how much their conversation partners like them," in part because they are too critical of their own performance.^[3] If your first exchange with an engager feels a bit awkward to you, it probably did not to them.

Where to find them

The names are on the post itself: the list of reactions and the comments. LinkedIn's post analytics add counts that help you judge a post's pull, including profile viewers ("the total number of distinct members and Page admins who viewed your profile from your post") and followers gained from that post.^[4] Those two numbers tell you a post made people curious about you; the reactions list and comments tell you who.

Do not stop at your own posts. When someone replies to a comment you left on another person's post, that is engagement too, and often from someone outside your network. If you comment for reach (see why commenting beats posting for reach), those replies are some of the best openings you will get.

Who to message first

You do not need to message everyone, and you should not. Sort engagers roughly like this:

1. Commenters who said something specific. They put in the most effort and gave you the most to respond to.
2. People who match what you are working on. A potential customer, investor, hire or partner reacting to your post is a much better opening than a cold message would ever be.
3. Repeat engagers. Someone who reacts to post after post is quietly following your work. They are usually happy to hear from you.
4. Old contacts who resurfaced. A former colleague you have not spoken to in years who reacts to your post has just given you a natural reason to reconnect. Our guide to working your weak ties explains why these people are often the most valuable.

Three to five messages from one post is plenty. The goal is a few real conversations, not a sent-message count.

How fast to respond

Public replies: same day. LinkedIn's own feed explainer says "the more valuable the conversation, the higher in your feed the post will be," and advises: "Engage in the conversation, respond to commenters and encourage back and forth."^[7] Replying to comments is good manners and good for the post.

Private messages: within a day or two. There is no study that gives an ideal delay for this, so this is our rule of thumb. The post is still fresh in their mind, so "thanks for your comment on my post about X" makes sense to them. Two weeks later, it needs more explanation. Do not message within minutes of a reaction, though. That can feel like you were watching.

What to say

LinkedIn only lets you message 1st-degree connections for free.^[5] For everyone else, you send a connection request with a note. Either way, the message has the same three parts:

1. The specific thing they did. Their comment, or the post they reacted to.
2. Something of yours that adds to it. A follow-up thought, a resource, a question.
3. An easy question about them. Something they can answer in two lines.

To a commenter you are connected to

To someone who reacted

Keep reactions lighter than comments. A like is a small signal, so the message should be small too.

To an engager you are not connected to

Connection notes are short. LinkedIn's help page says free accounts can personalize up to three connection requests a month, at up to 200 characters each, with no limit for Premium members.^[6] The same page suggests a good note includes how you found the person or what you have in common, why you would like to connect now, and a polite tone, for example by referencing "a shared role, event, group, or post."^[6] A post they engaged with is the perfect reference:

For more on writing messages that do not sound generated, see AI outreach that doesn't sound like AI.

How not to be creepy

The line between thoughtful and creepy is mostly about where your information came from. Research on targeted ads offers a useful frame. Kim, Barasz and John found that consumers judged the use of their information as acceptable or not based on whether it was "obtained within versus outside of the website" and "stated by the consumer versus inferred by the firm," with outside and inferred information seen as less acceptable. Revealing unacceptable uses made ads less effective.^[8] That study is about ads, not messages, so this is our application of it, but it maps neatly:

• Fine: referring to what they said or did on your post. They shared it, on LinkedIn, with you.
• Fine: referring to their public role or a job change they announced.
• Creepy: mentioning things you dug up elsewhere, or guessing at their situation ("looks like your team is struggling with...").
• Creepy: noting how fast they reacted, or listing everything they have liked.

A few more rules that keep you on the right side:

• No pitch in the first message. If there is a fit, it will come up when they answer your question.
• One follow-up at most. If they do not reply, leave it. You can always engage with their posts instead.
• Do not message every liker. LinkedIn's policies prohibit "untargeted, irrelevant, obviously unwanted" or "gratuitously repetitive" messages, and say not to use invitations "to send promotional messages to people you don't know."^[9]
• Write and send each message yourself. LinkedIn's User Agreement bans using "bots or other unauthorized automated methods" to "send or redirect messages" or "otherwise drive inauthentic engagement."^[10] Automated "thanks for the like" messages are exactly what makes people wary of engaging at all.

From hello to a real conversation

If they reply, ask a second question before you share anything about yourself. Two or three messages back and forth is a conversation. Only then suggest a call, and give a reason: "Want to compare notes for 20 minutes? I would love to hear how you set that up."

Keep showing up after the chat too. LinkedIn says its feed uses "who you interact with frequently or recently" as a signal.^[11] Talking with someone and engaging with their posts tends to keep you in each other's feeds, which gives you more natural reasons to stay in touch. If it has been a while, our guide to reconnecting with old connections has messages that work after a long silence.

A 15-minute routine after every post

1. Same day: reply to every comment publicly with something more than "thanks."
2. Next day: open the reactions list and comments. Pick three to five people who matter for your goal.
3. Write each message by hand: what they did, what you add, a question about them.
4. Note who you wrote to and why, so a reply a week later does not catch you without context.
5. A week later: reply to replies, and follow up once with anyone you really want to hear from.

How wait who? helps

wait who? keeps the list for you. It shows who engaged with your recent posts and splits them into your connections, your followers and people from outside your network, so you can see who your posts are actually reaching. It ranks your network for the goal you are working on, so the few people worth a message stand out from the forty reactions, and it drafts a message you edit and send yourself. Nothing goes out without your click. If you sell, see how sellers use engagement to start warm conversations.

FAQ

Sources

1. Like, unlike, and react to posts or comments. LinkedIn Help.
2. Friends enjoy being reached out to more than we think. ScienceDaily, July 2022, from an American Psychological Association release on Liu, Rim, Min and Min, 'The Surprise of Reaching Out' (more than 5,900 participants).
3. The liking gap in conversations: do people like us more than we think? (Boothby, Cooney, Sandstrom and Clark). Psychological Science, 2018. Summary on co-author Gus Cooney's site.
4. Post analytics for your content. LinkedIn Help.
5. LinkedIn Messaging: Overview. LinkedIn Help.
6. Personalize invitations to connect. LinkedIn Help.
7. What's in your LinkedIn feed: People You Know, Talking About Things You Care About. LinkedIn, January 2019.
8. Why am I seeing this ad? The effect of ad transparency on ad effectiveness (Kim, Barasz and John). Journal of Consumer Research, 2019. Abstract on Ramon Llull University's research portal.
9. Professional Community Policies. LinkedIn.
10. User Agreement. LinkedIn, section 8.2.
11. LinkedIn relevance: Optimizing the member experience. LinkedIn Help.