Part 2 - How to expand your LinkedIn Network

... and not feel like a total weirdo doing it

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This is a 3 part series about expanding your LinkedIn network:

1. Building Your Foundational Network (Find the Right People & Get Them to Accept Your Requests)

2. Engaging With Your Network (How to Build Relationships Beyond the ‘Add Connection’ Button) ← You Are Here

3. Expanding Your Network Through Content Creation (Attract New Connections Without Cold Outreach)

Why LinkedIn Matters

LinkedIn has evolved beyond networking into a storytelling, thought leadership, and authentic connection platform.

Is it full of cringey humblebragging try-hards? Absolutely. I mean, just look at my banner above. It’s like playing influencer BINGO.

• Photo of me on stage? ✅

• Random mention of Stanford (“she doesn’t even go here!”)? ✅

  

• Top Voice badge? ✅

Gag.

But it is undoubtedly the best place to build your professional brand and network globally. So, hate it or love it, LinkedIn is here to stay.

Part 2: Engaging With Your Network

How to Build Relationships Beyond the 'Add Connection' Button

So, you’ve built your foundational network. You’ve sent connection requests. Some of them even accepted.

Great.

Most people stop there and never really leverage their network. Or worse - they never pop up unless they need something.

So here’s how to show up consistently and engage with your network without being annoying.

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1. Interacting Without Being Annoying

The key to engagement is showing up in a way that feels natural. If the only time you interact is when you're asking for something, people will notice. If you want to build relationships, mix up how you engage.

How to interact like a non-weirdo

• Reshare posts with your own take. Instead of just clicking "Share," add a quick note. Why did this post stand out to you? What’s your perspective?

• Congratulate people on milestones. Promotions, new jobs, big wins. A quick, personal comment or message goes a long way.

• Vote in polls and join discussions. These take two seconds and keep you visible. Bonus points if you leave a comment explaining your vote.

• Message people when it actually makes sense. If you’ve been engaging with someone’s posts for a while, sending a quick message feels natural. Cold messaging out of nowhere does not.

2. Commenting With Purpose

If you want to get noticed on LinkedIn without writing posts yet, comments are the cheat code. A good comment can get more attention than a post, especially if you’re engaging with the right people. The best part? You don’t have to overthink it.

What makes a comment actually good?

• It adds something to the conversation. Agreeing is fine, but explaining why makes you stand out.

• It makes people want to respond. Asking a question, making a joke, or stating an experience is an easy way to start a conversation.

• It sounds like a real person wrote it. Stop using AI to write comments. Seriously, stop it. It’s giving disingenuous. It’s giving lazy.

Examples of comments that actually work

Here are 2 quick examples showing how to avoid overly generic langugage and instead make an authentic attempt at driving conversation:

❌ "Great post!" (You and 50 other people.)
✅ "This is a solid point. I tried something similar last year but struggled with [challenge]. How did you get past that?"

❌ "I totally agree!" (Okay, but why?)
✅ "This made me rethink my approach. I always assumed [opposite view], but your take makes sense. Curious if you've seen [related thing] happen in your industry?"

And, if you’re like me, you’ll want to throw in some jokes. Here’s some fun my friend Jade Wilson and I had on her recent post.

When should I comment?

Once you start to get into a flow of commenting you’ll find your own style. Most of my comments are jokes (is anyone suprised?) and I like to engage early on content that I find valuable and is likely to go viral.

My friend Ryan Peterman is the king of viral content. He just releases hit after hit.

Sometimes I’ll get in early on one of his posts and ride his viral coattails.

3. Posting Without Overthinking

If commenting is the easiest way to get noticed, posting is the best way to attract engagement to your own profile. But a lot of people hesitate because they feel like they have nothing groundbreaking to say.

Here’s the truth: Your posts don’t have to be deep, viral, or perfect. You just have to be real.

I can always tell when someone is new to posting because they hesitate to share anything that might seem controversial. I am not talking avoiding political content. I am talking about being fearful of sharing mundane opinions.

Here’s the thing - you’re going to share things that people don’t like. That is an inevitability. You need to accept that or you’ll find yourself paralyzed and unable to post anything.

And I totally get it - people on LinkedIn often give weird “hall monitor” energy as if they’re in a final-round interview for the PC police. But trying to please everyone is the opposite of authentic. As long as you’re not sharing openly hateful or disparaging opinions, I think sharing things like “big tech has no idea how to interview” and “AI is coming for the anti-social ‘basement engineers’” is not just fine - it’s the only thing that makes LinkedIn even moderately bearable.

/rant

Here’s how to write better content:

• Short paragraphs. No one reads a wall of text.

• A strong first sentence. People decide whether to click "See More" in a few seconds. You need a good hook if people are going to read what you wrote and click “read more.” Keep your hook interesting and no longer than 2 lines + an indent.

• Use humor wisely. Stop being robotic. Make a joke or 2. I promised it won’t kill you.

• Be personal and genuine. Please don’t use ChatGPT to write. It is obvious to everyone and nobody except weirdos fall in love with ChatGPT. Unless you want most people to feel “meh” about you, don’t do it.

I wrote an e-book about this very topic that goes into way more detail about how I write non-boring content. You can pick it up here.

As always, share if this resonated with you and recommend Good at Business to your friends, family, and enemies.

✌️ Carly

Want More? Here are some other rants.

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