Your Visibility Superpower: The Power of Commenting
You post your message, you share your heart, but nothing seems to be happening. If you have felt the sting of silence, consider learning about the 3Cs found in the Butterfly Strategy.
What is the Butterfly Strategy? Start by visualizing a butterfly: the body represents Connecting, the left wing is Commenting, and the right wing is Content. But it’s the “complete butterfly” that makes the greatest impact.
Help the Network Bloom
At the core of the Butterfly Strategy is people, because people do business with people. When we shift our focus from a sales-only focus to building a community of business friends through connecting and commenting, the entire experience of social media changes.
Think of every person’s LinkedIn profile as a flower. As a butterfly, you have the power to help those flowers bloom simply by acknowledging them through your comments. A thoughtful comment can make a person feel seen, heard, and valued.
In a digital world often filled with noise and self-promotion, commenting is an affirmation that can encourage someone and increase their self-confidence. This is how you can make a “heart difference,” by providing value along with kindness.
A meaningful comment can help build your community even more than posting on your own page. When you comment, you are acknowledging someone else. You are showing that person matters by adding value to the conversation.
Create Positive Visibility
Recent changes to the platform’s algorithm have reduced the reach of standard posts, making active engagement more vital than ever.
When you comment on a post, you boost your own visibility across various networks. Plus, engaging with others may actually improve the reach of your own future posts. If you are looking to move from being a mere “participant” to a recognized “thought leader,” your comments serve as evidence of your credibility and heart.
Impactful Commenting
If you aren’t sure where to begin or if the sting of silence or perceived rejection makes you hesitate to join a conversation, try these ideas to help you find your voice:
- Comment as a friend: To get past the fear of commenting on a stranger’s post, simply pretend you are already friends with that person. Ask yourself, “What would I say to a friend who shared this?” This mental shift helps you respond with warmth and authenticity, and often, those “pretend” friendships turn into real ones.
- Make a meaningful comment: Don’t just say “Great post!” but instead, share a meaningful comment. One idea: Find a sentence within the post that speaks to you, quote it, and explain why it resonated.
- Create a “Top 10 List”: Identify 10 people you would like to know better. Perhaps they are potential clients, collaborators, or mentors. Instead of sending them a cold sales pitch, start following them and choose two of them each day to engage with via commenting on their posts. By consistently showing up on their posts, you are subtly calling attention to your own message while keeping the focus on them.
Maintain Trust and Integrity
One note of caution relating to outsourcing any of the 3Cs. If you choose to outsource content creation, be sure to choose someone who captures your authentic voice. But please don’t outsource your connecting or commenting.
The reason why is because if someone else comments on your behalf, they can never truly replicate your voice. If you later meet a connection (who could be a potential client) on a “virtual coffee chat,” that person may be basing their opinion of you in part on the comments that have been made “in your name.” If you weren’t the one who actually made those comments, it could lead to a disconnect that damages the trust and integrity that you’ve worked so hard to build.
Help Others Bloom
Look at commenting as a catalyst, as a way to make “flowers” in your LinkedIn garden bloom. Or think of commenting as a bridge that allows people to walk back and forth to join one another.
If you are currently in the “chrysalis of hesitation,” afraid of how your words will be perceived, remember this: someone is waiting to hear your message and they will miss out on a transformation if you don’t share it.
So step out of the cocoon. By helping others bloom through your comments, you may find that your own mission begins to soar with clarity, confidence, and joy.
The Foundation for an Impactful Business
Commenting is one part of building the foundation for an impactful business/organization. It is the key to opening the door to a conversation. Plus, meaningful commenting can help you build a community of business friends, collaborators, and clients.
One note: while commenting is vital to this impact, it reaches its full potential only when combined with the other two “Cs” – connecting and content creation. Connecting is getting to know people. Content will have more meaning after you have connected with someone who is already curious about you.
This article focused on the second “C” of commenting. There is a lot more to share about it, along with the other two “Cs” which can be found in my book, “The Butterfly Strategy: Transform Online Connections into Community and Clients.”
This book is available at: valroskenstews.com/
