Make fun of LinkedIn all you want but it's making me money

Originally published April 23, 2024. Updated May 21, 2026.

I was sleeping on LinkedIn for years.

I was always more of a Twitter fan so I didn’t bother with LinkedIn. I loved Twitter so much I embroidered my handle onto a jacket. I tweeted my heart out, building my professional network and reputation on the bird app over the last decade. But now that Twitter's a shadow of its former self, Instagram is toxic as hell and TikTok is in the hands of the federal government, I find myself crawling back to LinkedIn.

It’s not just me coming late to LinkedIn. The beige lady is having her moment in the sun as more people want to know if this is their golden ticket out of the hellscape that is modern marketing.

I was about ready to give up on all social when I checked my lead tracker and noticed around 25% of my new business was CLOSING with help from LinkedIn. Now, you've got my attention.

LinkedIn is a slower start than a lot of social media platforms because it relies so heavily on network effects. Most people join, post like crazy and then, give up because no one saw their posts. Posts don't go very far for new users because LinkedIn uses your close connections to determine whether your post is worth spreading wider. If your follower count is low, you have a much smaller chance that your post will go beyond the connections you already have. It takes time to build out your network so your posts actually get seen and engaged with (and then shared wider by the algorithm.)

Who has time for that though? I wanted to know the fastest ways you could get LinkedIn to pay off so I talked to a few other entrepreneurs about how they were getting leads from LinkedIn beyond posts. Four methods stood out and none of them require you to have a big following or viral post strategy in place.

• Your buyers can find you based on the keywords in your profile.
• Your comments on other posts get widely seen by potential clients.
• Your clients can tag you in reviews which show to both your networks.
• You can use DMs to drum up interest in your work.

Each of these methods on their own—with little to no network—has paid off in booked clients for the people I spoke with. Here's exactly what they each did and how it led to a sale.