Last week I reached 5K followers on LinkedIn.

I was stoked. Pumped.

It was a goal of mine when I started back in February 2023.

But there was a problem I hadn't predicted…

My bank account didn’t magically increase when it happened.

Shocking right?

Overnight when my following went from 4,999 to 5,000...

LinkedIn didn't instantly send $10,000 to my bank account.

(I hope you can feel the sarcasm by now)

I say to this highlight 1 thing.

Nobody celebrates or cares about your follower count more than you.

The milestones are cool…I’m not saying they’re not.

But nobody is going to send you a plaque, trophy, or bank transfer when you hit a certain number…

What I did get that day was a voice note in my DMs from another creator.

He reached out because I hadn’t posted in 4 days.

—I was working on going public with my new agency.

He said:

“Hey man, I noticed you haven’t posted in a few days. Hope everything is going well and hope to see your creating again soon.”

This struck a chord with me.

Not because I was flattered (it didn't hurt though)

But because it reminded me I'm on the right path.

Let me explain...

There's a reason you've never seen me post:

"The top 10 ChatGPT plugins"

OR

"10 Ted Talks that will change your life"

Are they great for followers? Hell yeah.

Are they great for likes and impression? Absofrickenlutely

But are they great for building an engaged network? You know the answer here.

No.

Now I'm not being condescending here...

I'll occasionally throw in a top of funnel post too.

But it's always geared towards educating or entertaining my audience.

I keep it as broad as possible for my niche.

While still making sure it’s useful for them.

With all that being said.

The real lesson here is:

Focus on building relationships over followers.

An engaged network beats an uninvolved following every day of the week.

If your first thought is

"Damn Darion that sounds like a real time commitment"

Guess what? It is.

That's what makes it so valuable.

That's what makes having an engaged audience so hard for most people to get.

I'll shoot straight with you. I've put in an hour a day for the last year.

I've missed a couple days here and there, and mostly take Sundays off.

But that's what's worked for me (this doesn't include time to write content)

I highly recommend you do this as a minimum.

And to be clear...

I'm not here saying follower count doesn't matter.

That would be silly.

Of course more eyes and more traffic are good things.

But imagine if everyone who visited your profile saw 10,000 followers and the engagement of a 1,000 follower account.

Something would feel off right?

Now imagine you have 3 thousand followers but the engagement of a 15,000 account.

That's the real goal.

This is the way to build a community.

Of course there is nuance to this.

For example, likes and comments are quantifiable and easy to measure...

But the strength of relationships isn't.

So how you measure them?

The biggest measuring stick I use is my DMs.

How often are people messaging you?

What are the messages like?

Are they just cold pitches? Or genuine questions and conversations?

You'll find out pretty quick what your relationship with your audience is like this way.

*Quick note

If you're having trouble creating engaging content that resonates, make sure to go through my free 3-day writing challenge:

(If you already have and are still struggling, make sure to go through again)

Once you start writing with real psychological principles there's no way it won't hit with your audience.

Always remember building relationships is a two-sided deal.

If you feel someone is being transactional with you, don't engage with them.

It's ok.

This is a long-term game...

People playing short term ones aren't the people you want to build a network with anyways.

Now to the good stuff.

How the heck do you actually do this?

How do you actually build a community vibe online where people are excited to engage with you and your content?

After lots of experimenting I found 1 approach to be the most effective (and efficient)

I call it:

The Triple R Approach

It works on any social media platform (since it's based on human nature).

I just so happened to use it on LinkedIn to build my network.

So feel free to apply it to X, Threads, Instagram, wherever you're most active.

You'll see pretty quickly how I was able to build not only a 5K audience,

But the engagement of accounts double my size.

Alright let's dig into this.

--

The ‘Triple R’ Approach

The First R: Reply

When you’re early in your journey you don’t have enough eyes on you to expect attention.

You have to go get it.

The best way?

Other people’s audiences.

A few things to keep in mind:

🔹Comment on accounts in a similar niche

(This guarantees their audience will take interest in your content too)

🔹Don’t only hit big accounts, hit mostly ones of similar size to you

(They’re more likely to do it back)

🔹Never leave “Great post” or “Thanks for sharing”

(I always write a story, a compliment, or add a tip/piece of knowledge onto theirs)

A good rule of thumb is never write a reply less than 5 words.

Doing this is a double whammy because you also get the creators attention.

This creates ‘reciprocity’

In other words…

By consistently replying on their stuff, they’ll feel inclined to do it back.

The Second R: Write Content

Alright, I know it’s not an R, but I actually thought it was hilarious.

Way more than I should. But it sounds like an R right?

Anyways.

To gain attention you have to join the game.

If you’ve never written content before, start small here.

The goal is to create a writing schedule that is sustainable.

If you need to start with 1 post a week, start there.

Just make sure over time you’re increasing it.

Here’s an in depth breakdown of how to approach writing content the right way:

The Third R: Reach Out

All those accounts you’ve been commenting on, people you’ve seen commenting on your posts…

Reach out to them.

Shoot them a DM.

Now most people do this wrong.

They’ll write a DM saying:

“Hey, I love your stuff, I’ve been on LinkedIn for months, I this, I that, I blah blah blah”

Don’t be this person.

The real secret to DMing the right way?

Make it about them.

Ask them questions. Show genuine interest.

It’ll make you 10X more unique than anyone else who’s in their inbox.

—-

BAM.

That’s it.

Simple and repeatable.

Life is already complicated enough.

Let’s not make this over complicated too.

If you follow the ‘Triple R’ approach consistently it’s impossible not to see results.

And over time, you’ll watch your engagement skyrocket.

—

Appreciate you being here,

Until we see again,

Darion.

P.S 

Did you miss it?

I did a LinkedIn live with Taylin Simmonds yesterday.

We went over some super actionable writing strategies.

We also covered some tips and tricks you can add to your writing game instantly.

Here’s the link to the recording: