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Commenting on LinkedIn posts is a proven social selling strategy, but posting “great content” or something else that is generic and blah won’t help you stand out. But this LinkedIn AI tool – Engage AI – which we discuss in this podcast episode, can help.
Engage AI helps you write comments faster to the right prospects, which in turn can help you stand out and move to conversion quicker.
On this episode of “The Business Storytelling Show,” I’m joined by Engage AI Managing Director Jason Tan. We discuss:
- What prompted the development of Engage AI?
- How do people use it best to make the most out of this LinkedIn AI tool?
- What makes a good LinkedIn comment anyway?
- Best practices for using AI on LinkedIn to connect.
How does the Engage AI Chrome extension work?
If you use Chrome, you can download the Engage AI Chrome extension, which helps integrate the process into Chrome. Once installed, go to a LinkedIn comment, click the tone you want to reply in, and then Engage AI spits out a draft comment that you can review, update or post.
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Using AI to Write Better LinkedIn Comments
Generic comments like “Great post!” may seem harmless on LinkedIn. However, they don’t really provide value or foster engagement.
As Jason explains: “A lot of people the way they are commenting is to say, ‘Hey, thanks for sharing, I love it great insight,’ really they are deploying that commenting for attention strategy.”
While these types of comments may help grab some attention, they fall short of meaningful engagement. As Jason notes: “If you really want to get much better attention, ‘Thank you for sharing great insight’ is not going to cut it.”
So how can you move beyond hollow praise and platitudes? This is where artificial intelligence can assist. Engage AI specifically helps users craft better LinkedIn comments.
Here’s Jason summarizes the goal of Engage AI: “We are not really asking the AI to replace us and pump out some rubbish content or rubbish comments in any way. Give me the baseline and I’ll work from that.”
In other words, AI generates comment suggestions, but human editing and personalization is still essential.
Some people mistakenly expect AI tools to work magic without oversight. But quality still requires human refinement.
So Engage AI is designed to help users get unstuck and find the right words to spark meaningful connections. It’s an aid, not a replacement for thoughtful communication.
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A Global User Base with Multilingual Capabilities
Engage AI has already attracted 45,000 users worldwide since launching in January 2023.
Jason explains Engage AI’s multilingual capabilities: “We have coded it in a way that is smart enough to figure out what is the native language of the original post. So if it is in Polish, you will write in Polish, if it is in German, it will write in German.”
This allows the tool to generate comments tailored to the language of the original post. Users describe the translations as quite accurate.
So Engage AI can help connect beyond language barriers. With automated translation, users can craft localized responses and find common ground.
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The Power of Focusing on Key Connections
LinkedIn allows users to accumulate connections. But an overflowing contact list brings diminishing returns.
Thoughtful engagement requires knowing what matters to each connection. Mass comments miss the mark.
Jason says that quality trumps quantity:
“The truth is I only have about 100 people that I care about that I’m trying to prospect, I’m maintaining the relationship. And the problem with that is that when I go to LinkedIn, LinkedIn doesn’t show me about those 100 people that I care about, there’s so many other people that they want to sell me because of all of their interaction that I have got on the platform, etc, and everything.”
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Monitoring Key Connections for Engagement Opportunities
With lots of connections, it’s easy to miss relevant posts in the feed. Important updates can get buried.
A key benefit of Engage AI is monitoring posts from your VIP connections. As Jason explains:
“So we have coded it in a way that is smart enough to figure out who exactly these key people are you want us to monitor, you can define them in the web application. Some people use it as a mini CRM. So you can see these key people within the Engage AI web application. It grants you can tell all of these 100 people, how many of them have posted, what their posts are about in a summary. And all you have to do is click a link to take you directly to the post.”
Instead of endless scrolling, Engage AI surfaces relevant posts from key contacts. This saves time spent digging for engagement opportunities.
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Transitioning Seamlessly from Public to Private Communication
Thoughtful public comments lay the foundation for meaningful private dialogue. As Jason advises:
“The way that we see how it works really well right now is when you are moving someone from commenting in the public to the inbox…If I have commented on your post multiple times, and I know that you and I have been exchanging the comments in the public setting, you even look at my profile. Now I can go in for a private conversation. So if I send you a message in the inbox, you wouldn’t be so resisting because I am not spamming you.”
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Best Practices for Using Engage AI
To maximize value, Jason recommends an integrated approach:
“I would say the best way to fully utilize the product is using it with our mini CRM, as well as the browser extension. What it basically means is that a lot of the SMB owners, they already subscribed to HubSpot, they already subscribed to Pipedrive. And if they don’t use those two, they some of them probably wouldn’t have Zapier currently or Metafetch.”
He continues:
“With the prospects they can be tracking in the mini CRM, they could really integrate with Engage AI directly or using one of those intermediate channels to feed us the people that they care about. And once they tag the people they care about in Engage AI, we will then start monitoring on their behalf…And that is where they then use the browser extension to mouseover, choose the tone, and then comment.”
So connecting Engage AI to existing CRM and workflows helps maximize its capabilities. The browser extension makes it easy to generate contextual comments on the spot.
Overcoming the Learning Curve
As with any new skill, using AI to enhance writing takes practice. There’s a learning curve in editing AI-generated text rather than writing from scratch.
According to Jason:
“We are hearing feedback across the spectrum. I suspect that is the same feedback with people using ChatGPT or any of those AI copywriting tools where you have one category saying ‘This will never work. I wouldn’t even bother to try to edit it, because anything it writes is taking me more time. What’s the point?’ So definitely there is a group of those users.”
Getting the hang of things
However, many others see solid value after getting the hang of it:
“Then the second group is, a lot of the time they are telling me that 80% of the time it is pretty much spot on. And so I am glad that perhaps we could take that as a compliment that we are doing a good job. So 80% of the time it is doing a good job. And they pretty much just take it as it is. Or they would just add a few words here and there. But 20% of the time, sometimes the AI is a bit off, they will retract it, but also they will take it as an idea. And then they just override it in one way or another. So that is really the feedback that we get.”
So decent baseline suggestions plus human refinement generally creates good results. But initially expect some tweaking until you find an optimal process.
AI has an advantage generating short comments vs. longform content. Less room to stray off course.
“Commenting is so much shorter,” said Jason. “And as a result of that, it doesn’t go as crazy as much, it doesn’t go out of the way as much. So in that sense it is easier for us to control it.”
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What problem prompted Engage AI’s creation?
Jason explains:
“As an SMB owner, running a consulting business, and also being a founder with STEM skills but not as a good salesman, this tool really helped me to prospect, to get comfortable in commenting, to know what to say, to know what the right thing to say. And really it’s those two combinations that prompted me to create Engage AI. And because I know there are millions and millions of SMB owners who are busy servicing clients. And also they have to keep up their digital presence at the same time.”
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Conclusion
In summary, AI-generated comments can jumpstart more meaningful LinkedIn discussions. But humanity is still essential.
Focus on nurturing the right connections, not chasing quantity. Monitor posts from key contacts. Then use tools like Engage AI to efficiently craft thoughtful responses.
Expect an adjustment period. But with practice, AI can help overcome writer’s block and foster authentic engagement.
The technology simply offers a starting point. From there, apply your personal touch.
As Jason concludes:
“We are not really asking AI to replace us and pump out some rubbish content or rubbish comments in anyway. We are asking it to give me the baseline and I’ll work from that.”
So view AI as an collaborator, not just as a convenient automated shortcut. With the right balance, you can make the most of what both humans and machines bring to the table.
The future looks bright for blending artificial and human intelligence. Together, they can achieve more than either could alone. Our online communities thrive when technology supports, not supplants, meaningful human interaction.