The LinkedIn Ultimate Guide - Job Seekers & Freelancers
Part 5 of 9: The LinkedIn Ultimate Guide
Posting Is Just the Opening Move
Most Salesforce professionals treat publishing as the finish line. They spend time crafting a post, hit publish, check back a few hours later to see how many likes it got, and move on.
That’s exactly where most of the opportunity gets left behind.
LinkedIn rewards participation, not just publication. The professionals who build meaningful networks in the Salesforce ecosystem aren’t just producing content they’re showing up in the conversations that follow. They respond to comments. They acknowledge when someone shares their post. They keep discussions going. They engage with other people’s content between their own posts.
If posting opens the door and commenting starts conversations, engagement is what actually builds relationships. And in a community as relationship-driven as Salesforce, that’s where the real career and business development happens.
Comments – Actually Respond
When someone leaves a thoughtful comment on your post, they’ve invested their time in something you created. Not responding is the LinkedIn equivalent of someone introducing themselves at a user group and you walking away without acknowledging them.
As a rule, respond to comments whenever you can. It doesn’t need to be lengthy, sometimes a genuine one-line reply is perfect. But whenever possible, push the conversation a step further.
Instead of: “Thanks, glad you liked it!”
Try: “I really appreciate your perspective. Have you run into this in your own Salesforce implementations? I’m curious whether it shows up more in smaller orgs or larger ones or maybe it’s something I can prevent.”
That small shift turns a dead-end reply into an actual conversation. The more your posts become genuine discussions, the more valuable they become to the people in them, and to the Salesforce professionals who stumble across them later.
One more thing: early engagement matters. LinkedIn tends to show posts to more people when engagement picks up quickly after publishing. Responding to early comments isn’t just good manners it actually helps boost your post singificantly.
Should You Comment on Your Own Posts?
Yes, when you have something real to add.
Commenting on your own post purely to inflate your comment count doesn’t add value and most people can tell. But there are genuinely good reasons to add your own comment after posting:
- You want to add context or a clarification that didn’t fit in the original post
- A question keeps coming up in the comments and you want to answer it for everyone
- New information became available that’s relevant to what you wrote
- You want to share a resource that adds to the discussion without cluttering the original post
Think of it as updating the conversation, not gaming it. If what you’re adding makes the thread more useful, it belongs there.
The External Link Question
LinkedIn users have debated for years whether external links hurt your reach whether you should put them in the post or add them in the first comment or even ask commenters to request a link if they want it then reply with the link.
Here’s the honest answer: LinkedIn’s algorithm changes frequently enough that whatever tactic is “working” right now may be irrelevant in three months. People have built genuine audiences putting links in posts, and people have done it putting links in comments. Neither approach is magic.
What actually matters is whether the link is useful to your audience. If you’re sharing a Salesforce help article, a Trailhead module, or something genuinely relevant to what you’ve written, include it where it makes the most sense for readability. If the link is secondary, the comments are a clean way to offer it without cluttering the post.
Optimize for your reader, not for a theory about the algorithm.
Tagging: Use It Purposefully, Not Strategically
Tagging someone on LinkedIn notifies them directly, so it gets attention. Which is exactly why overusing it damages your reputation.
Tag people when it’s genuinely relevant to them:
- You’re referencing their work or an idea they shared
- They contributed to the project or outcome you’re describing
- You’re thanking them publicly for something specific
- You think the discussion would genuinely benefit from their perspective
Don’t tag people because you want their followers to see your post. Don’t tag influencers, businesses or popular minds in a post they have no connection to just because they have a large audience. People notice, and it’s the kind of thing that makes someone tune out your future tags including the ones that actually matter.
In the Salesforce community specifically, where a lot of the same names show up repeatedly, your reputation for how you engage travels fast. Tag thoughtfully.
Hashtags in the Salesforce Space
Hashtags on LinkedIn matter much less than they used to. The platform has shifted, and most of the evidence suggests hashtags have minimal impact on reach compared to a few years ago.
That said, a few Salesforce-specific hashtags do still have active followers like #Salesforce, #Trailblazer, #SalesforceAdmin, #SalesforceDeveloper and using them doesn’t hurt. Keep it to two or three that are genuinely relevant, and don’t expect them to do heavy lifting for your visibility.
The substance of what you write will always matter more than the hashtags attached to it. Nobody in the Salesforce community found a job or landed a client because they cracked the hashtag code.
Reposting Other People’s Content
Reposting can be a solid way to stay visible and contribute to the Salesforce community, but only if you add something to it.
A bare repost with no commentary tells your audience almost nothing about you. It’s the equivalent of forwarding an email without a note. Anyone who wanted to see that post could have seen it the first time.
When you repost, add your perspective:
- Why did this resonate with you?
- How does it connect to your own Salesforce experience?
- Do you agree, or do you have a different take?
- What would you add to what the original author said?
Your audience follows you for your voice and your perspective, not just as a content aggregator. Even when you’re sharing someone else’s post, give them a reason to hear from you.
Reposting Your Own Content
A lot of Salesforce professionals write a solid post, get decent engagement, and then never touch it again. Meanwhile, the vast majority of their current followers never saw it and even those who did have likely forgotten it by now.
Your best content is an asset. Treat it like one.
If you wrote something genuinely useful six months ago… a breakdown of a Salesforce automation you built, an honest take on what the Admin certification process is really like, lessons from your first consulting project… it’s worth revisiting. You can:
- Reshare it with updated context or new thoughts
- Expand it into a longer article
- Turn it into a different format (a short video, a carousel post, a newsletter section)
- Break a longer piece into several smaller posts
The content you’ve already created is a starting point, not a one-time event. Some of your most valuable LinkedIn posts may be second or third versions of something you already wrote.
Visibility Is Built From Many Small Actions, Not One Big One
People who seem well-connected in the Salesforce community rarely got that way from a single viral post. They got there through dozens and often hundreds of consistent interactions over time.
Someone finds you through a comment you left on a Salesforce thought leader’s post. They visit your profile, see you’re an admin who posts regularly about automation, and follow you. Later they see your post about a Flow gotcha they’ve run into themselves. They comment. You reply. They connect with you. Six months later, when a friend mentions they’re looking for a Salesforce consultant, your name comes up.
That entire chain started with one comment on someone else’s post. Visibility on LinkedIn isn’t built through a single moment, it’s built through repeated, positive touchpoints that compound over time.
The practical implication: it’s not enough to post and hope people find you. The more surfaces you show up on… your own posts, other people’s comment sections, shared content, replies to DMs… the more entry points exist for someone to discover who you are.
A Simple Weekly Engagement Routine
You don’t need hours a day to build real visibility in the Salesforce community. A consistent, lightweight routine is enough:
When you post: Stay present checking in your posts once or twice the day you post it. Respond to early comments promptly and keep the conversation moving.
Between posts: Spend 10–15 minutes 2-3x a week leaving thoughtful comments on posts from Salesforce professionals, recruiters, and community voices you follow or that show up in your feed.
Ongoing: Accept relevant connection requests with a short welcome message. Acknowledge when someone shares your content. Congratulate people in your network on Salesforce certifications, promotions, or milestones when you genuinely mean it.
None of those things individually feels like much. Done consistently over months and years, they add up to a recognizable presence in the ecosystem.
Every Interaction Reflects Your Professional Brand
Your posts are not the only thing people notice about you on LinkedIn. They also notice how you engage with others.
Do you respond generously when someone asks a Salesforce question in your comment section, even if they’re a beginner? Do you acknowledge other people’s wins without making it about yourself? Do you handle disagreement professionally, or do you get defensive when someone pushes back on a point you made?
These moments shape your reputation in ways that are hard to quantify but very easy for people to remember. In the Salesforce community especially, where many of the same people show up at user groups, conferences, and online communities, your character as an engaged professional is visible. It compounds the same way your content does.
Be the kind of professional in comment sections that you’d want to encounter yourself.
What to Avoid
A few habits that create the opposite of the visibility you’re building toward:
Ignoring comments on your own posts. If people took time to engage, acknowledge them.
Tagging people who have no real connection to your content. It’s noticed and remembered.
Reposting without adding your perspective. It signals you have nothing to say and just wanted to post something without much effort.
Engaging only when you want something. If the only time you comment on a recruiter’s posts is when you’re job searching, that pattern is visible.
Treating every interaction as a sales opportunity. In the Salesforce world especially, relationships come first. Business follows from trust, rarely the other way around.
Key Takeaways
Publishing is just the beginning. What you do after you post, how you respond, engage, and show up in other people’s conversations determines how much value your LinkedIn activity actually creates.
Respond to comments. Add your voice when you repost. Keep your content alive by revisiting your best ideas. Show up consistently across multiple touchpoints, not just on your own posts.
In the Salesforce community, the professionals who become well-known aren’t necessarily the most prolific posters. They’re the ones who consistently show up, contribute genuinely, and treat every interaction as part of a long-term reputation they’re building.
What’s Next
You’ve now got a strong foundation: a profile that positions you clearly, a posting mindset that’s sustainable, a commenting strategy that builds relationships, and an engagement approach that keeps visibility compounding.
The next piece is intentional network growth — who to connect with, when and how to reach out, whether connection request notes still matter, and a specific strategy called “coattailing” that can dramatically improve the quality of your Salesforce network.
→ Part 6: Connecting & Direct Messaging
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