Why I stopped cold DMing and started commenting on posts about problems I solve

Three months ago spent like 30 minutes a day leaving comments on LinkedIn posts from people in my ICP. Not generic "great insights!" stuff. Actual thoughts on what they posted.

The difference between this and cold outreach is stupid obvious in hindsight but I wasn't doing it before. When someone posts about hiring problems or workflow chaos or whatever, they're literally asking for attention. They want engagement. A comment that actually addresses their point gets read. A cold DM gets archived.

Here's what I actually do:

Find posts from people who match my ideal customer profile — usually CEO or ops lead, company size between 50-300, posting about hiring or process stuff. LinkedIn search is fine for this, though now I use Remarkly to catch posts as they come up without having to check every day (saves the hunting part, still draft the actual comment myself).

Read the post twice. Not skimming. Actually read it.

Write something that either adds to the conversation or pokes at something they said. If they're wrong about something, I'll say it gently. If they're solving a problem I know inside out, I'll mention a thing they might not have considered. The goal isn't to sell. It's to show up as useful.

Avoid: generic cheerleading, trying to turn the comment into a pitch, longer than like 4 sentences.

In three months got maybe 8-10 inbounds from this. Not huge numbers, but every single one was warm. People replying who actually wanted to talk.

One thing that's weird though — sometimes people don't reply to the comment but then message you directly weeks later. No idea why the delay happens. Still trying to figure that out.

Cold DMs used to feel like the way to do this. They weren't.