What is your conversation rate?
Optimizing for something besides conversion.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about an unexpected spike in web traffic, and how I didn’t get to know any of them.
There’s been a slower drip of people into my LinkedIn connections, and I’m trying an experiment.
I send each one the same message.
Hey <name>! Appreciate you connecting. What have you been working on lately?
They sent the connection first, so I figure asking one question is still firmly outside Camp Cold Outreach.
While nearly everyone replies, many people stick to just one sentence. System X or Project Y. One asked me to test their MVP. For these, I wish them luck and make a note in my spreadsheet.
Every once in a while, someone engages for real. Something like: here’s what I’m working on, here’s what’s been tough/fun/exciting, what about you?
Just like that, I feel like I have a new kindred spirit.
Whether we ever work together doesn’t matter much. It feels like there’s someone else out there building something and connecting with people afterwards.
I don’t have enough data to say whether this alone makes a sustainable business. Most internet metrics would suggest no.
Perhaps we need an additional metric: the conversation rate. The percentage of online interactions that turn into a genuine back-and-forth.
Tracking this fits my temperament, which means I’ll still feel like doing it again tomorrow.
And each of these conversations makes my world feel a little bit bigger.
Great experiment to run post virality 8-) And the question you’re sending seems fairly robust to provoking responses easy to filter for AI and sales bots. I hope you’ll share the results. I’m particularly interested in how much back and forth in a dm or comment section feels like a connected conversation to you and how you track that in your spreadsheet. I remember a few years ago when the Substack and Linkedin gurus told people commenting was the fastest way to grow your subscriptions 🤦🏻♂️ People were spending hours everyday pumping AI replies into the comment sections. Then came the agents that optimized that “work”. And here we are. Your approach easily cuts through the slop. Nice work. Keep it going!