How to Use the LinkedIn Post Engagers to Lead Outreach

*For a Workflow targeting 10–20 post engagers, the full process typically takes around 5–10 minutes total, including extracting engagement data, sending connection requests, and follow-up messages, plus a few extra seconds for the workflow to process.

Before you start

• You can't upload a Google Sheet as input for this Workflow. It only accepts a single LinkedIn source link (such as a post, company page, or profile) where engagement data can be extracted.
• How this Workflow runs:
  • This Workflow combines several Phantoms that handle extraction, connection requests, and follow-up messages. Because of that, it can’t be chained directly to another Phantom.
  • However, you can still use the results elsewhere. To do this, create a LinkedIn Leads list from this Workflow’s results and filter it by Processed by Phantom is → LinkedIn Post Engagers to Lead Outreach. Then select which step you want to reuse, such as profiles that were extracted, invited, or followed up.

Step 1: Choose what to extract

1. Select the LinkedIn source where your ideal prospects are engaging. You can use:
   • A LinkedIn company page
   • A LinkedIn profile page
   • A LinkedIn post

   • A LinkedIn post search

     These sources could belong to competitors, partners, thought leaders, or your own company, wherever relevant conversations are happening.

     

2. After selecting your source, choose which engagement types to extract:
   • Likers: People who reacted to the post.
   • Commenters: People who left a comment.

You can select one or both, depending on your campaign goals.

Step 2: Define your target audience

The AI filters focus on structured LinkedIn profile data to help you identify the right prospects. They analyze each lead’s:

• Job title – to reach specific roles or decision-makers.
• Location – to target leads in certain cities, regions, or countries.
• Industry – to focus on relevant sectors for your business.

For more precise targeting, such as finding people who mention a specific keyword, tool, or topic in their comments, you can refine your extracted results later in the LinkedIn Leads page using additional manual filters.

This step is optional, but it’s one of the best ways to make your outreach more relevant and effective.

Step 3: Connect your LinkedIn account

To let the automation act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your LinkedIn session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).

Check your browser user agent
Make sure your browser is up to date before connecting your account. 
→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.

Step 4: Customize your connection request message

If you skip this step, invites will be sent without a message.

To add a personal message to your invite:

1. Tick Customize your LinkedIn connection request message to open the message field.
2. Enter your message:
   • Regular plan allows 200 characters, and 5 personalized invites per month.
   • Premium accounts allow the full 300 characters with unlimited personalized invites.

Watch the character counter in the bottom-right corner of the message box to track your usage. This helps you stay within limits and avoid your message being cut off. Keep in mind that placeholder tags also count toward the limit, so leave room for both the tag itself and the replaced text.

• Placeholder tags:
  • All available tags appear at the bottom of the message box.
  • Click on a tag to insert it, or use the + icon to see the full list.
  • #reactionType# describes how the lead interacted: liked, loved, enjoyed, commented on, celebrated, supported. If a lead interacted multiple times (e.g. both liked and commented), we’ll use the most recent one. They will always appear in English.
  • #postAuthorName# inserts the full name of the person whose post they engaged with. If the post author is a company, it will display the company name.
• Formatting restrictions:
  • Emojis are not supported.
  • Hyperlinks are not supported: any pasted link will appear as plain text.

Step 5: Write and schedule follow-up messages

After a connection request is accepted, you can automatically send up to 3 follow-up messages on LinkedIn.

To send follow-up messages after your connection requests are accepted:

1. Tick Schedule a first follow-up message to access the scheduling options and open the message field.
2. Define when to send it:
   • Choose the delay, between 0 and 15 days (e.g. “Send 1st follow-up after at least 2 days”).
   • Messages are only sent if the person accepts your connection and hasn’t replied.
3. Enter your message:
   • Write your message in the “Your message” field (up to 8,000 characters).
   • Click on the tags listed below the message box to insert them automatically.
   • Click the + icon to see all available tags.

   • Watch the character counter in the bottom-right corner of the message box to track your usage. This helps you stay within limits and avoid your message being cut off. Keep in mind that placeholder tags also count toward the limit, so leave room for both the tag itself and the replaced text.

4. Attach files (optional):

   Add documents or images to your message:

   • Maximum combined file size = 20 MB.
   • Hyperlinks are not supported → if you paste a link, it will appear as plain text.
5. Add up to two more follow-ups, each with its own delay and message content.
   • These will only send if the contact hasn’t replied to any earlier message.

Step 6: Choose how many invites to send per day

You can control how many connection invitations the Workflow sends each day.

Daily invitation settings (Optional):

• Default and recommended limit: Around 20 invites per weekday to stay within safe LinkedIn activity levels.
• Platform rule: LinkedIn allows up to 100 invites per week, but sending fewer each day helps your account stay compliant and avoid restrictions.
• Adjust anytime: You can raise or lower the daily limit based on your campaign goals.

How the Workflow sends invitations:

• Invitations and follow-up messages are sent gradually throughout the day, not all at once.
• Actions are spread across your working hours according to your account’s timezone.
• You’ll typically see the first batch start processing within 3 to 6 minutes after launch.
• This Workflow doesn’t include customizable launch settings: actions run automatically within safe limits.

For details on platform-specific activity limits, see the LinkedIn rate limits guide.

Step 7 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Workflow runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

• Toggle the ON/OFF switch to start your Workflow.
• PhantomBuster will start extracting post engagers and preparing your personalized outreach.

Filter your results and launch outreach

After the extraction, review your results list.

1. Use the Outreach queue filter to refine your leads: for instance, by location, title, or reaction type.
   • This step is optional but helps target the right audience.
     
2. Review your filtered leads and confirm they match your ICP.
3. Toggle on your LinkedIn outreach to start sending invites and messages automatically.
   

Once launched, PhantomBuster will run the full outreach process: extraction, connection requests, and follow-ups.

Track your results and metrics

Your Workflow dashboard shows live performance under Tabs & Key metrics, including:

• Invitations sent
• Invitations accepted
• Follow-up messages sent
• Replies received
• Skipped or failed invites

Use this data to track conversion rates and optimize your outreach content.

Understand lead statuses

Each tab reflects where your leads are in the outreach process:

• The Accepted tab shows people who accepted your connection request and haven’t yet received a follow-up message.
• Once a follow-up is sent, those leads move to the Follow-up sent tab.
• If a lead replies to your message, they move to the Replied tab.

If the Accepted tab looks empty, it usually means your follow-ups have already been sent or some recipients have replied.

Understand execution time

This Workflow runs several Phantoms to manage different steps of the process.

Here’s what happens behind the scenes:

• It first extracts post engagers: People who liked or commented on your selected post.
• It then sends LinkedIn connection invitations to those profiles.
• Once invitations are accepted, it sends follow-up messages and checks for replies.

Because multiple Phantoms work together to complete these actions, this Workflow uses more execution time than single-step automations.
This is normal and expected, as each phase runs safely in sequence to avoid rate-limit or visibility issues.

Pause, edit, or delete your Workflow

You can manage your Workflow anytime from your PhantomBuster Dashboard:

• Pause: Toggle off your Workflow to pause automation instantly.
  

• Edit or Delete: Click the three-dot menu (…) to edit settings or delete it entirely.
  

  What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

  This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Workflow, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

  What you give (Input)

  Type	Description
  LinkedIn cookie	Your LinkedIn session cookie
  User agent	Your browser’s user agent. This is detected automatically when you connect your LinkedIn account using the PhantomBuster browser extension (Chrome or Firefox).
  LinkedIn source link	A single LinkedIn source link (post, company page, profile, or post search) where engagement data can be extracted

  What you get (Output)

  Type	Description
  linkedinProfileUrl	LinkedIn Profile Url
  salesNavigatorProfileUrl	Sales Navigator Profile Url
  fullName	Full Name
  firstName	First Name
  lastName	Last Name
  companyName	Company Name
  linkedinCompanyUrl	LinkedIn Company Url
  salesNavigatorCompanyUrl	Sales Navigator Company Url
  companyWebsite	Company Website
  personalWebsite	Personal Website
  linkedinJobTitle	LinkedIn Job Title
  linkedinJobDateRange	LinkedIn Job Date Range
  linkedinJobLocation	LinkedIn Job Location
  companyIndustry	Company Industry
  linkedinHeadline	LinkedIn Headline
  location	Location
  professionalEmail1	Professional Email 1
  personalEmail1	Personal Email 1
  phoneNumber1	Phone Number 1
  phoneNumber2	Phone Number 2
  civility	Civility
  website1	Website 1
  linkedinFollowersCount	LinkedIn Followers Count
  linkedinOpenProfile	LinkedIn Open Profile
  linkedinDescription	LinkedIn Description
  linkedinSkillsLabel	LinkedIn Skills Label
  previousCompanyName	Previous Company Name
  linkedinPreviousCompanyUrl	LinkedIn Previous Company Url
  linkedinPreviousCompanySlug	LinkedIn Previous Company Slug
  linkedinPreviousJobTitle	LinkedIn Previous Job Title
  linkedinPreviousJobDateRange	LinkedIn Previous Job Date Range
  linkedinPreviousJobLocation	LinkedIn Previous Job Location
  linkedinJobDescription	LinkedIn Job Description
  linkedinPreviousJobDescription	LinkedIn Previous Job Description
  linkedinSchoolName	LinkedIn School Name
  linkedinSchoolCompanyUrl	LinkedIn School Company Url
  linkedinSchoolCompanySlug	LinkedIn School Company Slug
  linkedinSchoolDegree	LinkedIn School Degree
  linkedinSchoolDateRange	LinkedIn School Date Range
  linkedinSchoolDescription	LinkedIn School Description
  linkedinPreviousSchoolName	LinkedIn Previous School Name
  linkedinPreviousSchoolCompanyUrl	LinkedIn Previous School Company Url
  linkedinPreviousSchoolCompanySlug	LinkedIn Previous School Company Slug
  linkedinPreviousSchoolDegree	LinkedIn Previous School Degree
  linkedinPreviousSchoolDateRange	LinkedIn Previous School Date Range
  linkedinPreviousSchoolDescription	LinkedIn Previous School Description
  linkedinMutualConnectionsUrl	LinkedIn Mutual Connections Url
  linkedinProfileSlug	LinkedIn Profile Slug
  salesNavigatorProfileSlug	Sales Navigator Profile Slug
  linkedinCompanySlug	LinkedIn Company Slug
  linkedinProfileId	LinkedIn Profile Id
  linkedinProfileUrn	LinkedIn Profile Urn
  linkedinIsHiringBadge	LinkedIn Is Hiring Badge
  linkedinIsOpenToWorkBadge	LinkedIn Is Open To Work Badge
  ai_summary	Ai Summary
  id	Id
  connectionDegree	Connection Degree
  createdAt	Created At
  updatedAt	Updated At
  createdBy	Created By
  updatedBy	Updated By

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• Message length → Premium accounts allow the full 300 characters with unlimited personalized invites.
• The Workflow can only extract data from public posts or posts visible to your connected LinkedIn account.
• This Workflow runs on automatic smart intervals and doesn’t include manual launch scheduling.
• If the Workflow stops working:
  • Errors may not always appear in the Dashboard.
  • To check hidden errors and execution details, open the Logs section from the console page of your automation. For step-by-step instructions, see How to Troubleshoot Errors in Workflows.

If you run into issues

• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

• LinkedIn Profile Scraper: Enrich extracted profiles with more detailed data.
• LinkedIn Auto Follow: Automatically follow your target leads after engagement.