If you’re a professional or represent a B2B brand, chances are LinkedIn is important to your job effectiveness. After all, LinkedIn is the place to see and be seen by businesspeople. Recruiters, job seekers, sales professionals, and marketers all need these professional connections to do their jobs better. In addition, many professionals in other capacities find LinkedIn contacts to be valuable. As the saying goes, often it isn’t what you know, it’s who you know.
However, just because LinkedIn is a great place to meet people doesn’t mean that you’ll be successful. If you post the wrong things or post at the wrong times, then you won’t get the best impact from a networking standpoint. Or for a commercial posting, you’ll get a lower ROI. Knowing the best time to post on LinkedIn lets you maximize your efforts. Let’s look at the things you should consider when posting on LinkedIn, including the best times.
Are Your LinkedIn Posts Effective Enough?
LinkedIn is a different beast among all the different social media platforms, and not only because of its professional nature. According to a 2021 study by Social Insider, the average engagement rate per post on LinkedIn is 0.35%. This is a tiny engagement rate compared to Instagram’s 81% and Facebook 8% engagement rate. However, LinkedIn has one of the highest-earning and most educated bases on social media. In fact, 51% are college-educated with half of the users earning more than $75,000 annually.
In other words, LinkedIn users often have a high level of disposable income. Many of them also have a lot of decision-making power, so they’re the people to see when you want to sell a business product or get a new job. This means that LinkedIn is a great place to make money, both for yourself and your company.
So, are your posts grabbing enough eyeballs from your potentially lucrative target audience? If not, it’s time to rethink the times at which you are publishing content on LinkedIn. Together with posting the right content, timing your posts properly is critical. Let’s look at the best time to post on LinkedIn.
What Should You Consider When Posting on LinkedIn?
Of course, posting an effective post on LinkedIn requires more than putting a few words on the screen. Instead, there are several considerations when you compose the post itself. Each of these will influence what you say and how you say it. Then, you’ll want to figure out what visuals to include, if any, and what time to post the content.
Your Target Audience
LinkedIn is used by professionals of all ages, industries, and countries. Some will be in tech, others in retail, and the third group in manufacturing. In other words, LinkedIn is a relatively diverse group of professionals. Also, because LinkedIn members are from all over the world, there’s a wide variety of time zones and cultures to consider.
When you write your posts, be sure to create something that will mesh with your audience. For instance, business travelers love to find hacks that will make a life out of a suitcase less disagreeable or make time in the airport pass faster.
Another thing to consider is that LinkedIn is a business network. For this reason, you must avoid writing things that could be considered spammy or inappropriate for work. To that end, pick something that’s relevant to their industry, or that’s inspirational. Everyone loves work-related human-interest stories. However, be sure that your posts are culturally appropriate for your target audience. If you aren’t sure, don’t do it.
The Tone of Your Post
Likewise, you need to be sure that your post says things in an appropriate way. LinkedIn is a professional platform, so adopt a professional tone. For instance, you shouldn’t use curse words or vulgar language, because it wouldn’t be appropriate in the office. One of the best ways to turn people off is by being unprofessional.
Of course, there are some subtleties depending on your industry. For instance, if you’re in an industry like plumbing, there might be posts related to plumbing mishaps that might not be appropriate otherwise. The same thing goes with medical products. On the other end of the spectrum, professionals like lawyers will always be extremely reserved and very conservative. Always make sure your industry and tone match.
Your Goal
As you write the post, think about your overall goal. On LinkedIn, B2B brand awareness and recruiting talent are common goals. Likewise, someone like an insurance agent might be building a brand that inspires people to buy insurance from them, rather than someone else.
In some cases, the goal is something simple, like meeting new people. As I mentioned above, the nature of LinkedIn is professional networking, both for individuals and companies. However, often the goal will be different based on a particular post.
If you want to move beyond the basics of meeting people, chances are you’ll make this clear in your post. For instance, if you want people to sign up for your newsletter then you should say so and include a link. In return, you’ll want to give people something of value, even if it’s just a piece of news or office humor.
No matter what your goal is, be sure to write the post in a way that’s compatible. Otherwise, you’ll probably not be successful.
Further Reading: 15 LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Tips to Grow Your Business on LinkedIn
Your Brand
If you are a company, make sure your post is consistent with brand voice and other branding considerations. Usually, brands will have more than a logo: they’ll have specific colors, fonts, and even graphics. This way, people will remember the brand and associate it with the branded message. This tends to increase your name recognition and your overall ROI.
If you are an individual expressing your opinions, make sure you keep it professional and courteous. Your LinkedIn posts are a kind of personal branding and professional advertisement. For that reason, anything you say on LinkedIn reflects on you as a professional and can be helpful or hurtful accordingly. As a rule, if you wouldn’t say it to your boss, don’t say it on LinkedIn!
The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in 2024
Based on our analysis of studies done by industry leaders, we think that the best time to post on LinkedIn is during the week. To be more specific, Tuesdays through Thursdays get the most eyeballs. In addition, most experts agree that the best time to post is during office hours. This is true whether you’re trying to sell something, looking for a job, or simply trading job-related ideas.
I find that this is unsurprising: after all, LinkedIn is a professional networking site where people also prospect for sales, jobs, and new employees. Even for job candidates, most of the activity will be during the workday because that’s when they’re most likely to reach hiring managers or recruiters. Most professionals will therefore find the middle of the week to be the best time to post on LinkedIn.
Further Reading: 11 Best Practices on How to Publish an Article on LinkedIn and Best Promote It
The Worst Time to Post on LinkedIn in 2024
Likewise, there are some less effective times to post on LinkedIn. Based on our analysis of studies done by industry leaders, LinkedIn posts seem to get far less attention on Mondays and Fridays. This may not be surprising when you consider that on Monday everyone is catching up on emails and going to meetings, and on Friday everyone wants to get everything done before the weekend.
However, just because people are less busy between Friday and Monday each week doesn’t make that the best time to post on LinkedIn. In fact, the engagement level goes further downhill over the weekend, with Sunday being the worst day to post. Many people consider Sunday to be family time, so they’re unlikely to log onto LinkedIn until Monday morning. And then you know what we said about Monday.
Between these sets of findings, it’s worth saying that the best time to post on LinkedIn is when people are focused on work, but not overwhelmed by it.
What do Leading Social Media Marketing Companies have to Say about the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn?
Now that we’ve summarized our findings on when to post on LinkedIn, let’s look at some hard numbers. Several companies have done studies to determine when we should post. Not only will this tell you our sources, but you can also make your own conclusions.
Sprout Social
According to Sprout Social, the best time to post on LinkedIn is on Tuesdays between 10 a.m. to noon. This represents the time after everyone has opened their emails, and then before they go to lunch. Interestingly, if you miss the Tuesday morning time slot, your best bet is to post any time on Wednesday or Thursday.
Likewise, the worst days to post are the same ones when most people are away from the office: Saturdays and Sundays. For most of us, these are days when we get to do other things, although there are exceptions for some managers and service sector employees.
HubSpot
Hubspot’s findings are slightly contradictory to other studies. They claim that the best days are the weekends and Wednesdays. However, it’s worth noting that their recommendations are related to social media posting in general, and not just the best time to post on LinkedIn.
Accordingly, HubSpot recommends the times of 6 – 9 p.m., 3 – 6 p.m., or 12 – 3 p.m. Some of this time period is during the work day, so they’d probably work fine for LinkedIn. HubSpot agrees with the LinkedIn-specific statistics that Monday and Friday are less-than-ideal times to post.
There’s one interesting observation here: everyone likes Wednesday, and both Monday and Friday are when fewer people are engaged on social media. Those two days have people very busy at work. Plus, Friday night is often family time in addition to the weekend, and this is more intense for Friday night than Saturday or Sunday for many people.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot agrees with almost everyone else: avoid weekends and especially Sundays. Likewise, the best time to post on LinkedIn is during the week, in this case, any of the five days. They list a lot of times: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. In other words, just about any time of day, so long as it’s Monday through Friday.
This makes the most sense if they’re assuming you’ll post during the workday in any US time zone: 7 a.m. is when early employees show up here, and 8 p.m. Eastern time is 5 in California. My advice is that you avoid the later hours, though.
Simplified
Another article on Simplified argues that the best days are Thursday and Friday each week. This is a break from other experts who say that Friday isn’t a good time to post. However, as with everyone else Simplified says that Sunday is the worst time to post. Few people think about their careers during this time, and in any event, they tend to stay away from work-related topics.
Timewise, the best options are between 9 AM and noon local time, and then right around 3 PM. Professionals who use LinkedIn on the job would be especially attentive in the morning, so this isn’t surprising: it’s easy to use LinkedIn to find leads or check job applications, as those often come in overnight. Then, professionals can reach out to leads/applicants in the afternoon.
CoSchedule
Finally, there’s CoSchedule. Like most sources, there’s an agreement with the midweek ideal. In fact, the best time to post on LinkedIn is between 10 AM and noon, then again around 1 PM. This is consistent with the number of people who use LinkedIn for sales and recruiting. At the same time, industry leaders often network during business hours, since having a network is useful for companies down the line.
In addition, CoSchedule lists the best days like Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Friday is neutral, while Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are less than ideal. Again, this data is consistent with the usage of LinkedIn for professional activities.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway in this section is that there’s little debate about the best time to post on LinkedIn. Specifically, midweek is best in most studies, and you should generally avoid the weekends. On the other hand, mornings are better than afternoons in most studies. Finally, there’s some evidence that you can get engagement posting in the evening, if appropriate.
Types of Content that Work Well on LinkedIn
Knowing the best time to post on LinkedIn doesn’t help nearly as much if you don’t know what to post. After all, LinkedIn is a business-focused network that somewhat limits the topics you should discuss. However, there are also post types that do especially well on this network.
Blog Posts
As I’ve pointed out before, LinkedIn is a great place to do some blogging. Especially since LinkedIn has a high domain authority, you automatically get a good advantage for search engine positions. This means that your posts can have a significant audience and, in turn, draw a lot of attention to your work (and qualifications). Just make sure that your topics are career-related, even if it’s a “personal” post.
Further Reading: 5 Things to Keep in Mind to Use LinkedIn as a Blogging Platform
Industry News
Because LinkedIn is so focused on career advancement, it’s also a great place to talk about your company’s industry. For instance, a lot of people post about major regulatory decisions, product improvements, and significant events. Doing this lets you show your industry expertise and become a larger voice in the industry. If you want to advance into management, becoming a thought leader can help a lot.
Company Updates
Likewise, company updates are a great option for both company and personal pages. For instance, if your company hires a great new executive, then you’ll probably want the world to know about it. And if you were on the hiring committee…well, that’s great bragging material. You can also update about other major events, like a new product launch, an event sponsorship, and more. Either way, these posts help raise awareness about your company and elevate you as a professional.
Further Reading: How to Create a Killer Company Page on LinkedIn in 12 Easy Steps
Lists and How-to Posts
Finally, how-to posts and lists do reasonably well on LinkedIn. This option has a few applications. For instance, if you’re a recruiter then posting a summary list of positions you need to fill can help reel in applicants. Likewise, you can post a short tutorial on how to use your company’s products. In the latter case, posting a link to the video or your company’s page that hosts the video can also work.
How are LinkedIn Posts Different from Those on Other Social Media Platforms?
Before you apply the best time to post on LinkedIn, it’s critical that you understand the differences between LinkedIn and other networks in terms of the posts themselves. As I’ve already mentioned, LinkedIn posts should always be appropriate for work and be career-related. This is especially true if you use the network as part of your job duties.
Beyond this admonition, though, you should remember that LinkedIn posts have a higher shelf life. In fact, posts comprise user activity updates and posts from companies and individuals which could show up on the user feed days or weeks after it’s been posted. Therefore, engagement-worthy content may perform exceptionally well even when you forget the best time to post on LinkedIn.
In practice, this longevity of posts means that you need to think long-term as you formulate each one. For instance, if something will only be relevant for a few days, you might want to skip it. On the other hand, the news that you got a promotion or made another career move is a great LinkedIn post because you want as many people as possible to see it.
Further Reading: 7 Ways and 12 Best Practices to Use LinkedIn Polls for Marketing (with Examples)
How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Posts to Maximize Engagement
Even on LinkedIn with its long-lived and career-oriented posts, you still want to maximize engagement. That’s because engagement leads to more post effectiveness, such as more leads or more recruiters asking about your qualifications. Here are some tips to make your posts as effective as possible.
Analyze the Performance of Your Past Posts
Even though LinkedIn is less competitive in terms of posting volume, analytics are still important. You should use your social media dashboard analytics to track what posts do best on LinkedIn. Also, use the analytics from LinkedIn itself, and for your website. This will give you a good view of what works best for you.
Discover What Works with Your Target Audience
Besides the raw overall numbers, study your analytics to discover the best posts for your target audience. Often, the analytics will give demographic information on everyone who sees your post, and who engages with it. From there, you can tailor future posts to do a better job of reaching those people. Armed with the best time to post on LinkedIn, these numbers will give you a great chance of success.
Know What Works Well on LinkedIn
Many people aren’t aware of this, but images, videos, white papers, and e-books work well on LinkedIn. People are visual, and looking at just another wall of text makes your audience less likely to linger. So, besides the normal announcements, consider trying these multimedia and long-form posts too. Also, you can use white papers and e-books as lead magnets that you advertise on LinkedIn. This approach can maximize the return on your efforts.
Further Reading: The Top 25 LinkedIn Statistics for Business in 2024
Conclusion
As with all social networks, some types of posts are more effective than others on LinkedIn. After all, people go to LinkedIn to build their professional network, find sales prospects, hunt for the best talent, and more. However, by far the best way to reach the right people at the right time is by knowing the best time to post on LinkedIn. As several sources have indicated, LinkedIn posts have the most exposure in the morning midweek. The longer shelf life of a LinkedIn post makes it easier to compensate for time zone issues. However, posting on the weekend doesn’t usually get you very far. By following the simple rules I’ve outlined above, you have a high chance of success.
Hero Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
Hi Neal. Thanks for the article. Are all of the charts based on EST? Thank you.
All the times mentioned are from the actual data studies themselves which might or might not be EST. I think the most important thing is to begin with these recommendations in your local time zone and experiment +/- 3 hours to find your sweet spot. I mention this because at the end of the day everyone’s audience, and therefore when they are online, is different.
Hi Neal, great post on Linkedin. I haven’t visited your site in a while, but I always remember your name, you made an impression!
Linkedin is time well spent and it does demand better content. Tuesday, Wed and Thurs between 10 and 3 is good in my experience. Sometimes, it’s so competitive, that posting at other times isn’t such a bad idea. There’s a lot of people online Sunday night too.
Linkedin text posts without links and linkedin polls draw a lot of impressions too. Getting past their filters and being engaging will help increase reach. I think you have to earn it with Linkedin and strategy with topics is important. It’s better to identify a particular defined audience and write directly to them. Lots to learn with Linkedin!
Gord — for Advanced SEO @ AI Marketers [linked edited by admin]
Appreciate and the comment and adding value to the content! Indeed, everyone will have different results so the best thing to do at the end of the day is to test different content formats with different dates and times and find what works best for your own audience!