When is the best time to post on LinkedIn?

One of the most common questions I get when we start talking about content is WHEN? When is the best time to post content on #LinkedIn?

I’ll give you a quick answer and a complete answer, in 3 stages.

It’s a bit like that old question when is the best time to make outbound calls. A: When your prospect is most likely to answer them and if you’re not sure when that is – well just call (post) now.

A content schedule is the same, post when your clients/ prospects or network, hopefully these are one and the same, are most likely going to be on their chosen #social media application, if you’re in doubt, then just post now.

Quick answer: Assuming you are targeting people just like you, who are in the same industry and the same types of roles, with a similar daily activity, then simply notice what times you’re online and on what your social media is and post at those times. Perhaps make a very simple diary of your social activity, just for a week, and then post at the start of those times to best hit your audience with your posts and activity just as everyone is coming on line. Remember, social posting is just like a time line. the stuff you posted at 8am is not going to be AS easily found at 6pm at night.

Complete Answer Part 1: For example as someone who used to work in the entertainment industry, I noticed that the times these individuals work is greatly different to those in a typical desk jockey type role. They start later, finish later and have vastly different down times and busy times compared to most other industries. Key take away here is each industry and perhaps even each role inside that industry might have different content consumption times. Think about that when you develop a schedule.

If you’re target audience is your regular desk jockey running a typical 9 – 5 (7:30am- 7pm) type role, just like mine. Then, for ease my posting schedule looks like this.

Monday: 08:00 – 16:50

Tuesday – Thursday: 07:20 – 16:50

Friday: 08:40

Saturday: 09:30 – 14:30

Sunday: 13:30 – 15:30 – 17:30

Note: These are for scheduled posts, of course, if I’m on the platform and active I may well post, share and comment on others activities many more times during the day. These times are when I lay out my best articles to drive engagement in order to start conversations and interactions. Important point.

Secondly, I have come to these times as ‘best time’ simply by trial and error BY me over time. If you have a different point of view – cool, please let me know what’s working for you and when.

There is a bunch of other supporting reports which seem to support my experience, at least broadly. The Sensis or Yellow social media report is an Australian report and valuable. I think when you are looking for 3rd party reports around timings and frequency, I’d be trying to make sure you were using localised data. (If you’d like a copy of this year’s YELLOW report shoot me a message and I’ll happily share it).

My posting theory is driven by these assumptions and theories:

Monday: People are looking for a little motivation to get through the day and I don’t get huge amounts of interaction on Monday morning. Monday evening, activity is not too bad

Tue – Thursday: Travel times (Public transport/ early risers) and the evening is great, lots of interaction on Tuesday and Wed evenings from 5pm – 10pm (key opportunity right here) this is when I typically post my best material.

Friday: Only post in the AM as I’m usually unable or unwilling to respond to too much social activity as I and the rest of the sellers in the time zone start to wind down. Last thing I want to do is drive some interaction which I won’t get a chance to respond to.

Saturday: I have a theory that Saturday is a great day to reach high-level executives as they start to move away from transactional thinking about their business and think more strategically about their busineesses. If I’m emailing a senior executive, I’m likely to schedule it (yep – I use automation to send emails at specific times) or send an article on Saturday morning as they are thinking more about the overall strategy of their business rather than the day-to-day battles of running the business.

Sunday: it’s all about that middle tier executive who is trying to get a jump on Monday. For me, specifically sales managers and leaders who are looking for something to share to talk about in their Monday (or Tuesday) sales meeting. I find I get good interactions on Sunday afternoon 2 – 6pm.

During the weekdays, I always post the best piece of content in the afternoon and something a little lighter in the morning. Seems to work for me. Remember I’m trying to drive engagement opportunities NOT masses of likes, shares, comments. This may well be a different strategy to yours, that's OK.

Complete Answer Part 2: Can you post more frequently? Fore sure you can. I know some great bloggers on LinkedIn, people like Tony J Hughes, who posts between 20 – 30 times a day across both Twitter and LinkedIn and he adjusts his content for whichever region is awake and active. So, American type content when they’re awake and Australian/ APAC stuff when the Pacific is awake. Tony is not looking for lots of #linkedIn engagement, he rarely replies to messages and comments and simply due to the masses of activity generated he probably could not possibly respond to his 250,000 followers. Whereas, I have a localised focus so that is reflected in my posting strategy. I’m not suggesting either is a better strategy, they are just different strategies with different goals and that’s why it really all depends on your #LinkedIn strategy as to what and when you post. Are you an Author who is trying to sell books? Or are you a consultant who is looking to build a localised book of business? Are you building awareness or engagement opportunities?

I’ll cover content types in another post and why you might want to post one style of content over another later. However you need to be clear that some content is going to drive more interaction than others and that all interaction IS NOT equal.

For example: A ‘like’ on a RANT or agitation style of post is almost valueless beyond the awareness it creates. Conversely a ‘like’ on a long form blog is much more meaningful. It is no surprise then that you would get a lot less ‘likes’ and ‘comments’ on a long form blogpost than a RANT style post.

For example, if you get 260 likes on a post, it’s almost impossible to reach out to all those who have liked your post AND it’s quite time consuming to try to (lesson learnt the hard way). This outlines some of the reasons why you really need a social or a #LinkedIn strategy which determines your posting frequency, the times and the types of content.

There is a fair of content there, if you’re still reading at this point, well done. 

Found this to be useful? Please share amongst your connections, like or comment. It's how the social media thingo works. If we are all only passive viewers, eventually the content will stop. I know I'd hate that.

?As well as being a sales execution coach and trainer to Australia's corporate sector. Mark is the #1 ranked Linkedin Social Seller in Australia. Contact Mark via Inmail message or [email protected] for a discussion around sales growth, coaching, social media, golf, cycling, AFL and sales effectiveness.