When is the best time to post on LinkedIn? That's a complicated question, considering that the platform's community of more than 1 billion members are logging in around the clock, from every time zone. Still, it’s helpful to have context around where other marketers are seeing success in terms of timing and cadence. And now that you can schedule posts directly within the platform, it’s easy to set up your publishing calendar accordingly.
Several providers specializing in social media management from our Marketing Partner community – such as Hubspot, Sprinklr and Buffer – conduct studies to gain insight about the most effective times to share content in order to reach an active and engaged audience.
Read on for a quick overview of the findings from this research, as well as some generalized guidance on how you should think about your posting strategy on LinkedIn.
The Best Times to Post Content on LinkedIn
Here’s a rundown of three major studies from reputed brands in social media strategy. As you’ll see there are some common themes but also some inconsistencies and conflicting data points, serving to illustrate that this is not a black-and-white science.
According to Hubspot’s 2023 report on the best times to post on social media, the sweet spots for sharing content on LinkedIn are:
- Between 9 am to 12 pm, 12 to 3 pm, or 3-6 pm.
- Mondays, Wednesdays and Tuesdays, in that order.
According to Sprinklr’s latest research around the best times to post on social media for better ROI:
- Posting on weekdays delivers the highest results, with mid-morning (10 to 11 am) and lunchtime (12 pm to 1 pm) on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays standing out.
- Overall, Tuesday is the most active day on LinkedIn.
And finally, here are the findings from Buffer’s new data on the best times to post on LinkedIn to grow your following and boost engagement:
- Posting between 9 am and 5 pm on weekdays is generally most effective.
- Specifically, these time slots for each day emerged as most engaging: Monday 4 pm, Tuesday 4 pm, Wednesday 2 pm, Thursday 4 pm, Friday 1 pm, Saturday 10 pm, Sunday 7 am.
- Compared to other weekdays, Thursday and Friday see a slight uptick in engagement.
These various studies seem to agree that weekdays are generally ideal for sharing content on LinkedIn, and that marketers might benefit from finding pockets of the workday (such as lunch or the mid-afternoon) where professionals are taking a break to scroll. However, as Kirsti Lang emphasizes in the Buffer report, “every target audience is different.”
“As I always do in these articles on the best time to post on social media,” she adds, “I advise experimenting with your posting schedule as part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy, then digging into your social media analytics to uncover your unique best time to post and make the most of the LinkedIn algorithm.”
How Posting on LinkedIn is Changing
Here are a few timely trends and insights to keep in mind as you develop your content strategy on LinkedIn:
Evolving world of work
In a gradual movement that was accelerated by the pandemic, more people than ever are working remotely, at least part of the time. Flexible schedules have become common for professionals, who don’t adhere en masse to the same 9-to-5 framework that was traditionally standard. This dynamic extends to research, networking and scrolling on LinkedIn.
The rise of Gen Z
Gen Z is the fastest-growing global audience on LinkedIn, and there’s been a sharp uptick in the past couple of years. Data shows that this generational cohort uses social media heavily and presents some distinct digital habits. It’s good to focus specifically on this segment of your audience, because they tend to drive broader trends.
“Gen Zers’ use of social media is the most sophisticated out of all the generations,” per eMarketer, “as they are true digital natives, comfortable with most social platforms and tools, including social search. Look to them to set the pace of all new social media experiences—because they have the time, the interest and (increasingly) the income.”
Globalization of marketing
The maturation of the internet has helped many businesses expand the scope of their strategy, with international markets coming into play more often for B2B companies. Needless to say, this means the timing of your posts can factor differently for different audiences. Lunchtime in New York is dinnertime in London. Posting throughout the day and even at night as part of an always-on marketing strategy ensures you’re showing up for different time zones.
Growing focus on knowledge-sharing
When it comes to getting your content seen on LinkedIn, the timing is often less important than the substance. LinkedIn recently announced changes to how content is surfaced on the feed, with an increased emphasis on knowledge-based content and insights.
Align Your LinkedIn Content Strategy with Your Audience
LinkedIn members care about new jobs, new insights, new industry trends and building their professional skills. If you can deliver content like this whenever they come looking for it, you’ll find an audience more engaged and receptive than ever before. Data-driven insights like the ones above from Hubspot, Sprinklr and Buffer can be helpful in informing your publishing approach.
Remember, however: In our own experience, there’s no substitute for testing when it comes to finding the sweet spot that best suits your audience. Test different content elements such as the headlines, copy and images at different times of the day. See what your audience is telling you about their own habits and preferences.
Timing matters – on LinkedIn as on any other social platform. That’s why third-party surveys and studies are so handy, but also why it’s worth testing intelligently to find the timing that works best for your audience.
You’ll find more quick, practical insights on building a LinkedIn content strategy on the LinkedIn Ads blog.
