With the rise of marketing software and paid advertising, it's no secret that social media platforms aren't only a place for mutual connection and sharing among strangers — they've also grown into a place where companies can build a brand.
Marketing campaigns on social media can expose companies to expansive audience members that could turn into leads.
In fact, LinkedIn, a social media platform for professional engagement, has 303 million monthly active users.
Attracting an engaged audience on LinkedIn requires you to craft compelling content. But, if you don’t post your content at the right time, most of your followers will never see your updates. So how do you figure out the optimal time to post for your specific audience?
The truth is, there is no right answer. But you can use some research to make assumptions about the best times to post based on your audience. In the next section, we'll go over the based time to post on the platform based on your industry or business goals.
The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
Thinking about your audience's behavior is key. It's best to conduct some market research to learn more about how your audience uses the internet, or refer to your buyer persona if you've collected that information. If your ideal customer is someone who is a working professional, it's safe to assume that during business hours, they won't have time to check their social media feeds.
However, there are pockets throughout their day where professionals tend to check social media, like lunch hours and while heading to and from work. From there, based on your time zone, you can estimate when you're expected to reach the most customers.
Also, think about the majority of LinkedIn's audience: working professionals, higher education students, and college graduates. Typically, their web behavior would reflect being busy during regular business hours.
During the time periods above, people are usually getting ready for work, just starting their day, or taking an afternoon break.
But let's say you want to post according to your industry. We'll talk about how to come to the decision to post based on your business type, next.
Maybe you're a higher education student thinking about the best time to reach out to thought leaders, or a marketer for a B2B company.
There isn't a set answer here either, but fortunately, doing some research about the type of audience you're trying to capture based on your industry can lead you to make an informed decision.
You can infer when your posts will earn the most engagement based on the behavior of competitors in your industry, as well as audience members.
- Software and Media Companies — It's suspected that audiences of media companies tend to check their social media feeds in the morning, like some would read a newspaper. They're likely to find success posting in the morning between Monday-Friday, while software companies are suggested to find similar success posting outside of work hours.
- Healthcare and Higher Education — Mid-morning, so around 10 a.m., to early afternoon, close to 2 p.m., are suggested for the best engagement. Higher education also seems to follow suit.
- B2B Businesses — For B2Bs, analyzing web behavior is the best indicator. Their audiences are most likely other professionals, so it's best to catch them before they start working, during lunch hours, and during commutes.
- B2C Businesses — Similarly to B2Bs, these companies are likely to find success among audiences when posting outside of business hours, or during lunch breaks.
If you post content to LinkedIn when the majority of your audience isn’t online, you most likely won't receive the amount of views and engagement you were hoping for.
So remember, if you want to build a brand on LinkedIn, it's crucial to find out when your specific audience prefers to surf the site. You'll have a better idea of how to nail the timing of your posts almost every single time you want to update your followers on the platform.
How often should you post on LinkedIn?
Our research has found you don't want to publish more than five times a week on LinkedIn — and you'll find highest engagement for your first two posts. As a result, we'd suggest anywhere between two to five times a week, depending on your industry, audience, and the type of content you're hoping to publish on the platform.
However, quantity shouldn't win over quality. When it comes to posting, you'll want to ensure you're thoughtful, strategic, and helpful with every piece of content you post on LinkedIn.
If you post lower-quality content simply to hit the five-pieces mark, you'll end up damaging your engagement metrics on the platform and LinkedIn will display your content less often to your followers. As is the case with all social platforms, the algorithm prioritizes good content.
If you choose to publish five posts per week on LinkedIn, consider how you might vary the type of content. For instance, perhaps on Monday you publish a video, Tuesday you publish a thought leadership article, Wednesday you share a blog post, and Thursday you write a compelling status and ask followers' to provide feedback in the comments section.
As you grow your LinkedIn strategy, you can iterate on this over time as you figure out which types of content perform best on your own business page.
Ultimately, a LinkedIn strategy is a long game. Test out these tactics, but try some experiments for yourself, as well — your audience is unique, and you might uncover your own powerful insights regarding LinkedIn content as you continue to post high-quality content while taking the time to engage with other industry-relevant posts, as well.
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