Once you've figured out what you want to share on LinkedIn, you still need to decide when to publish your content for maximum effect. There are a lot of opinions about the best time to post on social media, but we're only interested in cold, hard facts backed by research. For this article, we've looked at the latest research about the best times to post on LinkedIn so you can reach your target audience. While the best time to publish your content on LinkedIn will depend on a number of factors, the research into this topic provides an excellent jumping-off point.
Best Times to Post on LinkedIn in the USA:
- Wednesday at 8–10 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM
- Thursday at 9–10 AM and 1–2 PM
- Friday at 9 AM, 11 AM, 12 PM
Best Times to Post on LinkedIn for Best Results in 2024:
LinkedIn is a professional social network that is largely used by those seeking to find employees or employers as well as those in the B2B niche. This differs from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram that are more geared toward personal interactions and tend to perform well for B2C brands.
The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in 2024
On average, what's the best time to post on LinkedIn? While the best time to post on any social media platform varies based on a number of factors, the research is a great guideline to help you get started. You can post based on these guidelines and, from there, test different posting times to find out if you can improve your engagement and get closer to your goals. Here are recommended posting times from a few different studies:
- HubSpot: Saturdays, Sundays, and Wednesdays between 6 - 9 p.m., 3 - 6 p.m., or 12 - 3 p.m
- Sprout Social: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. to noon
- Buffer: Wednesday: 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m.; Thursday: 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m.; Friday: 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 12 p.m.
- Oberlo: 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays
- Quintly: Weekdays between 7 am–8 am, at 12 pm, and between 5 pm–6 pm
Quality Content Matters
LinkedIn's user base consists of businesses and professionals who likely visit the platform to find or create content that advances their career, network, establish themselves as thought leaders, and make themselves more visible to employers, customers, and business partners. To that end, the content that performs best on LinkedIn is blog posts, relevant third-party content, native video, text posts, and images and graphics.
Studies on the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
As we mentioned previously, there are several different studies regarding the best times to post on LinkedIn. As you can imagine, the studies don't agree with one another completely but there are definite trends apparent in the research.
For this article, we relied primarily on research from Sprout Social’s Best Times to Post on Social Media.
Key Considerations When looking for the Best Times to Post on LinkedIn
Day of the Week
The best day of the week to post on LinkedIn is Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with Wednesdays getting the highest level of engagement. Given that the platform is a professional network, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Saturdays and Sundays are the weekdays with the least usage and least engagement.
Breaks in the Workday
Being a professional network used by business thought leaders, job seekers, and business owners, LinkedIn is primarily used during traditional business hours with engagement dropping off markedly after 5 pm and on weekends. Of course, there are also natural breaks during the workday in which LinkedIn engagement increases. Lunchtime (12 pm) is generally a more active time on the platform with mornings also getting their share of engagement. Engagement spikes again towards the end of the workday when professionals are likely to be taking an afternoon break.
Use Time Zones to Your Advantage
If you're a regional, national, or global brand, you'll likely need to take time zones into consideration when you create and publish content on LinkedIn. Some LinkedIn marketers publish their message at different time zones to hit everyone. However, we don't recommend that course of action because LinkedIn's algorithm tends to penalize those who share more than once per day. Our recommendation is to schedule your content based on when the largest segment of your population is likely to be on LinkedIn. For scheduling posts, you can also take advantage of some popular social media scheduling tools. If you're based in the US or Canada, your best bet is to post using EST since that time zone has the largest number of people. Use social media analytics tools to find out where your target audience is predominantly located. As Influencer Marketing Hub previously has explicated, in the article about Best Times to Post on Instagram, it is crucial to link your account so any free analytics platform where you can keep track of your audiences.
Follow Your Specific Audience
The behavior of your particular audience is an important factor to consider when finding the best times to post on LinkedIn for your business. Look into how your audience uses LinkedIn, when they're online and most active, and the kind of content they like to see. Additionally, time zones and lunch hours are also worth examining. Social media analytics and social listening tools can help you understand more about your target audience and how they're using social media platforms like LinkedIn.
Frequency of Posting on LinkedIn
The ideal posting frequency for LinkedIn is two to five times per week, up to 20 times per month. It's not recommended to publish to the platform more than once per weekday. LinkedIn's algorithm is built to provide users a broad range of content from multiple creators in their newsfeeds, so posting more than once per weekday is likely to do more harm than good.
Different Sectors Prefer Posts at Different Times
The best times to post on LinkedIn also depend on your industry. Here's a breakdown of the best times to post on LinkedIn for different verticals (from CoSchedule):
- B2C Businesses: Ideal LinkedIn posting times are during lunch breaks (for 9 to 5 workers).
- B2B Businesses: Optimal times are before work, at lunch, and post-evening commute, aligning with a more professional focus.
- Software Businesses: Reach professionals before work or during lunch when they're less occupied.
- Healthcare Companies: Mid-morning to early afternoon is most effective.
- Higher Education: Mid-morning is ideal, aligning with career and educational development breaks.
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More Detailed List of Best Posting Times
While deciding a single best time to post on Instagram is tricky, and in all honesty, pointless, most of these studies have come up with a series of good posting times. Here are some suggestions (again, all expressed in CT and ignoring sectors):
HubSpot
According to HubSpot's research, here are the best times to post on LinkedIn, ranked from best to worst:
- Optimal LinkedIn posting times: 9 AM - 12 PM, 12 PM - 3 PM, and 3 PM - 6 PM.
- Top posting days: Mondays, Wednesdays, and then Tuesdays.
- Weakest engagement: Sundays and Saturdays.
Sprout Social
- Best times to post on LinkedIn: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. to noon
Oberlo
- Best times to post on LinkedIn: 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays
Buffer
Best times to post on LinkedIn:
- Wednesday: 8 AM, 9 AM, 10 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM
- Thursday: 9 AM, 10 AM, 1 PM, 2 PM
- Friday: 9 AM, 11 AM, 12 PM
Quintly
- Best times to post on LinkedIn: Weekdays between 7 am–8 am, at 12 pm, and between 5 pm–6 pm.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?
According to the research, here are the best times to post on LinkedIn, ranked from best to worst:
1. Wednesdays at 12 pm. While Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are largely considered the best days to post on LinkedIn, Wednesday at 12 pm is one of the days and times that multiple studies target.
2. Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 8 am–10 am. After the craziness of Mondays, people tend to check LinkedIn as they're getting their days started on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
3. Thursdays at 9 am. Thursday is a higher-traffic day on LinkedIn, likely because people are winding down (mentally) and gearing up for the weekend.
4. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 8 am–5 pm. The middle of the week is a great time to post on LinkedIn since it's after the catching up usually taking place on Mondays but before Fridays when people are thinking more about the weekend than work.
5. Fridays at 9 am. Fridays aren't particularly high-traffic days on LinkedIn, but if you're going to post, try to post early before people check out for the weekend.
Is it bad to post on LinkedIn at night?
While "bad" is a strong word, it's probably unlikely to do your business any favors if you post on LinkedIn at night. Since LinkedIn's user base is largely professionals and businesses, you're going to get the highest engagement during traditional working hours.
What is the worst time to post on LinkedIn?
According to HubSpot, the worst time to post on LinkedIn is after 5 pm. Since LinkedIn is largely used by businesses and professionals, it makes sense that those people tend to log off after they're done with work. This is why 95% of LinkedIn posts show a drop in engagement when they're published after traditional office hours. Additionally, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are also bad days to post on LinkedIn. If your business is part of a weekend industry like sports, food, and beverages, you might see some success when posting on weekends.
Is Monday a bad time to post on LinkedIn?
In a word, yes. However, the best times to post on LinkedIn depends on your target audience. While Monday gets less engagement when compared to other weekdays, it does get better engagement than weekends. Remember that LinkedIn is a platform for professionals and businesses—Mondays in the business world tend to be incredibly busy, limiting the amount of time people have to spend on the platform.
Should I post every day on LinkedIn?
No. You should post up to five times each week on LinkedIn if you want to get the best engagement for your posts. But that doesn't mean you should post content for the sake of posting content. Depending on your niche, audience, industry, and the type of content you're sharing, it's best to limit your posts to two–five times per week and keep the content high-quality and thoughtful.
Does LinkedIn have a post limit?
Sort of. If you post more than 20 times each month, LinkedIn's algorithm might work against you. This is because LinkedIn wants its newsfeed to include posts from a broad range of its users instead of being swamped by users who post multiple times per day. Many LinkedIn marketers find that if they post more than once each day, one of the posts ends up not getting as much love.
