Sending out your LinkedIn posts at the perfect time is the key to boosting visibility and engagement. It ensures that you’re getting your content in front of your audience at a time when they’re most active and, therefore, most likely to engage. As such, knowing the best time to post on LinkedIn is vital for your marketing strategy and your personal branding efforts.
So what’s the best time to post on LinkedIn? It depends on who you ask or other factors, such as which industry you’re in or what type of audience you’re targeting. This post gives you a detailed breakdown of the best time to post on LinkedIn to increase your engagement in 2024.
TL;DR: The best times to post on LinkedIn on average are:
Best Times to Post on LinkedIn
- 10 am to noon on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
- 10 am on Thursdays
- What is the Best Time and Day to Post on LinkedIn for Engagement?
- Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Weekdays
- Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Weekends
- What are the Best Times to Post on LinkedIn According to Key Factors?
- What’s the Worst Time to Post on LinkedIn?
- How to Automate Your LinkedIn Posting Schedule
- 1. Loomly
- 2. Sprout Social
- 3. Sendible
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Best Time and Day to Post on LinkedIn for Engagement?
The best time to post on LinkedIn varies for every business based on factors such as time zone, industry, and audience type. However, several studies have explored engagement rates for thousands of posts across LinkedIn to understand the best time to post on average.
These findings serve as a guideline so you can test different post timings and see what works best for you specifically. This will allow you to optimize your LinkedIn marketing strategy for a greater impact. Which days and hours help you get the most engagement and move you closer to your goal? Here are the recommended post times from a few different studies:
- CoSchedule: 10 am, 12 pm, and 1 am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays
- Sprout Social: 10 am to noon on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 am on Thursdays
- Buffer: 4 pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; 2 pm on Wednesdays; 1 pm on Fridays
- Oberlo: 10 am to 12 pm on Tuesdays
- Hootsuite: 8 am to 9 am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
As you can see, the ideal post timings vary across these studies. However, we can see some common patterns on the best hours and days to post.
Peak Days | Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays |
Peak Hours | 10 am, 12 pm |
What’s common across most of these studies is that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays generally saw the highest level of engagement on LinkedIn. This makes sense, as people would have just started to free up some time after a busy start of the week. So they would be in the right mindset to engage with work-related social media posts on LinkedIn.
Fridays don’t normally make it to the list as these are the days that people normally have to wrap up unfinished work to prepare for the weekend. This may leave little room for social media—even if it’s LinkedIn.
Interestingly, the peak hours are times when people are supposed to be working. 10 am likely sees high levels of engagement as this is the time that people finally get settled in for work. So they might do some light browsing before picking back up on work. Similarly, 12 pm is when most offices go for lunch, which means that people are typically using LinkedIn during their lunch hours.
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Weekdays
As is apparent from the above studies, the best times to post vary depending on the day. Let’s break down the day-by-day ideal post timing so you can optimize your posting schedule strategically for the entire week.
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Monday
Peak times on Monday varied starkly between studies, with some seeing higher engagements in the mornings between 7 am and 11 am. Others noticed a marked increase in the afternoon and early evening hours between 2 pm and 4 pm. It’s good to experiment with these various timings to see what works for you specifically.
When to post on LinkedIn on Monday:
11 am, 2 pm, 4 pm
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Tuesday
Tuesdays were the most engaging days across all studies. However, peak times on this day varied between studies. Some studies noticed higher engagement in the early mornings between 6 am and 8 am when most people would be getting ready for their workday or commuting to work. Other studies saw engagements increasing between 2 pm and 4 pm, but a few studies agreed that 10 am to noon were the most engaging times.
When to post on LinkedIn on Tuesday:
10 am to 12 pm
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Wednesday
Wednesdays saw some of the highest engagement across various studies. While peak engagement times varied between studies, mornings were generally the best times to post. Brands started seeing above-average engagements starting at 8 am until around 3 pm. But some studies also noticed peak engagement at around 2 pm.
When to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday:
9 am, 10 am, 2 pm
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Thursday
Thursdays were also one of the most engaging days across different studies. Although you might see above-average engagement starting in the morning, most studies agreed that engagement was much higher in the early afternoon on Thursdays. Peak engagement was at 2 pm across all studies, but some studies also noted high engagement from 12 pm through 4 pm.
When to post on LinkedIn on Thursday:
2 pm
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Friday
Engagement drops off a little bit on Friday as people wrap up for the week and gear up for the weekend. Peak engagement hours are near identical with Monday, with the hours between 8 am and 3 pm seeing above-average engagement. However, one study noted that engagement was a lot higher at around 8 pm when most people are done with the work week.
When to post on LinkedIn on Friday:
1 pm, 3 pm
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Weekends
While all the studies had varied findings when it comes to the best times to post on LinkedIn, they all agreed that engagement drops off during the weekend. This makes sense as most people stop checking the app while they’re busy with their weekend plans. Still, certain hours saw a higher level of engagement, making these time slots ideal for brands that want to continue engaging their audience, even on the weekends.
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Saturday
Unlike the weekdays, early mornings and evenings were more popular on Saturdays among LinkedIn users. The hours from 4 am to 6 am saw engagements peak, as did evenings and nights around 4 pm through 10 pm. So these would be the ideal times to drive light engagement with your LinkedIn audience.
When to post on LinkedIn on Saturday:
6 am, 4 pm, 10 pm
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn on Sunday
Like Saturday, engagement on LinkedIn is lower on Sundays. Early mornings and afternoons around 2 pm were some of the more active hours across all the studies. Some also noted above-average engagement during noon and evening around 5 pm.
When to post on LinkedIn on Sunday:
6 am to 8 am
What are the Best Times to Post on LinkedIn According to Key Factors?
The above best times to post are generally applicable across all brands on LinkedIn. However, the specific timings for your brand may vary according to several factors, including your industry, time zone, and audience type. Additionally, your LinkedIn analytics will also show you when your posts typically get the most engagement.
What’s the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn for Different Time Zones
First and foremost, the location of your audience and their respective time zones will play a key role in the best time to post. If you’re located in the USA but are targeting a European audience, for instance, relying on the optimal post timings of US-based studies will not deliver the expected results. In this case, 10 am on a Wednesday for you would be 4 pm CET for your European customers.
So it’s crucial to understand the best time to post on LinkedIn for different time zones to strategically plan your publishing schedule. Generally, the timings discussed above are based on US time zones. So 10 am and 12 pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are ideal for reaching US-based audiences.
Similarly, the Sprout Social study also found that UK audiences were most active around these times. Peak engagement times in the UK were between 10 am and 12 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well as 10 am on Thursdays.
Even for a European audience, mornings seemed to be the most engaging time during the weekdays.
“I've had the best engagement for posts I do in the morning CET time,”
says Rebecca Whitlocke, Founder of Antibes Yachting. Rebecca is based in France and targets Europe and the UK as her main audience.
Similarly Sabina Brdnik, Marketing Strategist at tretton37, which targets Slovenia and Sweden, notes that weekday mornings between 7:55 am and 10:10 am CET saw the highest engagement.
“People usually hop on LinkedIn in the morning while having their coffee and before/mid browsing through their emails,”
she says.
What’s the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn According to Industry?
The best time to post on LinkedIn greatly depends on the type of business you run. People may behave differently and use LinkedIn at different times, depending on how your industry operates.
Here’s a breakdown of the best times to post on LinkedIn for different verticals:
B2C Businesses: Ideal LinkedIn posting times are during lunch breaks (for 9 to 5 workers), according to CoSchedule and Hopper HQ. As for days, Tuesdays through Thursdays remain the most engaging days.
B2B Businesses: Optimal times are before work, at lunch, and post-evening commute, aligning with a more professional focus. According to CoSchedule, the peak engagement times are 8 am, 10 am to 12 pm, and 6 pm. As for days, Wednesdays are consistently the best days to post for businesses in this vertical.
Additionally, the specific industry you work in will also influence your post timings. For example, according to the Sprout Social study, hospitals and healthcare institutions see peak engagement between 10 am and noon on Wednesdays. On Thursdays, the engagement patterns shift to see a higher activity between 2 pm and 4 pm.
Wednesdays and Thursdays continued to be high-engagement days for restaurants and businesses in the food and beverage industry. However, peak engagement times saw a slight shift to 10 am and 12 to 3 pm on Wednesdays. Meanwhile, on Thursdays, this industry saw higher engagement in the morning between 9 am and 11 am.
Schools and education institutions, on the other hand, saw peak engagement on Tuesdays at 11 am. However, they also see above-average engagement between 9 am and 5 pm throughout the week.
Those in the travel and hospitality sector have a wider variety of options for the best time to post. Peak engagement times for this sector are 10 am to 2 pm and 3 pm on Tuesdays, 12 pm to 4 pm on Wednesdays, and 1 pm to 4 pm on Thursdays.
LinkedIn Travel and Hospitality
For industries like travel and hospitality with several optimal post times on a specific day, it might be a good idea to experiment with different post types to see what works best during those hours. Think important industry news in the mornings and thought leadership pieces in the afternoons, for example.
This is the strategy that the tretton37 team applies to target audiences in the tech and custom software sector.
”I also noticed that in the morning, shorter and easier to digest kind of posts perform better, since people do not want to read long articles or harder to digest information metrics,”
says Marketing Strategist Sabina Brdnik.
Sabina notes that in their industry, early morning and just after lunch (from 1 pm - 2:30 pm) are periods when people and company profiles share industry news and product updates. Thought leadership content is also particularly common to share during these periods. Fridays, on the other hand, are their go-to days for publishing talent acquisition-type content such as casual, company culture, and employee spotlight posts.
Companies in the yachting industry such as Antibes Yachting also found mornings to be the most engaging times. Founder Rebecca Whitlocke says,
“I find I have the best engagement from maritime when I post in the morning CET time as it picks up European and UK professionals (one of the key yachting zones), and then posts are online to catch LinkedIn traffic in the afternoon for US-based members (another key yachting zone for USA and Caribbean).”
As for days, the company sees high levels of engagement from Monday through Friday. Unlike most industries, they also see good engagement on Saturdays.
What’s the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn According to Audience Type?
Another key factor to consider is the type of audience you’re trying to reach. Are you trying to get your business in front of key decision-makers, for example? Or are you trying to attract potential employees?
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.
According to Mark Osborne, founder of Modern Revenue Strategies,
“Who you are targeting makes a dramatic impact on when you post.”
He explains that the patterns in responses to Inmails and Connection Requests suggest that Senior Leaders (C-Suite, Founders) are often more engaged very early (before 6 am in their local time zone) or very late (after 6 pm in their local time zone). Most surprisingly, they’re even more engaged during the weekends.
“This often doesn’t align with overall engagement numbers on posts (comments, likes, shares) because the average LinkedIn user is often “killing time” while at work,”
he notes.
“However, if your goal is to specifically engage Senior Leadership targets you may find other times are better for outreach.”
What’s the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn According to Your LinkedIn Analytics?
Finally, your LinkedIn Analytics can show you the best time to post based on when your audience is most likely to engage with your posts. 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.
This is the most accurate way to narrow down the best time to post for your business specifically. Consider testing the different time slots highlighted above and then use your LinkedIn Analytics data to see what works best.
While the LinkedIn Analytics dashboard doesn’t specifically point out the optimal post times, it shows you comprehensive engagement metrics for your posts. You’ll need to manually analyze the engagement patterns for different posts and timings to see when you’re most likely to engage your audience.
Go to your Analytics dashboard and scroll down to the “Content engagement” section. Then look through the engagement rates of different posts and check out the publishing time for posts that see the highest engagement.
“Content engagement” section
Alternatively, you can simplify the process with the help of third-party LinkedIn analytics tools. Many of these tools will track the performance of your LinkedIn posts and analyze them to identify your most engaging times. Tools like Sprout Social will even suggest optimal post times so you can schedule your LinkedIn posts to automatically go out at those times.
What’s the Worst Time to Post on LinkedIn?
While the peak engagement times varied between various studies, one thing remained consistent—weekends see the lowest engagement rate across all industries and studies. This is likely because people are busy with their weekend plans and avoiding work-related social media during these days.
Even during the weekdays, businesses may see lower engagement if they post outside of business hours. Additionally, Mondays tend to see lower engagements than other weekdays.
How to Automate Your LinkedIn Posting Schedule
Once you narrow down the best times to post on LinkedIn for your business, the next thing you can do is take advantage of those time slots. Simplify the process by automating your LinkedIn posting schedule with the following LinkedIn scheduling tools.
Loomly is one of the most powerful LinkedIn posting tools for automating your publishing strategy. It lets you create LinkedIn posts right within the platform and provides you with optimization tips to boost your engagement. You can use the built-in analytics to easily identify your top-performing posts and most popular hours. This can then inform how to schedule your posts strategically to drive more engagement. Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform with powerful scheduling features for LinkedIn. You can craft and schedule your LinkedIn posts right within the platform and select photos and videos to share from your media library. The Optimal Send Times suggestion simplifies the process of finding the best time to post for your business. It narrows down your most engaging times based on how your other LinkedIn posts have performed in the past. Sendible is another powerful scheduling tool that comes with built-in editing and publishing features. It lets you select optimal times to schedule your posts based on when your audience is most active. The tool then automatically pushes out your posts to drive more engagements and boost your LinkedIn performance.1. Loomly
2. Sprout Social
3. Sendible
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best times to post on LinkedIn for maximum engagement?
Generally, 10 am to 12 pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are the best times to post on LinkedIn for maximum engagement.
Why do posts on LinkedIn at certain times get more views than others?
You can get more views on LinkedIn at certain times because those are times when LinkedIn users, in general, are most active. This makes them more likely to see and engage with your posts.
Should posting times on LinkedIn be adjusted based on the target audience?
Yes, posting times on LinkedIn should be adjusted based on factors such as the time zone and industry of your target audience. The type of people you’re targeting should also influence your posting times.
What is the best time to post on LinkedIn in the UK?
The best time to post on LinkedIn in the UK are between 10 am and 12 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well as 10 am on Thursdays.
What is the best time to post on LinkedIn in Europe?
Mornings, between 8 am and 10 am CET, are the best times to post on LinkedIn in Europe.
What is the golden hour for LinkedIn posts?
The “golden hour” refers to the 60-minute period after your LinkedIn post goes live when the algorithm determines its performance based on the level of engagement it receives.
