The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn to Boost Your Following + Engagement in 2024

Summary

We analyzed over 1 million posts sent through Buffer to pinpoint the best time and day to post on LinkedIn for maximum reach.

You will learn

• Which days and times are generally best for posting
• The post format that gets the most engagement
• How to use analytics to figure out the best time to reach your specific audience

After digging into millions of posts sent through Buffer in 2023, we’ve pinpointed the best time to post on all major social platforms for maximum engagement. 

Discovering the best time and the best day to post on LinkedIn was particularly fascinating. While most other social media platforms can be pretty unpredictable, with ebbs and flows in activity happening at random times of the day, LinkedIn’s high-engagement time slots are like clockwork.

I’ll be honest: this is a nice change of pace compared to the unpredictability of social media in general! It makes sense, of course — LinkedIn’s primary purpose is to connect professionals, and many users need to log on daily for their work.

Another fun part of exploring this data was that we figured out the best content type to post on the platform. (Finally, some hard evidence supports my anecdotal claims that folks need to use LinkedIn carousels!)

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s take a stroll through some stats.

Is there a best time to post on LinkedIn?

Technically, yes. After analyzing more than 1 million LinkedIn posts sent through Buffer, we were able to pinpoint some clear times when engagement with posts seems to be much higher. 

So, we can confidently say that your LinkedIn content is more likely to get engagement in these windows, whether you're looking to grow a LinkedIn Page for a brand or your own personal brand with a LinkedIn profile. But — and here’s the rub — every target audience is different. 

As I always do in these articles on the best time to post on social media, 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. 

We’ll get into how to do that below. First, here’s a deep dive into Buffer’s data on the best time to publish your content for LinkedIn.

The best time to post on LinkedIn for engagement

The best time to post on LinkedIn for high engagement is generally between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. No data science degrees required to figure out why — despite the rise of more personal content on the platform, it's still primarily used by professionals during working hours.

The graph above breaks down the week into hourly chunks. The darkest blue blocks are the time slots with the highest engagement. The light blue to white blocks are the time slots with the lowest engagement. 

So, as a rule of thumb, it’s a safe bet to post content on LinkedIn anytime during these weekday windows. However, there are a few slots that have slightly higher engagement rates than others. 

For example, engagement picks up mid-morning, lunch breaks, and much of the afternoon as people start scrolling through their LinkedIn feeds when they step back from work.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Monday

According to Buffer data, the best time slots on Monday for LinkedIn engagement are between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., when engagement is slightly higher than the rest of the 9-5 peak. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Monday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Tuesday

On Tuesday, the data suggests that the optimal posting times for engagement start in the early afternoon at 12 p.m. We see higher engagement numbers at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., too.

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Tuesday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday

Once again, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. have a slight edge on the other high-engagement slots on LinkedIn, with 12 p.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. tied for third place. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday: 2 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Thursday

We see a slightly earlier engagement spike on Thursday at 11 a.m., with another optimal time between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Thursday: 4 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Friday

On Friday, the optimal posting times on LinkedIn are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. — it makes sense that engagement drops off a little earlier ahead of the weekend as LinkedIn users log off. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Friday: 1 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Saturday

We see a significant drop-off in engagement with content posted on Saturdays, but some times are better than others to publish: 4 p.m., 7 p.m., and 10 p.m. see slightly higher engagement. 

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Saturday: 10 p.m.

The best time to post on LinkedIn on Sunday

Sunday is also a quieter day on the platform, with slight peaks at certain times. The best times to post on LinkedIn on Sunday are in the early morning, midday, and later afternoon: 7 a.m., 12 p.m., and 5 p.m.

⏰ When to post on LinkedIn on Sunday: 7 a.m.

This is where social media scheduling tools like Buffer shine. Experiment by systematically reviewing the times on the list above, scheduling a LinkedIn, and tracking its performance to see what works best for your audience.

At a glance: The best times to post on LinkedIn for each day of the week

• Monday: 4 a.m.
• Tuesday: 4 p.m.
• Wednesday: 2 p.m.
• Thursday: 4 p.m.
• Friday: 1 p.m.
• Saturday: 10 p.m.
• Sunday: 7 a.m.

The best day to post on LinkedIn

All weekdays have great engagement on the professional networking platform, but Friday is the best day of the week to post on the platform. The last day of the work week sees a slightly higher level than the rest, closely followed by Thursday and Wednesday, respectively.

The worst day of the week to post on LinkedIn is Saturday, when engagement is roughly two-thirds of the level we see on Friday. Sunday is not far off, with a notable drop compared to the rest of the week. 

The best content format to post on LinkedIn

Even the social network for professionals is not immune to the allure of video content. Our analysis revealed that it’s the type of content that sees the most engagement on the platform, with photos and LinkedIn document carousels (usually PDFs) not far behind. 

Here are the specific numbers to give you an indication of just how close they are.

Best performing post type on Linkedin by engagement rate

1. Video posts — 4.9 percent
2. Photo posts — 4.8 percent
3. PDF carousel posts — 4.2 percent
4. Text-only posts — 3.6 percent
5. Link posts — 2.7 percent

How to find the best time to post on LinkedIn for your audience

As mentioned above, these numbers can form a helpful guide if you’re just building your LinkedIn social media marketing strategy. Still, they’re no substitute for figuring out your own best time to post.

LinkedIn Analytics will surface your top-performing posts over a specific time for both Pages and profiles, which might allow you to pinpoint some patterns.

However, you’ll need a record of exactly when you posted a specific piece of content — like a social media scheduling tool or social media content calendar — to refer back to. Frustratingly, LinkedIn won’t show you detailed timings on published content after the fact. The best the LinkedIn timestamp will tell you is “3h” or “2d” (to indicate you posted the content three hours or two days ago, etc.)

Luckily, if you have a LinkedIn Page connected to Buffer, there’s a much simpler way to figure out your best time to post. In fact, with enough data, Buffer will tell you. (We’re hoping to bring this feature to LinkedIn profiles, too — keep an eye on our product roadmap to stay in the loop!)

Through Buffer’s Analytics, you can see an overview of what day, type of post, and frequency is best for each of your connected channels. Here’s how to access yours:

1. Sign in to Buffer on your desktop
2. Click Analytics on the top menu
3. Click LinkedIn under the Channels at the left-side menu
4. Click Answers

If you’ve been posting to LinkedIn for at least 30 days, you can track the metrics on all your posts in that time. For us at Buffer, over six months, our best day to post is on Friday, which is interesting given all the data about keeping to weekdays for posting.

As you can see, our data stands apart from the statistics provided by different reports, and yours will, too.

Along with telling which days to post or the number of times to post, Analytics also tracks metrics like followers, engagement rate per post, clicks, and more. It’s a great way to get a holistic overview of your performance on LinkedIn (and your other social channels).

3 factors to consider when scheduling LinkedIn content

Different factors affect the best times to post on LinkedIn, especially because it is a niche platform dedicated to professionals, businesses, and the topics they discuss. Here are some things to keep in mind as you schedule your posts on LinkedIn:

Breaks in the workday

LinkedIn is primarily used during traditional business hours, with engagement dropping off markedly after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

Of course, there are also natural breaks during the workday in which LinkedIn engagement increases. Lunchtime (12 p.m.) is generally a slightly more active time on the platform.

Engagement spikes again towards the end of the workday when professionals are likely to take an afternoon break.

Varying audience time zones

Consider when the largest segment of your population is likely to be on LinkedIn. For example, if you're based in Europe, your best bet is to post using Central European Time (CET) since that time zone has the most significant number of people active in that region. You can use a social media analytics tool to determine where your target audience is located.

Posting frequency

The ideal number of times you should be posting is two to five times per week and up to 20 times per month. 

Ultimately, you should experiment to find what works best for your account and audience. Anything from where you put your links to using LinkedIn’s carousel post feature can affect your engagement rates, regardless of timing. So, you need to prioritize understanding the LinkedIn algorithm, platform, and your audience along with when to post.

If you’re still stumped about which times work best for you, use Buffer’s automatic scheduling to start and refine your posting strategy over time. Once you’ve started posting consistently through Buffer, you will also get all your Analytics in your account's ‘Answers’ dashboard to see which days and times are best to post.

What have you found most helpful when determining your best time to post on LinkedIn? Comment below or let us know @buffer on all our social media accounts!