Scheduling a LinkedIn Post: Methods and Challenges

Respecting the best time to post on LinkedIn

The most relevant posting times and dates are among the most important criteria for being ranked well by the LinkedIn algorithm.

While many experts agree that the most effective posting days are concentrated from Tuesday to Thursday, debates about time slots are more heated.

Even if it’s not systematic, posts from accounts in different sectors have already exploded on a Saturday evening, while others have completely flopped at the preferred times.

Problem:

• No one wants to wake up at 7 AM to write a LinkedIn post
• You have better things to do on your weekends than wait by your phone for the optimal posting time for your audience.
• You risk having minor issues with your friends and close acquaintances if you write a LinkedIn post late at night, or click the publish button before going to bed.

However, this is the procedure if you want to gain visibility on LinkedIn and stand out from your competitors.

Consistency is the key to your visibility

To be easily accepted by the algorithm and improve your engagement rate, it is essential to maintain unwavering consistency.

Have you chosen to post once a week, once every three days, or twice a day (good luck)? There is no wrong frequency, as long as it is regular!

It’s better to post content every Wednesday than three times a week at erratic days and times.

When your workload is too heavy, personal branding or publishing content on LinkedIn often takes a backseat.

Logically, your consistency is considerably impacted.

In such cases, the visibility of the company pages you manage or your own profile is reduced by the algorithm. It will take time to become visible again to your audience, which is not good for your business.

The advantages of LinkedIn scheduling

Scheduling your LinkedIn posts therefore allows you to:

• Maintain a regular posting cadence and automate the publication of posts on your accounts (company pages or personal account): as we saw just before, the more consistent you are, the more visible you are.
• Plan a content calendar and vary the content of your posts: by scheduling your posts in advance, you can establish a real editorial plan with varied themes (according to the TOFU – MOFU – BOFU strategy). You no longer have to find an interesting topic at the last minute, on the day of publication.
• Be present on the social network at times and days when competition is lower: even if weekends work less, it is also a period of the week when posting on LinkedIn is considerably reduced. It is therefore an excellent slot to gain visibility and audience share.

Now that we have reviewed all the advantages of planning on LinkedIn, we still need to know how to schedule your publications for company pages or your own profile.

Disclaimer: LaGrowthMachine does not allow you to schedule your LinkedIn posts strictly speaking. Other tools will do it very well.

On the other hand, with our tool, you can schedule various actions such as:

• sending connection requests
• private messages
• voice messages
• visiting LinkedIn profiles

In this sequence, each of these actions is performed automatically and very naturally if you have set up the right triggers and good copywriting!

These types of client prospecting actions using a tool like LaGrowthMachine can (and should) be used in parallel with your LinkedIn posting strategy.

Agorapulse Free version, from $99/month for advanced features

With its aggressive communication strategy (including comparisons with its competitors), Agorapulse is the French leader in scheduling and publishing on social networks.

It is more expensive than the competition, but also extremely appreciated by its users. Moreover, you can test the tool for free for 15 days.

Here is what it offers in 6 key points:

• Social analytics and detailed reports, understandable by everyone
• A well-designed interface, allowing easy engagement with social media users
• A clear and comprehensive content calendar
• The ability to organize, schedule, repost, or queue publications (posts or videos) for your accounts
• High automation capacity, up to 100 posts
• The ability to perform social media monitoring focused on keywords

Swello – Free version, subscription from €9.9 per month

Swello is another French tool experiencing rapid growth.

Although the company is relatively young, they already have many features that position it as a key player in the sector:

• An intuitive interface, easy to get started with
• Team management allows assigning roles to collaborators for an optimized validation process (especially for agencies and freelancers)
• Ability to schedule and automate simultaneously across multiple platforms (not recommended for personal branding)
• Chrome and Firefox extensions to simplify the process
• iOS and Android apps to work from anywhere
• In-depth analysis of your results, starting from €29.9 per month

Buffer Free for scheduling, from $5 for Analytics

Along with Hootsuite, it is the world’s number 1 for post scheduling.

A major advantage for the platform is that Buffer is one of LinkedIn’s marketing partners.

In concrete terms, this means you will not be penalized for using an external platform.

With the tool, you can:

• Schedule your publications (including photos and videos) from your professional profile or your company page
• Choose to publish them instantly or at a specific date and time.
• Access statistics reporting (with the paid plan)

Hootsuite From $49/month

This is the second giant in social media post scheduling. It is one of the most expensive platforms in our selection, but also one of the most complete.

By signing up on the platform, you get 30 days to test it for free. This is more than enough time to get acquainted with Hootsuite and discover its features:

• Manual, automated, or bulk scheduling of your LinkedIn posts (videos or publications)
• Target your publications by professional sector, geolocation, or account language
• Sponsor your publications directly from Hootsuite
• Access your inbox directly from the platform and manage your conversations

SproutSocial From $89 per month

Sprout is another heavyweight tool for social media post planning. It is also a certified marketing partner by LinkedIn.

In addition to a 30-day free trial, Sprout offers many advantages that will help you develop your social selling capabilities on the B2B social network:

• The ability to automate your publications on one or more Company Pages
• The ability to target your post audience by sector, company size, profession…
• Access to a stock image library
• Simplified team collaboration thanks to a well-thought-out creation process
• The ability to interact directly with your followers
• Excellent performance indicators and in-depth analysis on LinkedIn