How often should you post on LinkedIn? A guide for online executive reputation

Most executives are familiar with the benefits of an active LinkedIn presence on LinkedIn – building trust and thought leadership, positioning themselves as experts while driving attention to their profile and company. The real question is: how often should you post to capture all these benefits?

There are a few things to consider, from maintaining authenticity to understanding how platforms’ algorithms work.

Let’s start with the numbers.

What is the lifespan of an average LinkedIn Post? On average, LinkedIn posts by executives or personal profiles continue reaching people for 24 to 48 hours. Things like your audience size, engagement, and the format of the post all influence its longevity.

Here’s the catch – as soon as you publish a new post, the lifespan of your previous post is cut short, limiting potential reach and results.

This means, ideally, you want to leave a 24 to 48 hour gap between posts, allowing them enough breathing room to realise their maximum potential.

On platforms like Twitter, it’s an entirely different story. Tweets have an average lifespan of 15 minutes, meaning you can Tweet away multiple times a day without significantly affecting the results of each individual post.

Taking a look at these figures, a reasonable cadence for an executive looking to build their LinkedIn presence and profile would be 3 to 5 posts per week.

Next, let’s look at performance.

What are the best posting times for LinkedIn?

As seen in this study by Sprout Social, LinkedIn users are most active during weekdays – particularly Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Way fewer LinkedIn users engage with the platform over the weekend.

In terms of posting times, there are 3 “prime” spots

• Early morning before work, between 7:00 and 9:00 AM
• Early afternoon, around lunch time, between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM
• Late afternoon, after work, between 5:00 and 7:00 PM

 

Looking at this data and considering the lifespan of posts on LinkedIn, the ideal strategy starts to shape up.

To make the most of each of their posts, executives should publish content during these days and times, allowing at least 24 hours between posts.

For example, an executive happy with a high-frequency posting on LinkedIn should aim to post every morning between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM on weekdays, taking a break on weekends.

Another executive who is more comfortable with a slightly more measured approach may publish content every second day. For example, Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning or noon.

A performance-focused executive might instead focus on the three most active days – Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – and post during the relevant prime spots.

Regardless of the strategy, the recommended range remains the same: 3 to 5 posts per week.

Now that we’ve covered the algorithmic and performance side of things, let’s look at the most important principle: Authenticity.

While content performance is important, it’s also important to ensure executives’ social media positively reflects and is aligned with their personal brand.

More extroverted executives, for example, are often happy to post every weekday and share their insights, thoughts, and ideas regularly. These executives’ networks likely know the individual and expect them to have such an active presence, which results in positive engagement and interactions.

More reserved or introverted executives, by contrast, might be more comfortable posting once or twice per week, sharing more measured thoughts and insights to ensure every post resonates with their way of thinking and expression. Similarly, their network is likely to expect that from them, and engage strongly with those less frequent posts.

As long as the cadence and content feel authentic to you, there is nothing to worry about.

The last point to cover is simple, but critical: consistency.

Most of the executives we work with come to us with a similar social presence. 9 times out of 10 that includes scarce posts, often published with several months’ gaps between them. The posts themselves are frequently re-shares from their company page announcing important news or job advertisements.

Consistency is one of the most important ingredients to gain the LinkedIn algorithm’s favour. If you only post once every few months, following no pattern, you’re highly unlikely to attain strong reach or engagement for that post.

More importantly, when you do need to post to get something out of LinkedIn – such as hiring someone or sharing an important announcement – you will have few guarantees on gaining the necessary reach and traction with your posts.

By contrast, if you post every single week – even if just once per week – you will not only have a solid understanding of what to expect performance-wise from every post, but you’re much more likely to be rewarded by LinkedIn with a stronger, steady reach for your content.

The key here is consistency. Finding a cadence that follows the algorithmic rules, the best times to post on LinkedIn, finding what feels authentic to you, and sticking with it every week as best you can.

If you want more help with managing your social presence and strategising, we offer a complimentary social presence analysis to all executives looking to build their online reputation and presence.

It includes recommendations on how to optimise your social profiles, a recommended posting cadence based on your network and past activity, and a content pillar strategy to ensure you’re publishing engaging social media content that keeps your audience coming back for more.

If you’re interested, please book with us on qnary.com.