LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional social media platforms, with over 800 million users worldwide. For brands and businesses, LinkedIn offers an unparalleled opportunity to reach a massive audience of professionals and decision-makers. One of the key ways to engage your target audience on LinkedIn is through consistent posting of relevant, high-quality content.
To maximize the impact of your LinkedIn content strategy, it’s essential to plan and schedule your posts in advance. Posting consistently, at optimal times, with a good mix of content types and topics will help you build engagement and connect with more of your ideal customers and prospects.
But manually scheduling and publishing posts can be time-consuming. This is where LinkedIn’s post scheduling tools come in handy! In this article, we’ll look at some of the top tools for scheduling LinkedIn posts and how to choose the right one for your needs.
Key Benefits of Scheduling LinkedIn Posts
Here are some of the main reasons businesses and marketers use LinkedIn post scheduling tools:
- Saves time – Automate posting instead of manually posting every time
- Consistency – Schedule and stagger posts in advance to maintain frequent posting cadence
- Optimize timing – Schedule posts at optimal times when your audience is most active on LinkedIn
- Plan ahead – Plan and queue your content calendar in advance for organized posting
- Analyze performance – Review social media analytics to determine best posting times and tactics
In short, scheduling posts allows you to streamline the process and put your LinkedIn content strategy into overdrive for better results.
Top 7 Tools for Scheduling LinkedIn Posts
There are many tools available that allow you to plan, schedule and publish LinkedIn posts in advance. Here are the top 7 options:
1. Loomly
Loomly is an all-in-one social media management platform for scheduling posts, analyzing performance, managing Approvals and more. Key features include:
- Schedule unlimited LinkedIn posts for free
- Mention tagging for co-authoring posts
- Collaborate with team members
- Analyze best posting times
- Robust approval workflows
- Chrome extension for quick scheduling
2. HootSuite
HootSuite is one of the most popular social media management tools. For LinkedIn, key features include:
- Schedule and queue posts
- Add post images and videos
- Monitor post performance
- Schedule into multiple LinkedIn Pages
- Link shortening and click-tracking
3. SmarterQueue
SmarterQueue is designed specifically for scheduling LinkedIn posts. It offers these useful features:
- Schedule posts natively as your Company Page
- Recommended posting times based on your audience
- Preview how scheduled posts will look
- Photo and video posting
- Chrome extension for quick scheduling
4. Buffer
Buffer is another very popular social media tool with capabilities to schedule LinkedIn posts. Key LinkedIn features include:
- Queue posts and schedule in advance
- Optimal posting recommendations
- Engagement analytics
- Calendar view of scheduled posts
- Team member collaboration
5. MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar takes a unique approach by recycling and resurfacing your best performing content automatically. For LinkedIn you can:
- Schedule posts for regular recycling
- Share posts multiple times for more exposure
- Track open and click-through rates
6. Sendible
Sendible is a cross-platform social media tool. Key features for LinkedIn include:
- Post scheduling
- Image and video posting
- RSS feed integration
- Calendar view
- Reporting and analytics
7. SocialPilot
SocialPilot focuses on analytics and optimization for scheduling posts. LinkedIn features include:
- Schedule multiple post types
- Optimize based on top performing content
- Campaign management
- Calendar scheduling
- Hashtag and mention suggestions
Choosing the Right LinkedIn Post Scheduling Tool
With so many options for scheduling LinkedIn posts, how do you determine which tool is right for your specific needs? Here are 6 criteria to consider when evaluating LinkedIn scheduling tools:
1. Available LinkedIn Features
Carefully assess which LinkedIn-specific features each tool provides. For example, does it allow you to schedule natively as your Company Page? Can you do mention tagging? Look for the features that will be most beneficial to your LinkedIn content strategy.
2. Ease of Use
The tool should make scheduling easy and seamless, with a user-friendly interface. Look for simplicity in setting up posts, scheduling, making edits, adding visual media, etc.
3. Analytics and Optimization
Robust analytics tools that provide insight into best times to post, top performing content, audience engagement etc. can help you continually optimize your approach. See what data each scheduling tool provides.
4. Audience Targeting
Some tools allow you to target content to specific audiences by demographics, interests, geography and more. If this is important to your LinkedIn strategy, look for tools with robust targeting capabilities.
5. Approval Workflows
For larger teams and companies, social media approval workflows are crucial. If you need to route LinkedIn posts for internal review before publishing, look for tools with this feature.
6. Budget
Pricing can vary greatly depending on the features provided. Compare your must-have features to each tool’s price plans and free trials to ensure it fits your budget.
Best Practices for Scheduling LinkedIn Posts
Once you’ve selected the right scheduling tool, use these best practices to maximize the impact of your LinkedIn content strategy:
- Maintain a consistent schedule – Post at regular intervals to keep your brand top of mind.
- Spread out posting times – Vary the times you post to reach different global audiences.
- Reuse evergreen content – Repurpose your best content across time zones.
- Test different days/times – Experiment to find the optimal schedule for engagement.
- Use compelling visuals – Posts with visuals drive more engagement.
- Leverage analytics – Continuously refine your approach based on data and performance.
- Promote interaction – Ask questions, run polls and encourage comments.
- Follow posting limits – Be careful not to oversaturate your audience.
Conclusion
With the right scheduling tool and strategy, you can take your LinkedIn marketing results to the next level. Planning and automating consistent posts that provide value for your audience will help boost brand awareness, leads and sales.
The tools covered in this article offer robust features to schedule and optimize your LinkedIn posts. Analyze your specific needs to pick the one that’s right for your brand. And don’t forget to leverage analytics to continually refine your approach.
Using these LinkedIn best practices, your company can build strong connections and engagement with professionals and businesses worldwide. So start scheduling your top-quality content today to get noticed on the world’s largest professional networking platform!