You can’t be on LinkedIn all day.
But you still need to publish posts consistently on LinkedIn to boost your brand and attract clients.
In this situation, scheduling posts on LinkedIn lets you publish content consistently without interrupting your work day.
For example, you can set aside a few hours to create LinkedIn content for a week.
But how do you go about it?
This guide will show you how to schedule posts on LinkedIn and the best tools to use.
How to schedule posts on LinkedIn website and app
LinkedIn lets you schedule posts on its website and mobile apps for up to 3 months in advance.
And this applies to both LinkedIn personal profiles and pages.
To schedule a post, visit your LinkedIn timeline and click the Start a post box as if you want to create a post.
Then, enter the important details about your post, like text, images, and videos.
But instead of clicking the Post button, click the clock icon beside it.
Doing this will take you to the scheduling interface. Here, you can enter the date and time you want your post to go live.
Once you do that, click Next. After this, LinkedIn will take you back to the post composer.
Click Schedule to complete the setup.
If you want to schedule posts on the LinkedIn mobile app, the process is similar.
Visit your LinkedIn timeline and click + at the bottom middle of your app.
From here, you can follow the same steps for the desktop version.
Keep in mind that there are restrictions on the post types you can schedule on the native LinkedIn site.
For personal LinkedIn profiles, you can’t schedule events, jobs, and services posts.
For LinkedIn pages, you can’t schedule events, multiple photos, reshares, polls, jobs, and services posts.
Overall, the native LinkedIn scheduling is basic and easy to use.
How to view scheduled posts on LinkedIn
After scheduling posts on LinkedIn, you can keep track of your scheduled posts.
How?
Click the Start a post box as if to create a new post.
Now that you’ve scheduled posts, you’ll see the View all scheduled posts link. Click this link.
Here, you’ll see post previews, including snippets of the captions and thumbnails.
You can also view each post by clicking it.
LinkedIn lets you edit a scheduled post through the time icon. This lets you reschedule your post to go live on LinkedIn at another time.
You also have the option to delete a scheduled post on LinkedIn. Click the garbage icon, and you’re good to go.
Unfortunately, these are all the editing options LinkedIn offers.
If you need to edit your caption or change the media, you’re out of luck.
The only way to do that is to delete the scheduled post and start again.
But even beyond the limited editing options, the native LinkedIn scheduling option won’t work if you have more needs.
For example, if you need to collaborate with team members or publish posts on multiple social media platforms at once.
In this case, you may need a third-party scheduling tool instead.
How to schedule posts on LinkedIn with third-party tools
Due to the limitations mentioned earlier, a third-party tool may be the better option for your needs.
Third-party tools can stand in the gap by providing more features to aid your LinkedIn scheduling tasks.
Here are 3 great tools that let you schedule posts on LinkedIn personal profiles and pages:
Schedule LinkedIn posts with Vista Social
Vista Social is one of the best social media management tools, and you get a robust scheduler as part of the package.
To schedule a LinkedIn post with Vista Social, visit your dashboard and click Create at the top right corner or left sidebar.
Once you do this, Vista Social will provide options. Select New post among the options.
Doing this will launch the post composer.
In the post composer, you can select the social media profiles you want to publish your post on.
Then, write your post captions. If you need help with the caption, use Vista Social’s AI assistant to write it.
Below the caption box, you can add a media file from your computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, and other sources.
But beyond that, Vista Social has a Canva integration that lets you design images right in Vista Social.
So, if you want to design images specifically for LinkedIn, Canva has templates for different post types.
Also, you can customize posts for each social media platform if you want to schedule posts on platforms other than LinkedIn.
Vista Social lets you communicate with team members.
For example, you can leave notes for team members about tasks they need to do. And if you work for clients, you can create approval workflows.
Once you finish setting up the post, Vista Social allows 4 publishing options:
- Save draft
- Add to queue
- Schedule
- Publish now
Then, you can see scheduled posts in the content calendar.
Of course, Vista Social has even more features.
Read my Vista Social review to see them and how they can help your business.
Schedule LinkedIn posts with ContentStudio
To schedule a LinkedIn post with ContentStudio, hover on Compose and select Social post from the drop-down options.
Doing this will open ContentStudio’s social post composer.
Here, you can select LinkedIn and other social profiles you want to publish on.
After doing this, enter your social caption. If you need help with this, ContentStudio has an AI caption generator that can write captions and create images.
ContentStudio also has a robust social media content curation feature to help you find content relevant to your audience.
After writing your captions, you can upload images or use the Canva integration to design one right in ContentStudio.
Then, you can customize your post for each selected social media platform.
Once you’re done setting up the post, ContentStudio provides 4 publishing options:
- Publish
- Schedule
- Send post for approval
- Save as draft
ContentStudio also suggests the best time to post for good performance.
You also have features to collaborate with team members during the post creation.
After scheduling a post, you’ll see it on the ContentStudio Planner. You also get a calendar view that provides an overview of all scheduled posts.
ContentStudio has more features to help you manage social media tasks. Find them in my ContentStudio review.
Schedule LinkedIn posts with Pallyy
Pallyy is a robust and affordable tool for freelancers and solopreneurs.
To schedule a LinkedIn post with Pallyy, click New + at the top of the calendar.
Alternatively, drag an image from the media library to a date on the calendar.
Doing any of these will open the post composer. You can select social media profiles at the top of the composer.
After this, enter your LinkedIn caption. Pallyy has an AI caption generator that lets you create captions for specific social media platforms.
Once you generate the caption, you can use it in your post or save it to a list.
After writing captions, you can upload your media file. Then, customize your post for each social media platform.
While doing this, you can see previews of both desktop and mobile versions.
Pallyy also lets you communicate with team members while creating posts.
Once you’re done, Pallyy suggests the best time to post. Then, you get 2 publishing options:
- Schedule
- Save as draft
After scheduling the post, you can see all your scheduled LinkedIn posts on the Pallyy calendar.
Pallyy also has other features like social inbox and the link in bio tool to engage your audience. Read my Pallyy review to see everything Pallyy offers.
Why schedule posts on LinkedIn?
Here are 3 good reasons to schedule posts on LinkedIn:
- Save time: You can set aside a few hours to create posts for a week and schedule them for different days. This saves time compared to brainstorming post ideas every time you want to publish one.
- Maintain publishing consistency: If you have to brainstorm ideas every time you want to publish a post, chances are you won’t publish much. But by scheduling posts, you can ensure a consistent number of LinkedIn posts every week to engage your audience.
- Collaborate with coworkers: If you need input from team members or approval from clients, you need to schedule LinkedIn posts. This gives every collaborator the time to contribute before posts go live.
If you need these benefits, you should give scheduling LinkedIn posts a shot.
Best practices for scheduling LinkedIn posts
Getting great results from scheduling LinkedIn posts goes beyond just using a fancy tool.
You need to follow some best practices to oil your LinkedIn scheduling machine.
1. Create a LinkedIn content calendar
A LinkedIn content calendar provides an overview of your posts over a week or month.
With a LinkedIn content calendar, you can easily plan your posts whether you work solo or with team members.
For example, you can determine how many posts you want to publish during a week and the goals you want to achieve with those posts.
This helps you schedule the right posts at the right time.
You can create a LinkedIn content calendar from scratch on your work tool, use a template, or use one of the scheduling tools mentioned earlier.
2. Schedule posts at the best time
If you take your important message to Times Square at 3 in the middle of the night, few people will see it.
This is why you should deliver your message when your audience will see it.
Put simply, the best time to post is when your audience is on LinkedIn.
Publishing posts at these times will increase the chances of engagement. And with high initial engagement, LinkedIn can recommend your post to even more people.
To have a general idea of when LinkedIn users are online, check out some studies online. Then, experiment with your posts to find the right time.
Alternatively, follow the suggestion of the best time to post from your scheduling tool.
3. Engage with post comments
Scheduling posts on LinkedIn means you won’t always be on LinkedIn when your posts go live.
However, people who already have a relationship with your brand can drop comments on your posts when they see it.
So, set aside time daily to reply to these comments.
Engaging with comments will encourage even more people to drop comments on your posts.
4. Track post performance
Since you publish posts on LinkedIn to achieve various goals, you need to know whether you achieve them or not.
And the best way is to track important post metrics.
This way, you’ll know ways to improve your LinkedIn schedule.
Of course, the metrics you track for a post will depend on its goal. So, it’s important to define these metrics even before you schedule the post.
You can find post metrics on LinkedIn.
Alternatively, check post metrics on your scheduling tool.
5. Pause schedule when necessary
Sometimes in our lives, business takes the backseat.
If a hurricane has just swept through a place where your audience lives, you don’t want your scheduled posts to go live.
It may look insensitive and piss your audience off.
At times like these, pause your schedule and create posts that show empathy.
You can pause the posting schedule in your scheduling tool.
Your schedule should never be set and forget it. Instead, be agile enough to make changes when necessary.
Conclusion
Scheduling posts on LinkedIn helps you plan content effectively and maintain a consistent publishing schedule.
Explore the options explained in this guide to get all the benefits of scheduling LinkedIn posts.
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Samuel writes long-form guides to help businesses and entrepreneurs achieve better results from their marketing activities. He also writes for marketing and SaaS companies that want more leads and customers. Get in touch with him to discuss your content needs.