LinkedIn does not offer any way to schedule posts on Linkedin itself, but you can schedule LinkedIn posts for free on both company pages and personal profiles using the social media scheduling tool OneUp
Here is how to schedule LinkedIn posts for free
- Connect your LinkedIn account(s) to OneUp (it’s free, and both company pages and personal profiles are supported)
- Click “Create a post”
- Select which LinkedIn account(s) you want to post to
- Type in your LinkedIn post, and optionally add an image or video
- Add a First Comment (optional)
- Choose whether you want it to post once, or have it repeat
- Post it now, or schedule your LinkedIn post for the future.
Here are those steps with screenshots
On the Accounts page in OneUp, the first step is to connect your LinkedIn account(s). You can connect both LinkedIn company page accounts, as well as LinkedIn personal profile accounts.
And yes, there is a Free Plan
After, click on “Create a post”.
On the scheduling page, choose which LinkedIn accounts you want to post to. If you have multiple LinkedIn accounts, you can select multiple company pages and personal profiles at the same time.
Then write the contents of your LinkedIn post, and optionally add an image or video to your post.
You can also @mention any LinkedIn company page in the text box (unfortunately @mentioning personal profiles is not supported by LinkedIn’s API, so it can only be done on LinkedIn directly).
You can add photos or video directly from your computer, create an image in OneUp’s Canva integration, or choose a professional photo from the Unsplash integration:
OneUp supports adding up to 9 images for LinkedIn posts.
If you click the “Preview” button, you can preview how your post will look on LinkedIn:
Here’s how this post looks:
Then choose if you want to add a First Comment on your LinkedIn post:
Once your post is ready, choose to post it once, or to have the post repeat automatically.
Example: This LinkedIn post is scheduled to repeat every three months.
Then either post it now, or schedule your LinkedIn post for the future.
And yes, OneUp has a Free Plan
In addition to LinkedIn, OneUp also supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google My Business.
OneUp’s website: www.oneupapp.io
FAQ about OneUp
Does OneUp support multi-image posts to LinkedIn?
Yes, you can add up to 9 images on each LinkedIn post using OneUp.
Does OneUp support tagging/mentioning in LinkedIn posts?
Yes, you can tag/mention any LinkedIn company page in OneUp by typing “@” and then the company page name. Unfortunately tagging/mentioning personal profiles is not supported by LinkedIn’s API, so it can only be done on LinkedIn directly.
Does OneUp support video posts to LinkedIn?
Yes, OneUp supports video posts to both LinkedIn company pages and personal profiles. Videos publish to both LinkedIn company pages and personal profiles as a native video (meaning it looks the same as if you posted directly from LinkedIn, and it will autoplay ).
Does OneUp support adding a First Comment on LinkedIn posts?
Yes, you can schedule a First Comment on your LinkedIn posts with OneUp.
Is there a size limit on videos posts by OneUp?
OneUp supports videos up to 200MB.
Does OneUp support GIF posts to LinkedIn?
Yes, OneUp supports GIF posts to both LinkedIn company pages and personal profiles. There is no size limit for GIFs
Does OneUp support hashtags on LinkedIn?
Yes, OneUp supports hashtags in LinkedIn posts.
Note: Only LinkedIn posts can be scheduled. Unfortunately LinkedIn does not allow Linkedin “Articles” to be scheduled (more on the difference between the two post types below)
Here is a one-minute video showing how to schedule Linkedin posts for free using OneUp:
Why post content on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is often overlooked as a social media marketing channel. With over 706 million users, LinkedIn has become one of the most popular social networks. And best of all, it’s free to use.
If you are selling Business-to-Business (B2B), having a presence on LinkedIn is a must.
A few years ago, LinkedIn may have had a reputation of being boring, stuffy, and impersonal social network.
But that has changed over the past few years. You will now find more personal posts and communication throughout LinkedIn.
On top of that, when you post on LinkedIn, the organic reach of your post has a much higher ceiling.
How many views does your average Facebook post get? If you are like most people, the answer is not many.
With LinkedIn, your posts have the potential to reach thousands, if not tens of thousands.
Why is that?
Well Facebook has 2.6 billion users. If every Facebook user posts just once a day, that is a lot of posts you are competing with. On top of that, Facebook decided to basically require you to Boost your post if you want any reach at all.
However, LinkedIn has a much smaller user base. That means fewer posts published each day, which means less competition for each of your LinkedIn posts.
On top of that, LinkedIn’s algorithm really wants to reward good posts.
LinkedIn wants to shed its reputation of being old and boring, so if you create a post that creates engagement and comments from your followers, LinkedIn’s algorithm will then show your post to thousands of other LinkedIn users.
If the post keeps getting traction in the form of comments and likes, you are on your way to a viral LinkedIn post seen by millions of people potentially.
LinkedIn posts vs articles
LinkedIn posts (formerly known as status updates) are the standard way to publish something on LinkedIn. You create them by simply clicking the “Start a post” text box.
LinkedIn articles (formerly know as LinkedIn pulse) are more of a long-form post type, more similar to a blog post.
To create a LinkedIn article, click the “Write article” option.
It will then take you to the LinkedIn article creator.
So should I publish a LinkedIn post or article?
According to most experts, LinkedIn posts (the first one mentioned above) get you more reach.
However, LinkedIn articles have a longer shelf-life. LinkedIn articles are indexed by search engines, and can be found for months and years into the future by people searching on Google.
Typically, shorter form content should be a post. Posts have a character limit of 1,300, but once you get over 210 characters, it will require people to click the “See more” button to view the entire post.
However, longer LinkedIn posts typically perform better than shorter posts (but keep in mind the 1,300 character limit).
This is normally due to the fact that longer posts provide more value. Shorter LinkedIn posts are usually all fluff or “look at me” type posts.
If what you have to say cannot be written in 1,300 characters or less, then a LinkedIn article is the obvious choice.
Other times a LinkedIn article makes sense instead of a LinkedIn post would be when you have many images or screenshots that you want mixed in throughout your article, such as a “How to” guide.
LinkedIn company pages vs. personal profiles
LinkedIn supports both company pages and personal profiles. You can schedule posts on either using a social media scheduling tool.
However, there is no way to schedule a post directly on LinkedIn for either company pages or personal profiles.
Here are a few of the key differences:
- Company pages represent collective organizations, while personal profiles represent individuals.
- Your personal profile has connections. Your company page has followers.
- You can only run ads on LinkedIn through a company page.
- You must have a personal profile to set up a company page.
- Your personal profile includes sections like Activity, Experience, Skills & Endorsements, Recommendations, and Interests. A company page includes sections like an Overview, About, Jobs, and People.
- One important thing to note: both are free!
One other difference: LinkedIn makes it easy to comment on other people’s LinkedIn posts as a personal profile, but difficult to comment as a company page. However, there is a way to comment on other people’s LinkedIn posts as a company page (it involves “Community Hashtags”).
What should I be posting on LinkedIn?
You should only be posting on LinkedIn about topics that are relevant to you and your niche.
If you work in marketing, keep all your posts about marketing related topics.
Dont post on LinkedIn about your new dog. That is for Facebook and Instagram.
Here are a few guidelines for posting on LinkedIn:
- Post frequently
- Posts consistently
- Speak the language of your audience
- Keep links relevant
- Narrow down the topics you post about (Pick a niche)
- Almost always talk about business-related topics
- When others scroll through your profile, you want them to feel like they can find answers to their problems on a specific topic
What kind of LinkedIn posts go viral?
- Make your first few sentences extremely powerful
Your first sentence needs to say something that immediately makes other users stop scrolling. Only the first 210 characters of a post are seen on LinkedIn before users need to click “see more”, so you need to grab their attention right away. - Research The Right Topic
One of the most important parts of creating successful LinkedIn content is researching a winning topic that will go viral by using specific keywords. You can identify previous viral posts on LinkedIn using BuzzSumo. Choosing the right topic with the help of some research will pay dividends, rather than just randomly choosing something to write about, which may have poor visibility and reach. - Reply to Comments
A great way to increase the odds of your post going viral is to reply to comments after publishing your posts. In your reply, try to say something that encourages another reply from the other person. The more comments and engagement on the post, the further it signals to LinkedIn’s algorithm that this post should be shown to more people. - Repurpose previously successful content
Did you post something on your blog that got a ton of views and shares? Maybe you posted something on Facebook a few months ago that was a big hit. Take those posts and repurpose them for a LinkedIn post. - Use LinkedIn Hashtags
Yes, hashtags aren’t just for Twitter and Instagram. Using hashtags that many people follow gives you a much better chance to go viral on LinkedIn. - Post on LinkedIn at the optimal times
If you post something on LinkedIn at 3:00 AM, almost nobody will see it. Without the initial burst of comments and likes, it will signal to LinkedIn’s algorithm that this post is not worth showing to other people. According to LinkedIn, the best time to post is early morning, lunchtime and early evening between Tuesdays and Thursdays. The absolute best time to post on LinkedIn is between 10 a.m and 11 a.m every Tuesday. - Add a Call-To-Action (put them in the first comment)
Want to direct your readers to your website, or some other place? Put your call-to-action in the first comment of the post. Studies suggest that posts with no links in the main post perform better than posts with links, so add your link in the first comment, rather than in the post itself.
How often should I post on LinkedIn?
To maintain a consistent presence and to grow your followers on LinkedIn, it requires posting often. Studies suggest that posting on LinkedIn at least once a day is best.
But manually posting something on social networks like LinkedIn every day can be difficult.
You forget, something comes up at work, your dog ate your homework, etc. There are plenty of reasons that most people don’t post on LinkedIn consistently.
To make things even more difficult, LinkedIn does not provide a way to schedule LinkedIn posts natively. That means you would need to manually login to LinkedIn every time you want to post something, and ideally do it during peak hours.
But there is a way to schedule LinkedIn posts. To do so, you need to use a social media post scheduling tool, such as OneUp.
When you schedule your LinkedIn posts, it gives you the ability to batch all your post creating into a single session, rather than trying to remember each day.
If you take an hour creating LinkedIn posts, you can probably come up with at least a week or two worth of content for posting on LinkedIn.
The other benefit of using a scheduling tool for LinkedIn posts is that it allows you to schedule posts for the optimal time each day.
That means you don’t actually need to be present during those prime posting hours, you can just schedule your LinkedIn posts, then know that your posts will publish during those peak hours each day.
However, just because you schedule your LinkedIn posts doesn’t mean you can just put everything on autopilot. You still need to reply to comments that you receive on your LinkedIn posts.
How to schedule LinkedIn Stories
In 2020, LinkedIn revealed LinkedIn Stories, a feature very similar to Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat Stories.
As of now, there is currently no way to schedule LinkedIn Stories. They can only be posted directly on LinkedIn at the time of publishing.
How to schedule posts in LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups have never quite caught on like Facebook Groups, but there are still many large and active LinkedIn Groups.
However, there is currently no way to schedule posts in LinkedIn Groups.
LinkedIn does not provide a way to scheduled posts in LinkedIn Group directly, and LinkedIn does not allow scheduling tools to access LinkedIn Groups (they only allow scheduling tools to access Company Pages and Personal Profiles).
The post How to schedule posts on LinkedIn for free appeared first on OneUp Blog.
