As social media channels go, LinkedIn stands out from the crowd as the professional’s platform. It caters to the career-driven, the consultant, and the corporate. It provides opportunities to job seekers and a space for those at the top of their field to share their knowledge and expertise.
While different from more typical social media platforms, LinkedIn does still have an algorithm that favours best practices around what and when to publish. In this blog, we cover the ideal times to post on LinkedIn in South Africa for maximum reach and engagement, with a couple of extra tips to optimise your content.
Table of Contents
LinkedIn Use in South Africa
When is the Best Time to Publish on LinkedIn in South Africa?
Publishing on LinkedIn From South Africa for an International Audience
Optimising LinkedIn Content for Maximum Reach
Leverage Meltwater to Find the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in South Africa
LinkedIn Use in South Africa
LinkedIn activity is on the up in South Africa: 99.1% of South African internet users say they use social media platforms, 37.5% have looked at recruitment platforms, and 20% of the national population use LinkedIn, according to the report on social media statistics in South Africa. In addition, 52% of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 use LinkedIn each month. As a destination website, LinkedIn falls just outside of the top 10 sites visited in South Africa, closely following behind Netflix.com and WhatsApp.com.
Its status as one of the fastest-growing platforms in the country underlines its importance to the business community at large. With myriad networking opportunities, recruitment potential, and a wealth of thought leadership content, LinkedIn is the most dynamic and user-centric professional platform.
Meltwater Marketing Tip: Learn more about the South African Digital & Social Media Statistics 2024.
When is the Best Time to Publish on LinkedIn in South Africa?
If you’re active on LinkedIn, you’ve probably noticed posts from days or even weeks ago on your news feed. This is because LinkedIn has a heavy skew towards content that drives interaction rather than simply showing the newest content first.
However, it is still important to post at a time that encourages early uptake. This initial engagement is important for the algorithm to determine the quality of your post and display it on your contact’s feed. A social media management tool will provide you with detailed audience analytics that reveal the optimal times to post. By analysing engagement patterns and follower activity, it will ensure your content reaches the maximum number of users at peak times, boosting visibility and impact.
Because the LinkedIn audience uses the platform more professionally than personally, users tend to be active during working hours more so than in their downtime. With this in mind, the best time to post on LinkedIn in South Africa is between 07h00 and 08h00 during the week. The least effective times to post are late at night, as well as over weekends.
Mondays:
Interestingly, the top performing posts on a Monday are published later, between 10h00 and 11h00. This is likely due to users catching up emails or admin, or attending those common 09h00 Monday morning meetings.
Tuesdays & Wednesdays:
The best time for immediate engagement on a Tuesday and Wednesday is between 06h00 and 08h00, targeting the time that businesses open and professionals log on.
Thursdays & Fridays:
Early morning is still the ideal time to post on a Thursday and Friday, but early afternoon posts also see high engagement. As the work week winds down, many corporate professionals spend their mornings on more deep focus work before looking to engage on the platform. After the 06h00 and 08h00 time slot, 14h00 is the best time to post on LinkedIn.
Weekend Posts:
While the weekend typically sees less engagement, there are still users that interact on LinkedIn. This is normally between 05h00 and 06h00, as the early bird professionals log in before the day starts.
Publishing on LinkedIn From South Africa for an International Audience
While it’s helpful to know the best time to post in South Africa, it’s important to bear your international audience in mind, particularly for relevance and engagement. If your content is designed for a broader target market, scoping out the time zones of your professional network can help you optimise your scheduling.
Posting at different times in the day and monitoring engagement and performance is a great way to determine the best time for you to post. Again, making use of a social media management tool is essential. With analytics, strategy optimisation, and intuitive scheduling features, you can be sure that every post will reach the right audience at the right time.
Optimising LinkedIn Content for Maximum Reach
LinkedIn is one of the only platforms where organic reach isn’t restricted. Instead, quality content is promoted as opposed to just paid promotions. Simply put, engaging content creates engagement.
There are a few ways you can optimise your LinkedIn content for that extra interaction:
1. Crafting Compelling Captions and Copy
There are just three ingredients needed for a good LinkedIn post.
Firstly, a “hook” or attention-grabbing opening sentence to bring a reader in so that they want to read more.
Secondly, valuable post content. It should be informative, insightful or instructional. Your audience should feel like they’ve gained knowledge through reading or engaging with your content. Anecdotal, industry-specific posts that deliver authenticity and insights go far in performance.
Finally, draw attention with a strong image (or images), or a video.
Meltwater’s AI-powered assistant takes the headache out of content creation by creating compelling copy and eye-catching images that will ensure your content is optimised for LinkedIn.
2. Using Relevant Hashtags
Adding trending hashtags in South Africa that your target audience is most likely going to be looking for helps expand your reach. While general and relevant hashtags support your content, using a keyword research tool is an ideal way to optimise your posts for maximum exposure.
Meltwater Marketing Tip: Hashtags also help drive engagement and reach, as they allow content to fall within a popular search term. They increase and amplify content visibility - especially in South Africa where social media is used for sales, marketing, entertainment, and business. Learn more about the top trending hashtags in South Africa.
3. Incorporating Multimedia Elements
Adapting to the LinkedIn algorithm keeps your content relevant and top-of-feed. One of the easiest, most effective ways to do this is to use a variety of post formats. Diversify your content by creating video, carousels, and single-image posts (portrait usually performs better than landscape).
Leverage Meltwater to Find the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn in South Africa
The best way to know when to post on LinkedIn in South Africa is to continuously monitor and analyse your audience’s behaviour. By using Meltwater’s social media management tool, you can analyse your audience’s behaviour as well as track and monitor the performance of your content in order to further optimise for the platform.
We understand that developing a social media strategy for each platform requires significant time and effort. So we’ve compiled a social media toolkit packed with resources, inspiration, templates, and guides to streamline your social program, improve your reporting, and help you stay ahead of the competition.
Get in touch with Meltwater by filling out the form below. You can request a free demo and learn how to get the most out of your LinkedIn content.
