I Traveled and Skipped My LinkedIn Routine. Here’s What Happened

I had a mini vacation. So, my post won’t be as long as it used to.

I made a trip that I know would cost me my usual routine on LinkedIn. And it was also a good opportunity to see what happens if I leave LinkedIn for a while.

What would happen? Would I be okay with it?

At first, I scheduled posts to go live at the usual time I post. But something unusual happened…

My trip was delayed by one day, so I got to observe what happened with my scheduled post like it was going to be throughout my trip. And it was horrible.

I don’t think it’s because the posts are scheduled. Instead, it is because I wasn’t engaging on the platform as I used to. And also, when my post went live, I wasn’t online to give it that initial engagement.

It performed poorly. It performed very poorly.

So, I changed strategy. I removed all the scheduling. My strategy was that if I had time I will just come on, make some comments, make a post and that’s it.

I know it’s not the best vacation practice.

I only had a bit of time here and there to check LinkedIn. I also made posts. My location changed too.

It was pretty brutal - every stat went down.

When I got back, it was bad but not that bad. I understand lots of people are on vacation and breaks too. My weekly impressions count that was always around 20k dipped under 5k.

The lesson here is that if you are going on vacation, and you are not going to be checking LinkedIn, don’t bother scheduling posts.

Scheduling posts only works if you will be engaging on the app around the time your post goes live. Ideally, you want to be online 30 minutes before your posts go live and stay for at least 30 minutes after (to engage on every comment on the post).

If you are going to be checking LinkedIn occasionally, don’t bother scheduling posts too. The scheduling feature is a tool to organize your time on LinkedIn. It is not a substitute for being online to post.

If you will be occasional, just prepare to make comments and engage. That’s it. Only post if you have something really good to say. Or just wait till you get back from vacation mode.

I hope that helps, especially if you are still planning some travel this summer.

Happy summer!