When to Post Code and Insights Globally? Yolande’s Timing Strategies for Engineers

Hi team,

Figuring out the optimal time to share your technical content online, especially when you’re aiming to connect with fellow software engineers across different time zones, can feel like a guessing game. Thankfully, Yolande Poirier offered some very practical advice on timing during our recent discussion.

Yolande pointed out that “the first hour is the most important!!” for getting your posts seen by more people. This highlights the need to be strategic about when you share your code, articles, or insights.

A critical factor to consider is time zones. If you’re looking to connect with engineers in specific international locations, you need to be mindful of when they’re most likely to be online. Yolande shared an example: “at 9 pm her time India wakes up, so she was posting there.” Think about where you aspire to work or connect with and try to align your posting schedule accordingly.

She also mentioned the general guideline that the “best time to publish: in the morning (people will commute).” This can be a good starting point for reaching a broad audience, but always consider the specifics of the software engineering community you’re trying to reach. Yolande even shared a specific little tip: “post 2 minutes to the hour, because people will go to a meeting and check social media right before the hour.“

Finally, Yolande suggested a simple way to give your content a little extra visibility: “unrepost and then repost again, gets on everyone’s feed.” This can be a useful tactic to reach a wider audience, especially if your initial post didn’t get as much traction as you’d hoped.

Your task this week? Think about the different time zones relevant to your international software engineering career goals. Do some research or make an educated guess about when engineers in those regions are most active online and consider scheduling your posts to coincide with those times.

Cheers,

Pedro Cavalero