LinkedIn has quickly emerged as an important platform for financial advisors to connect with colleagues, employers, prospects, and clients. The question is how to best use this platform to connect with targeted prospects in the most effective and efficient manner possible.
It stands to reason, the timing of your LinkedIn posts is particularly important. Post on the platform at the optimal times and you will connect with that many more potential prospects. Post at the wrong times and your efforts will have been largely in vain.
Let’s take a look at the best time for your financial advisory firm to post on LinkedIn.
Timing is Everything for LinkedIn Financial Advisors
The adage of “timing is everything” certainly rings true in the context of LinkedIn. Strategically post to the popular platform with the time of the morning, afternoon, or evening in mind and your posts will be in a better decision to produce their intended impact. Take a close look at all the studies, facts, and figures about the best times to post to LinkedIn and you will find a common theme emerges: normal business hours on middle weekdays are the best times to post on LinkedIn.
This is quite an interesting finding considering the fact that people are allegedly working during weekday hours. It is quite clear people are checking LinkedIn and other social media platforms while at work.
Once people depart work, they are more inclined to check Facebook and Twitter as opposed to LinkedIn, largely because LinkedIn has more of a formal tone and is more useful for business than friendship, humor, entertainment, etc. So don’t fall into the trap of assuming everyone is hard at work and will not dedicate a few minutes throughout their workday to check LinkedIn.
The truth is plenty of people will be checking LinkedIn while they are supposedly working. Furthermore, plenty of professionals will check LinkedIn for new posts while on break from work, taking their lunch and killing time while waiting for their workflow to pick up.
Recognize LinkedIn is More of a Niche Platform
LinkedIn is not as popular as Facebook. Facebook has 2.6 billion monthly active users. LinkedIn has 303 million monthly active users. Nearly 200 million employed individuals in the United States use LinkedIn. About one-quarter of all millennials use LinkedIn. In other words, your audience is comparably small on LinkedIn. However, although LinkedIn is not the largest platform, it has what is arguably the largest professional network. This is precisely why LinkedIn is viewed as such an important platform. LinkedIn users typically are successful users, which is why they are coveted as potential clients. This income characteristic is particularly important for businesses such as financial advisory firms that target individuals who have discretionary incomes that must be invested. However, unless a LinkedIn user is looking for a new job, he or she probably won’t log into the platform in the evening or on the weekends.
This is precisely why it is so important to post on the platform during the mornings and early afternoons during weekdays. Communicate your value offering on LinkedIn during this window of time and you will find the platform’s users click your posts that much more frequently and initiate contact with follow-up emails. Many of these individuals reached through the LinkedIn platform could become revenue-producing clients.
Why are Weekdays the Best Time to Post on LinkedIn?
The statistics show LinkedIn’s highest engagement rate is during weekday business hours. This makes sense because people use the platform for professional purposes. In fact, a Sprout Social study shows the best day of the week to post on LinkedIn is Wednesday. However, posting to LinkedIn at just any hour on Wednesday will not suffice.
The study narrowed the platform’s peak use times down to Wednesday between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. along with the Noon hour. This is an intriguing finding considering the fact that most people like to create the impression they are hard at work in the early morning hours on weekdays.
The truth is the typical employer’s attention starts to drift away from work between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Wednesdays as it is smack dab in the middle of the grueling workweek. Posting around 12 Noon on Wednesdays and other weekdays makes sense as this is the time when people step away from their workplace responsibilities to eat lunch, grab a cup of coffee from the break room, or take a midday break.
This period of separation away from work gives employees an opportunity to check LinkedIn on their smartphone, tablet, or other mobile computing device. Post to LinkedIn during these times and you will find the engagement rate with your posts is significantly higher.
Social Media for Financial Advisors: Timing is Essential
Financial advisors should know the worst possible day to post to the platform is Sunday. To be even more specific, Sunday at 9 p.m. or later is the worst time to post to LinkedIn. Sunday is the worst day to post on LinkedIn as people are out and about, enjoying their weekend rather than looking at a screen.
Financial advisors should resist the temptation to post on LinkedIn after 9 p.m., regardless of whether it is a Sunday or another day of the week. People rarely log into LinkedIn after 8 p.m. simply because the evening hours are all about family and relaxation as opposed to professional connections.
Finally, it is worth noting Monday is another bad day to post to LinkedIn. Most people are quite busy on Mondays as they start the work week. People might not be that busy with work when Wednesday rolls around, but they are certainly busy on Monday because their weekend break has contributed to a backlog of work.
So don’t post to LinkedIn on Monday until at least the afternoon. The bottomline, financial advisors will find the “sweet spot” to post to the platform is in the middle of the week in the morning and early afternoon.
The Verdict: Post on LinkedIn During Work Hours
The bottom line is it does not matter if the target client reads your LinkedIn post while he or she was supposed to be working or while on a lunch break or another past time away from work. The only thing that matters is your bottom line. Recognize the fact that all studies pertaining to LinkedIn posting times show posting on the weekdays is optimal, act in accordance with these findings and you will find your LinkedIn posts generate considerable interest in your financial advisory firm’s services.
