The Best Time for Interior Designers to Post on LinkedIn

When is the best time for Interior Designers to post on LinkedIn? To answer this question let’s look at research by two of the biggest players in the social media marketing industry: HubSpot and Sprout.

According to HubSpot the best times for interior designers, and everyone else, to post on LinkedIn are 9-12pm, 12-3pm, and 6-9pm on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. A significant change in their findings from 6 years earlier. In 2016 HubSpot concluded that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were the best posting days. And prime time was early morning, lunchtime, and early evening.

However, Sprout’s findings are very different. 10am to 12pm Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. And to see just how different those findings are, look at the infographic below:

Between them, HubSpot and Sprout recommend 12 slots as the best time for Interior Designers to post on LinkedIn. But only one of them matches! In fact, Spout’s findings are more closely matched with HubSpot’s research of 6 years ago. Which is surprising, as both companies published their analysis in the post-pandemic era of late 2022. Despite the masses of data both have available. And there’s the problem. Masses of data disguise the nuances. And like interior design, for LinkedIn posts, details matter.

How to Figure Out The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn

All social media platforms provide post insights. And LinkedIn is no different. But understanding those insights can be quite tricky. Not least as Linkedin’s insights aren’t easy to view. Even less easy to understand without a decent mathematical grounding. For instance, knowing which posts to exclude (known in maths as ‘outliers’) from your analysis can have a profound effect on the results you see.

More than that, meaningful LinkedIn insights are only included by social media schedulers in their most expensive packages that cost £100s every month. Which means they’re out of reach of all but a tiny number of interior design businesses. Apart from anything else, if the big players with the massive data sets and egg-head mathematicians can’t agree, what hope do you have?

Instead, you can try another approach to figure out the best time to post on LinkedIn. One that considers the habits and lives of your potential client and applies common sense.

The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn is when Interior Design Clients Are Likely to Read Them

So the best time to post on LinkedIn is when your potential client is likely to read them. But to know when your potential interior design clients are likely to read your interior design posts on LinkedIn, you first need to understand their lives. So many interior designers tell me they don’t care what their clients do for a living. Because it doesn’t make a difference to an interior design project.

Even if true for interior design projects, for the purposes of marketing not considering the lives of potential clients is an enormous blunder. By example:

• Michelle works in the financial services industry as a business developer. A sales role, encouraging other companies to do business with her company.
• Mary is an engineering manager working for a large software firm. She is responsible for a lot of people whose job is to create great software products.

As for basic marketing demographics, they’re very similar. Both are high earners, both are female, both work full-time, and in the same city, neither has a family, and so on. But their jobs and the culture of their industry means they use LinkedIn in vastly different ways. And at different times.

Starting with culture. Mary’s industry was known for progressive employment practices even before the pandemic. Michelle’s industry……isn’t. So Michelle’s more likely to be in the office. At least Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (I’ll leave it with you to work out the acronym!). This means Michelle’s working hours are likely to be structured around a 5-day week.

Whereas, Mary is more likely to work (or depending on your view, shirk) from home. Moreover, Mary’s working hours aren’t rigidly structured around the 5-day working week.

Now to what they use LinkedIn for. Michelle is looking for leads. So she can entice people to do business with her company. A practice jokingly called, ‘LinkedIn Stalking’. As such, she spends a big chunk of her day researching individuals on LinkedIn. An activity, more often than not, she carries out in the middle of the working day.

Mary uses LinkedIn to engage with others in her industry, keep an eye on trends, exchange ideas, and so on. Most of her day is spent in staff, stakeholder, strategy, etc meetings. As such, she’s more likely to be on LinkedIn outside of mainstream business hours. For instance, the weekend.

Of course, both may pursue that other popular LinkedIn activity, looking for a new job.

Your Clients’ Lives Influence When They’ll See Your Interior Design Post on LinkedIn

Because of her industry’s culture and her job, Michelle is more likely to see your LinkedIn post if you follow Sprout’s recommendation. She’s active on the platform in the middle of the traditional working day. And more likely to be distracted into something other than her research as she tires. For instance, nearing morning break or lunchtime.

Whereas Mary’s on LinkedIn at times when her busy meeting schedule allows. Which often means Saturday morning or Sunday evening when she’s not engaged in other usual weekend activities. So, following HubSpot’s recommendation will be the best time to post on LinkedIn for you if Mary represents your potential client.

This is why understanding your potential clients’ lives is more important than any maths if you want to get their attention. And a great way to understand your potential clients is to create fictional characters you can relate to. Just like we’ve done with Michelle and Mary in this piece.

Of course, I don’t suggest you abandon all social media insights. To the contrary, knowing which of your posts attract the most attention is really important information. Just that such insights are unlikely to tell you when you should post.

Post Wisely to Attract New Clients

To sum up, social media insights are important for your interior design marketing strategy. Just not when figuring out the best time to post on LinkedIn.

Because no amount of data, whether it’s your own or someone else’s is going to tell the best time to post on LinkedIn. Either there’s too much data that hides the important details. Or you don’t have enough of your own data for you to draw meaningful conclusions. Even if you’ve the mathematical knowledge to interpret that data.

Instead, use common sense. Based on a thorough understanding of your potential clients’ lives; how, where, and when they work.

Moreover, there’re other factors that have much more influence on how many of the right people see your post. That’s to say, those people who are likely to buy your services. Namely, the size of your LinkedIn network and using language that resonates with your audience. So, grow your LinkedIn connections and talk your clients’ language.

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