01.Why this tip?
On LinkedIn, a post only shows a relative date (“3 days ago”). Yet knowing the precise time an account publishes reveals its connection habits, and therefore the best slot to reach out directly.
🔥 Exclusive Influence (formerly VRDCI) tip #008 plus code generation by artificial intelligence: how do you find the exact date and time any post was published?
Fair warning, it gets a little… technical (a non-technical solution is at the end of the post); in exchange, the range of what this tip enables is enormous.
The principle: every LinkedIn post has a unique 19-digit identifier (a Snowflake ID). The first 41 bits of that number, converted to decimal, directly give a Unix timestamp in milliseconds — the exact publication date and time.
02.Anatomy of a LinkedIn post URL
Take a real URL:
03.Decode in 4 steps
- Grab the 19-digit code
It always sits right after the
activity-keyword and before the final dash preceding the sharing signature.6914574426978078722 - Convert that number to binary (base 2)
A Snowflake identifier is encoded on 63 bits. The conversion gives:
101111111110101100000001100111001101101000001110101000000000010 - Take the first 41 bits (from the left)
The remaining bits encode the machine and the sequence; ignore them.
10111111111010110000000110011100110110100 - Convert those 41 bits back to decimal
The number obtained is a Unix timestamp in milliseconds, ready to use.
1 648 563 009 972 → UNIX TIMESTAMP (ms)
04.The result
Once that timestamp is converted into a readable date, you get:
TADAAAAAA! 🎯 You now know that this post was published on a Tuesday afternoon, just after 4pm — valuable information for timing a follow-up or a direct message.
05.AI bonus, the code generated in seconds
Non-developers do not have to do any of this by hand. We asked OpenAI's AI to generate a complete regex automating the 4 steps above. The result is striking (AI is particularly comfortable with regular expressions).
Here is the request sent to the AI, word for word:
Create a regex that checks that the string
"https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antoinemussard_club-de-fondatriceseursdirigeantes-activity-6998942205730004992-sD_i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop"
does start with "https://www.linkedin.com" and that there is not
twice a 19-digit string located between two dashes.
If so, then:
• extract those 19 digits between the dashes and remove the dashes;
• convert the result to binary;
• convert the first 41 binary digits of the result
(starting from the left) to decimal;
• then turn that result, which is a timestamp, into a date;
• display the result.
Our take: in a few seconds the AI produces a working script equivalent to several minutes of manual development. This is not a gadget, it is a change of pace in the daily work of a consultant or a salesperson. It is exactly what we set up for our clients in our AI consulting & training offer.
06.Commercial use cases
Once you have mastered the tip, here are three ways to make it pay:
Map a prospect's habits
By analysing 10 to 20 posts from the same account, you identify its recurring slots, from Monday evening to Friday lunchtime, and pick the right moment to make contact.
Improve message deliverability
Sending an InMail at the moment the person is statistically scrolling markedly increases the chance of a warm reply.
Spot inactive accounts
The timestamp of the last post immediately shows whether an account is still really in use — useful before launching an invitation campaign.
CEO & founder, VRDCI / Influence Solutions