Knowing the best times to post on social media is crucial for a successful social media marketing strategy. Most people focus solely on creating quality content, and of course, this is important, but you should also be considering when to post that content. If you hit “publish” too soon or too late, your post might be forever forgotten by the algorithm.
So when’s the best time to post on social media? The short answer is: when your audience is online and most likely to interact with your content. The longer answer is a little more complex. Let’s dive in!
Keep reading to find out:
The Best Times to Post on Social Media
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Researchers from Unmetric, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social have discovered that typically, weekdays are the best days to post on most social media channels. Wednesday is the day with the best engagement rate, while the best time of the day to post is usually from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. However, the best times and days will vary from site to site. Let’s break it down by social media channel:
Best Time to Post on Facebook
Best times of the day to post: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Absolute best time: 11 p.m.
Best days of the week: Monday to Friday
Absolute best day: Wednesday
Worst day: Sunday
Sprout Social’s graphics show that overall, the best time to post on Facebook is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Monday to Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, the reach and engagement decrease considerably.
Of course, user activity varies throughout the week. They make a recommendation on the best time to post, but it’s important to remember that this is just a recommendation. It’s not a rule that you need to abide by strictly. In fact, you might want to run some tests yourself and post at different times to understand what works best for your audience.
At the end of the day, it’s important that you know your audience and what they like. You need to post not only when they are online, but you also need to share content that they want to interact with (e.g. save, like, comment, send to a friend, etc.). This all impacts what the Facebook algorithm shows and how often, so it isn’t just as simple as what time of day you hit the “publish” button.
Facebook is also one of the social media channels where consistency is really important. Posting every day really makes a big difference.
Best Time to Post on Instagram
Best times of the day to post: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Absolute best time: 11 p.m.
Best days of the week: Monday to Saturday
Absolute best day: Wednesday
Worst day: Sunday
According to Sprout Social’s analysis, the best times to post on Instagram are slightly broader than on Facebook. Overall, there is more engagement starting from 9 a.m. in the morning, and it goes on until as late as 7 p.m. some days. Weekdays are more active, but you will still find that you can get some good traction on a Saturday, with a peak at around 10 a.m.
During the week, the best days to post are on Wednesday at 11 a.m. and also on Friday at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m.
Even though Sunday is the worst day, it might perform well for some users since the engagement doesn’t drop as much as on Facebook. The highest engagement on Sunday, on average, is from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Best Time to Post on Twitter
Best times of the day to post: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Absolute best time: 9 p.m.
Best days of the week: Sunday to Friday
Absolute best day: Wednesday
Worst day: Saturday
Even though Twitter might not be the best option for brick-and-mortar small businesses, Sprout Social has found that the best times to post are Sunday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday is the worst day overall, but there is still a window between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. that you might have some luck.
On Sunday, there’s no really high peak, but the engagement is more spread out throughout the day. The highest engagement rates on Sunday are from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
If you want to post during the week, the absolute best times to post are on Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m. Just keep in mind, these times change a lot depending on your audience and your industry.
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
Best times of the day to post: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Absolute best time: 9 p.m.
Best days of the week: Tuesday to Friday
Absolute best day: Wednesday
Worst day: Sunday
LinkedIn is mainly a professional network where people share business-related content. And when do people mainly look for business-related content? During the workweek, and especially during the workday when they’re trying to procrastinate a little. It’s interesting, because Monday isn’t a great day to post on LinkedIn, probably because people haven’t gotten to the “procrastination” point of their week yet.
Starting on Tuesday, engagement starts to increase and byt Wednesday, it’s reached its peak. From Wednesday to Friday, the best time of the day to post is at 9 a.m; however, anytime before noon is a pretty good bet. If you’d like to post something on Thursday, the best times to post are at 9 a.m. and from 1 to 2 p.m. On Friday, the best time is at 9 a.m. only.
LinkedIn’s users naturally decrease on the weekends because people are not thinking about work. If you have content to post, you might as well wait until at least Tuesday to share it.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest
Best times of the day to post: 8 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Absolute best time: 9 p.m.
Best days of the week: Friday and Saturday
Pinterest is a great marketing tool, but it’s not quite as popular as the social media sites we’ve mentioned above. But, if you sell products – especially if you can buy them online – Pinterest is a great place to share content and links back to your site.
Pinterest is the first site we’ve seen where the users are most active during the evening. However, timing isn’t as important on this platform. Since it’s more of a search engine than a social networking site, the content lasts a lot longer and users can find and engage with it whenever they want.
How to Find the Best Time to Post on Social Media
As we’ve mentioned previously, the “best time” will vary depending on your followers and niche. It’s really up to you to find out which is the best day and time to post content for your specific audience.
Take a good look at your numbers, check out the analytics of every channel you post to, and figure out which posts had more engagement and try to determine why. Was it the topic or the time you posted?
When you analyze your posts individually, you can better understand your audience’s behavior and optimize your future posts. You can also pinpoint the best time for you to post that content on social media.
Of course, for the times recommended in this post, you should always consider the time zone, not just for you, but where most of your audience is located. (which might not always be the same as your time zone).
Conclusion
While the best time to post on most social media platforms is from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. during the week (with Wednesday being the best day overall), you should always analyze your own social media performance.
If you’re posting from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and you’re not getting great results, try something new. Every audience is different, so you will need to test and see what works best for your followers.
Remember that the best tactic when using social media should be to create consistent and high-quality content. This goes for your blog, YouTube channel, and e-mail list, too.
High-quality content informs, educates, or solves a problem for your audience. Think about how you can deliver real value, not just make a sales pitch. Ask yourself: is my content going to teach, inspire, or be helpful to my audience? If not, don’t share it until you’ve edited it in a way that makes it more valuable.
Be consistent and post often. You don’t need to post several times a day, but post at least three times per week. But again, if you’re just churning out content for the sake of posting, reduce the frequency of your posts. If that means you’re posting once a week but the content is incredible, then just post once per week.
Posting content at the right time is just half of the equation. Interact with your audience, post content that will enrich their lives, and watch your relationship with them blossom!
If you need some ideas on what to post on social media, take a look at this post with 18 social media post ideas that will help you to come up with amazing content to create for your channels!
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