We’re all familiar with the odd feeling when we post something on Instagram and barely get 10 likes in an hour. If you’re a business owner, it’s even more dispiriting. You spent so much time on the carousel, only for no one to see it. You know they will engage if they see your post, but you don’t know how to make them see it. No wonder you want to know the best social media times to post.
Let’s see if there’s any.
The Best Time To Post On Social Media
According to Hootsuite’s analysis of 30,000 social media posts, the best time to post on social media is at 10 am from Tuesday to Thursday.
Let us further break down the reveals:
- Tuesday to Thursday, 8 am to 12 pm for Facebook.
- High activity on Wednesday at 11 am for Instagram.
- Tuesday to Wednesday at 9 am for LinkedIn.
- Monday and Thursday at 8 am for Twitter.
These are all according to your time zones.
Sprout Social had a different, albeit negligible, take on the best social media times to post.
- 9 am to 1 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday for Facebook.
- 11 am from Monday to Friday for Instagram. An additional 2 pm on Tuesday.
- LinkedIn sees superb engagement on Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 am.
- Early morning from Monday to Thursday.
What is your best time to post on social media?
Your social media’s best time to post is when your followers and target audience are online. You can follow the times suggested by studies, but it’s a general guideline more than anything.
Of course, most people aren’t on Facebook after 12 pm. They are focusing on work. Instagram sees high activity at 11 am because that’s when people are commuting to work or have reached their destination. It’s the time for mindless scrolling before they have to face the workday ahead. 2 pm sees spikes because that’s when people sit down for lunch.
And so, lots of people scroll through their newsfeeds when they’re coming home from school or work. This could be anywhere from 6 pm to 9 pm. Are we certain those won’t be optimal times for you?
Here’s what you can do to figure out when your audience is online and willing to engage.
- Post at different times of day throughout the week.
- Turn on analytics for all social media platforms.
- Check insights. Each should have the best response time range.
- Post content, particularly at the given time.
- Additionally, keep an eye on what kind of content performs better when.
- Constantly monitor your post-performance timings.
- If you had a better engagement at 10 am on Facebook, but now you do at 12 pm, that’s when you post.
Reels have been known to blow up overnight on Instagram. Long videos seem to do better after 8 pm.
The main thing is consistency. You have to keep these platforms happy and your account active. Once you have a good following and post consistently at a particular time, your followers will know to expect you. They will check your account and engage naturally then.
Posting high-quality content is another vital part of the puzzle. When a couple of people engages with your content in an hour, it signals the platform your post has valuable information. This increases the circulatory time of your posts.
Unless you’re a huge account with over 1m followers, your posts won’t show up at the top of these hashtags. Nor people who follow these hashtags would get your post as recommendations. Instead, these would clog up your hashtag space. You could use hashtags with better reach for your account size instead.
Final Thoughts
The best time to post on social media is when you know your audience will be scrolling. To do so, you need to closely monitor your account. While there are some general rules to follow, even 2 am can be a good time if you have a loyal following. At Jake Markets, we can teach you how to create quality content.
