If you are a social media enthusiast then you must know that timing is everything. It is very important to be active when people are around to see what you are posting. Larger audiences always lead to more traffic, more engagement, and a boost in likes, comments, and followers.
So, if posting to social media is as important to you as it is for us, you must be wondering what the best times to be active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are?
The answer to this question usually depends on your target audiences, where they are located, what age group they belong to, and where they are located. The optimal time to post to social media is also influenced by the type of content that you are sharing, the social media platform that you are sharing it on, and what your goals are. Read on to learn how you can get more engagement from your audiences on the main social media platforms.
When Is It Best to Post on Facebook
Finding the best time to post on Facebook can be quite tricky, due to the complicated algorithm of its News Feed. You probably noticed that Facebook’s News Feed is non-chronological; making it more complicated for social media specialists to find the optimal time to be active on this platform.
However, there are some time intervals that are generally considered to be better than others, as people have noticed that if they post in these intervals they get more shares, likes, comments, and click-throughs:
- On workdays, the best time interval to post on Facebook and to be active on this platform is between 12 p.m and 3 p.m.
- Of all the weekdays, Tuesday is the least active day of the week in terms of Facebook activity, but on this day the 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. is still the best time to post.
- On weekends, you should post between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. Sometimes, what you post on weekends might receive less engagement that what you post on a workday.
- According to several reports put together by successful companies like Microsoft, Hubspot, or Quick Sprout, the best weekdays to post to Facebook are Thursday and Fridays between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
The best time to post on Facebook will not always be dictated by the aforementioned findings, as it will also depend on your audiences, the type of content that you are sharing, and what your goals are. You should try posting at different times and see how your posts perform. The Post66 analytics will help you find what the perfect time to post is for you.
When Is It Best to Post on Twitter
What you should know about Tweets is that their average life is much shorter than that of a Facebook post. While a Facebook post stays in the news feed for around 90 minutes, a Tweet only stays on the Twitter timeline for about 20 minutes.
Furthermore, a Tweet reaches 75% of its potential engagement in just three hours, compared to five hours on Facebook. These findings indicate that on Twitter, users have a smaller window for engagement, making it even more important to know exactly when you should post on this social media platform.
Knowing what the best time to post on Twitter is will most likely be a trial and error process, but to have a general idea of when you should post, you can try the following intervals:
- Based on several different studies, the best time to tweet is in the early in the morning, as that is when users generally get most clicks.
- If you want to get a lot of retweets and favs, you should tweet late at night.
- It is generally believed that the best time to tweet is on workdays around 3 p.m.
- For B2B organizations, the best times to be active on Twitter are on weekdays, between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m (the highest amount of retweets and clicks occur around 3 p.m).
- Keep in mind that the perfect time to tweet depends on your time zone and where your target audience is located, as the best times to post on Twitter are different across time zones.
The best times to post to Twitter will always depend on your location, your audience, the content that you are sharing, and your goals. If you want to get many retweets, you should tweet around 12 p.m., 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. If you want to have a high click-through rate, then you should tweet around 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. Use these intervals as a starting point to test all the different posting possibilities and to learn when it’s best to schedule your Twitter activity.
The specialists behind the social media management platform Post66 recommend that you take the following aspects into account before choosing a posting schedule:
- Your location – If your goal is to reach global audiences, then you should have different Twitter handles for each region. By using Post66, you will be able to manage all the handles at the same time and to schedule your tweets accordingly. It is a good idea to make social media reports in which you track your engagement for each Twitter account or you can simply use our analytics.
- Your tools – Although there are many social media management tools out there, only some of them offer quality services at an affordable price. Post66 is the most affordable social media management tool. A Basic membership on the Post66 platform only costs 14 euros, while a Full membership costs 54 euros. Additionally, we also offer our users the possibility to get free access. The only thing that they need to do is write a blog post or an article about our platform and include a ‘follow’ link to our homepage in the content. The only condition is that the blog or the website is older than 6 months and has more than 10 blog entries.
- Your audiences – The age of your audiences, where they live, what their jobs and hobbies are will also influence your social media posting schedule. If you know the answer to these questions it is going to be very easy for you to find the perfect times to be active on Twitter. Of course, this applies to posting on other social media platforms as well.
When Is It Best to Post on Instagram
The Instagram feed will feature content that users are more likely to be interested in. This means that Instagram posts like photos and videos that have a lot of likes and comments have a better chance to appear at the top of the feed.
But even though Instagram content does not appear in a chronological order, you should still know when you should post in order to get the most reactions on this platform.
The first thing that you need to think of is who your audiences are and what their day looks like. Are they waking up early in the morning to go to work? Is that when they go on Instagram? Or are they more likely to check their Instagram before bed? In order to know the right time to post you must know these details about your target audiences including their average age and their schedule.
According to our social media management specialists, the optimal times to post to Instagram is on weekdays from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
According to Elle & Co, you should avoid posting on weekdays between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. and the best time to be active on Instagram is on Wednesdays around 5 p.m.
An interesting theory developed by the marketing experts from Mavrk indicates that Instagram users would have a lot of success if they were active on this platform in the morning, between 6 a.m and 12 p.m. Why? Because in that interval the volume of new posts is quite low and people tend to use their phones and check their Instagram a lot. This means that if you post in the morning, there are fewer posts to compete with and you will have a significant audience.
Observations
If you want to be efficient on social media and to get a lot of engagement from your audiences, you should always take the time zones into consideration. If your target audiences are from a different time zone than you, make a social media schedule based on their time zone.
Another thing that is work mentioning is that B2C organizations should be more active on weekends, while B2B organizations will have more success on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
You can use the times mentioned in this article as a starting point, until you know exactly when your target audiences are more active on social media. The best way to learn when to post on social media platforms is by connecting all your pages and profiles on the Post66 platform and checking the analytics regularly to see how your posts performed.
by Miruna Secuianu