The Best Time To Post On Social Media

Last updated on 18 December 2024

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The best time to post on social media

Posting on social media to increase your brand awareness is important. But do you know the best time to post on social media, and are you doing it? You may be asking yourself if that matters? After all, as long as your content is public people will see it. Right?

Well, not exactly. Social media algorithms always favour newer information, no matter what platform you’re using. To maximise your exposure, you have to focus your posts to the right time of day. It’s important to share your new post during the time your audience is logged in and able to engage with your content. As your audience engages with the post, it will remain relevant and reach more people.

Perhaps you’re already familiar with this concept and using this tactic to get the most out of your posts. But have you read the new studies conducted during the pandemic? 2020 changed the way we live our lives in several different ways, and the usage of social media is no different. The research presented here was published in August 2020.

Below is an outline of the best times to post to social media. Please know that these are findings based on averages collected by platform. Take into consideration your time zone, and what time zone your audience may live in. With that in mind, these findings were collected and recorded in the Central Time Zone of the United States.

So let’s get started.

Facebook

Facebook is the number one platform used worldwide, it reaches 60.6% of all Internet users. For this reason, remember to ensure you are targeting your audiences’ time zone.

Facebook as a whole is highly used during weekdays from 8am – 3pm, the lowest total engagement is before 7am and after 5pm. Interestingly Sprout Social’s research found a daily peak around 11 a.m. during weekdays.

Recap

Best day and times: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around 11am.
Worst day: Sunday

Instagram

2020 increased Instagram usage. People are using it on weekdays as well as weekends with consistent patterns. A study conducted by Later.com in which 12 million Instagram posts were analysed the most engaging time is between 9am – 11am.

Keep in mind that every business has a unique audience, this is probably more true for Instagram than any other platform. Therefore, in addition to using these recommendations, ensure that you are checking your Instagram insights regularly to understand when your website receives the most traffic.

Recap

Best day and times: Wednesday at 11 a.m. and Friday from 10am –11am.
Worst day: Sunday

Twitter

The usage of Twitter didn’t change as much as Facebook and Instagram during 2020; the activity and engagement are still similar to what they used to be in 2019. People use Twitter during the week more than they do during the weekend, but usage is scattered throughout the day. According to Sprout Social, the best time to post on Twitter is in the early morning during the week. Social Pilot also provides a deeper insight into Twitter, as well as detailed information on strategies on posting.

Recap

Best day and times: Wednesday and Friday between 7am and 9am
Worst day: Saturday

The usage of LinkedIn has also remained largely unchanged. That’s likely due to LinkedIn being more of a professional networking site than a social media platform. Check out 99 Firms for detailed information about LinkedIn and its demographic so you can focus your posting efforts in the best way.

Recap

Best times: Wednesday and Thursday from 8am – 12pm, and Friday around 9am.
Worst day: Sunday

Keep in mind, things can change!

And as I mentioned before, these are averages that take all of the population into consideration. If you are looking for more specific data collected and researched based on different niches Sprout Social is, again, a great place to head to.

Social media analytic platforms

Now, if you are posting during these times, and are still not getting the engagement you were hoping for, you could look into using one of the below social media analytic platforms. Not only do they help you better understand what time to post, but the system becomes much easier and automated.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social’s tools can analyse your posts and give you real-time feedback on what is working and what may need more attention. They use a customised dashboard that summarises the performance of your social media channels, diving the results into more detailed information like gender and demographics.

Later

Later is a social media scheduling platform that has a free version available. To get better insights, the subscription is recommended. By using Later, you can visually plan your social media posts, schedule them to be published automatically, and get tailored insights on when to post to each one of the platforms you use.

Hootsuite

Another social media management tool that can schedule and analyse your social efforts is Hootsuite. Hootsuite will automatically determine the best time to publish a post or Tweet based on the performance of posts you shared in the past. It can publish the same post at different times to different platforms, making sure to take advantage of the best time to publish the information on each social media platform.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is another tool you can use to understand how internet users are interacting with your posts. You can choose from three custom reports: Best Day to Post on Social Media, Best Time to Post on Social Network by Hour, and the Social Media Traffic by Date and Hour. The best part is that Google Analytics is free!

You should now have a better understanding of the importance of timing your social media posts. With this information and a review of the performance of your last posts should help you determine the best time to share your information. Remember to share compelling and new information to keep your audience engaged and excited to return to your page.

What time do you post your content to social media?

Do you have any suggestions, tips or tricks that you would like to share?

We would love to hear from you; leave us a comment!

This post was written by Nadine Hoffman, a freelance writer and blogger over at NadineHoffman.com.