The Best Times For Your Social Media Posts

Social networking is perhaps an ideal approach to amplify the content you create.

However, the key to achieve success on social platforms is finding the right time to post your content. A few times are better than the others is a given.

And the desire for this post is valid. If you have put effort into creating a great piece of content, you might as well post it on the time where it can reach as many people as possible, and your audience can engage with your brand voice.

However, this answer is not clear to many. Most of the social media channels/ platforms have different audiences and different algorithms, which determines what is shown to its users no matter what the content is or when it is posted.

In addition to that, the audience differs from brand to brand. Depending on the industry you work in, service or product you sell, the time you post, and how actively you post can vary considerably.

In any case, you cannot precisely tell the exact time your audience will see your organic post. Experts have worked on this, and there is data out there that gives us the insights about the peak engagement times. However, this does not imply that every one of your audience will be online during these hours, but it surely provides a better opportunity to boost post engagement potential.

So, What exactly is the best time to post on social media?

To help everyone understand this better, Sprout Social has made a report on the peak engagement times. This is an excellent report created from their 20,000 customer interactions in its social media software and has been compiled into a channel-wise breakdown.

Below is an overview of the findings by the platform.

Peak Engagement Times On Facebook

Facebook’s vast client base of more than 2 billion users places the platform in an extraordinary spot for brands. With such a wide variety of users, you have a remarkable possibility of reaching your target audience with your organic posts.

However, Facebook’s algorithm makes it difficult for brands to reach the audience in the news-feed. Difficult – not impossible though. Facebook’s recent algorithm update puts prominence on friends and family. In this way, you have a better possibility of reaching a wide range of people if your post drives authentic engagement.

Algorithms aside, these are time slots where Social Sprout’s team found users were most active on the platform:

• The best times to post on Facebook are 11 am and 1 – 2 pm.
• The best day to post is Wednesday, as it has the highest amount of engaged users.
• The safest time to post through the week is 9 am to 3 pm.
• Sundays and early mornings (before 7 am) and evenings (after 5 pm) have the least amount of engagement in the entire week.

Brands have a better opportunity to reach the active users in midweek, especially from morning till mid-afternoon.

Peak Engagement Times On Instagram

Instagram has achieved 1 billion monthly active users, which put the platform on the road to success on becoming a leader in social media space.

However, it’s algorithm is tricky. Instagram has a complex algorithm that determines when posts are shown.

All the things considered, outside of the standard post, the platform still offers different features of the brand to exploit: stories, live video, and longer-form video on IGTV.

All things aside, these are time slots where Social Sprout’s team found users were most active on the platform:

• The best time to post on Instagram is 10 am – 11 am.
• Wednesday is the best day to post for Instagram overall, followed by Friday.
• The safest day & time to post is Tuesday through Friday from 10 am – 3 pm.
• Sundays and early mornings and late nights have the least amount of engagement in the entire week.

The above pattern is similar to Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, given that audience uses both the platforms in a similar manner.

Just like Facebook, mid-week looks the best to post on Instagram as well. However, Instagram has most engagement on Fridays as well, which does not apply to Facebook. So, brands do have a window to capture their audience here.

Peak Engagement Times On Twitter

Twitter is one of a kind as it is one of the few platforms that has kept a chronological timeline. Except for the select posts, Twitter decides to highlight out of chronological order based on user interests, which helps your post not to get lost in the mix.

Therefore, posting on peak engagement times builds the opportunity not only for your followers viewing your posts but also for the other target audience (even if they do not follow the brand) if someone likes, follows, or retweets the comment.

So, posting at the right time will boost your social media metrics and also support you in expanding your reach with others who may be interested in your brand.

Hence, the following are time frames where Social Sprout’s team found that users were most active on the platform:

• The best time to post is Wednesday at 9 am, and the safest time is Monday to Friday from 8 am – 4 pm.
• The best days to post are Tuesday & Wednesday.
• Saturday looks like the least engagement day.
• The least engaging times to post are from 10 pm – 4 am.

Here, Mid-week is still the leading time, but it heats up earlier in the day than Facebook and Instagram. This looks like a morning newspaper for the audience.

Additionally, the engagement is on the higher side at the start of the week than at the end. So it looks like the best time to post earlier on the week to get the maximum attention of your audience.

Peak Engagement Times On Linked-in

Now, LinkedIn is the platform that differs from all the others as it has such a niche audience. It is made up of professionals looking to network with others from their industry or gain insights on the on-going situation or professional development.

Although, while the audience is lesser here, its focus is on attracting more sales-ready leads via organic posting. And this is the reason your posts can hold more value, especially for B2B companies. Hence, getting your post visible is very important.

• The best times to post on Linked-in are Wednesday 8 am-10 am, Thursday 9 am and 1-2 pm and Friday at 9 am.
• The safest times are from Tuesday to Friday from 8 am – 2 pm. And the best days are Wednesday and Thursday.
• The least engagement day is Sunday, and the least popular time is every day from 9 pm – 3 am.

Wednesday remains a consistent day for peak engagement. Here, we see a noticeably earlier timing where people are checking this platform, which makes sense as they are likely to browse this platform during the workday.

However, there is a drop off later in the day and also on the weekends. The pattern indicates favorable posting times are at the start of the day and at noon as it gets you visibility and higher engagement from your audience.

What does this mean? Our Conclusion?

Well, with all due respect, the data given by Sprout Social is a great reference point, but it may not always create magic for your social media success.

These insights are valuable for all the industry people striving hard to reach their specific audience through social media to know and understand how people use these platforms. Furthermore, these timings are global in nature, and one has to define their own schedule.  The best place to refer to is the ‘Insights’ section of all your social media platforms. Analysis and A/B testing are crucial to find out the right timing for your business.

Finally, timing is essential, but it is not all that you need for success on social media. Nevertheless, you can always test out what schedule works best for your brand and what gives you the best output and reach and adjust accordingly.

Our company can help you with all your social media needs.  You can reach out to us on 9867997654 or write to us on marketing@arguscmpo.com for your social media marketing.