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Best times to post on social media is whenever your audience is active and most likely to notice your content in the feed and engage with it. If you post your content on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn at the right times, that will lead to more engagements, comments, likes, higher click-through rates, and more shares from the targeted audience.
A well-timed post on any social media channels can do wonders for the promotion of your business. This is why it is not only important to figure out how to promote your business on social media. Even the best-looking post won’t produce the results you want if posted in the wrong time when there isn’t anyone to see it. You should find out what is the best time to post on social media and maximize the benefits of social media to your business.
In this short guide, we will tell you what is the best time of the day to post on social media based on our experience and years of testing by some of the most prominent social marketing platforms like HubSpot and Buffer. See what works for our clients, test your social media channels, and create a social media strategy that will actually work for you and bring in results. Publishing schedule will be one of the most important parts of it.
How to Find the Best Times to Post on Social Media
Table of Contents
We wish we could tell you what is the one best time to post on all social media. The truth is that there is no perfect and one answer for all businesses. Each business is different and different audiences browse social networks variously. This means that the best times to post on social media and the best days to post on social media for you will depend on the type of your business and the habits of people who follow you.
Various businesses will find that different days and different times of a day works best for them. The best time of day to post on social media almost entirely depends on your industry, your niche, and the nature of your business. For example, if your audience is on Twitter, you will most possibly find that your tweets perform best during breaks and commute times. If your target audience is largely on Pinterest, you will want to attract them to pin as often as possible. However, that won’t always happen. You should test for yourself but you will probably find that the people on Pinterest are the most active during weekends and evenings.
Get to Know Your Audience
Do you know your audience? Who are they? Where do they live? What does your audience do? Do they have hobbies? Are you familiar with their problems and challenges? How old are they? What social networks do they use? Do they scroll social media from their phones or from a computer? Get to know your audience, gather data, and consider that information when creating a social media strategy and your own publishing schedule.
Experiment and Test Different Posting Times and Time Zones
When testing different times to post, consider the location and time zones of your audience. If you are a local, small business, you don’t have to bother with different time zones. The important thing for you is to target the audience you want to attract from a specific location or more locations.
However, if your business targets people in different locations and time zones, you will want to pay attention to what we have to say about this. For example, if you want to target an audience across the U.S. try to alternate posting times in Central and Eastern time zones because over 75% of the total U.S population lives in these time zones. But if your audience is outside of the U.S. make sure to find out where do they live, what is their time zone, and when are they active. Then adjust your posting schedule to their location and the times when they are active on social media.
Don’t forget that consistency is the key here. You need to constantly post the same or similar content in order to be able to accurately measure results.
The Best Times to Post on Instagram
Instagram is a social media platform that was made for mobile devices. Half of all the users in the U.S. use Instagram every day, whether posting or just browsing. However, many findings say that the users engage with the content of the accounts they follow mostly during off-work hours and breaks, as well as during the weekends.
Is Friday a good day to post on Instagram?
Some findings say that the best times to post on Instagram are Monday through Friday from noon to 1 pm. Other say that the best performing days on Instagram are Monday and Thursday, any time other than 3 pm and 4 pm. Some found that postings on evenings from 8 to 10 pm performed best. The worst time to post on Instagram for most industries is 3 pm to 4 pm. Also, there is no best time to post to Instagram on Sunday. If you want maximum results from each post, avoid posting on Instagram on Sundays. However, if you still need to, make sure you do it from 10 am – 2 pm CDT for a higher level of engagement.
But none of these results have to be the best times to post on Instagram for you and your business. For example, we found that the best times for our clients that are in the kitchen and bath business are weekends from 3 to 4 pm, as well as after that. It’s the time when people unwind and relax, and that’s the best time to enjoy spectacular kitchens and other interior design creations.
The point is that you should test and see what would be the best time for you to post on Instagram. Use Audience Insights feature on Instagram to check the analytics. Boost engagement by posting videos on Instagram any day, any time from 9 pm until 8 am the next day.
The Best Times to Post on Facebook
Facebook users log in from both desktop computers and mobile phones, from home and from work as well. About 71 percent of them visit Facebook every day, be it workday or weekend. However, the way they use Facebook depends on the audience itself.
Some marked the highest click-through rates on Facebook when posting on Thursdays and Fridays between 1 pm and 4 pm. Others have seen the best results when posting on Wednesdays at 3 p.m. The best time to post on Monday is at 9 am. If your audience is active during weekends, try to post around noon until 1 pm. The worst times to post on Facebook are early mornings on Weekends before 8 am and late evenings after 8 pm.
The Best Times to Post on Pinterest
The majority of our clients are in the home improvement and kitchen and bath business. Besides Instagram, Pinterest is another place where their audience is very active. We found that the worst time to post on Pinterest is during work hours on any workday. Target to engage your audience during evenings and weekends, when they are off work and relaxed. Late Friday afternoons also see the higher performance when it comes to posting on Pinterest. The best time to post on Instagram is Saturday and Sunday, especially Saturday from the early morning at 8 am until late evening at 11 pm.
The Best Times to Post on Twitter
Twitter is a specific social media channel that people use as a sort of a digital newspaper. They look for the news and scroll for the most popular tweets. Twitter users are on their desktops as well as on their phones and they mostly browse it during breaks at work, commute to and from work, and other downtimes.
Having these results in mind, it is safe to say that the best time to post on Twitter is any time between noon and 6 pm any workday. If you’re considering weekends, the best time to post on Twitter on Sunday is at 11 am and 1 to 4 pm, although Sunday ranks the lowest. Planning on using Twitter for consumer goods? Then consider Saturday at 1 pm.
This range covers lunch breaks as well as a commute time after work. Perhaps the highest amount of clicks and retweets happens at about 3 pm.
Depending on whether you are a B2B or B2C business you may see slightly different results. This is why it is important to make sure and use the data presented here as a starting point, not as a rule. Test different posting times on Twitter and see which work best for your specific business.
The Best Times to Post on LinkedIn
If you are a B2B business, investing in LinkedIn is a smart idea. Post exclusively during workdays, best toward the middle of the week – on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Target the downtimes such as morning and evening commute, as well as a lunch break time.
See our guide on the best posting times on SlideShare:
Start Testing and Find the Best Times to Post on Social Media for Your Business
Now that you know what are the best times to post on social media, you can start running your own tests. And never stop running them because social media algorithms, as well as the habits of your target audience continually change. Find the best times to post on social media for you and never stop analyzing what your competition does. Seeing when do they get the highest amounts of likes, shares, reactions, and retweets will help you figure out the best times to post on social media easier and faster.
When testing different posting times, make sure to create social media reports to be able to track the results for each posting time and each network you use. By establishing what are the key times to post on Instagram, you will be able to build an engaged, sizable Instagram audience that will love your posts.
If you need more information on key times to post on Instagram, you can consult our social media specialists. Whether you need a social media strategy, advertising on social media, or management, Persist Digital can help. Explore our Social Media Management Services and pick the one that best fits your needs.