Social media is a great channel to communicate with your customers, whether you’re focused on a local or global audience. But with it being 24/7, we’re often asked about the best time to post content.
We’re all aware of how fast social media moves, with an ongoing feed of content, it can be a challenge to maximise engagement by having your posts seen by a high number of your followers. Every business has a different audience, and the behaviour of that audience are ever-evolving, affecting some platforms more than others.
So what is the best time of day to post on each social media channel?
Sorry to disappoint you now – but there isn’t a straightforward answer. People interact with each channel differently, for instance, you might check Twitter 10 times a day but only open Instagram twice. You might then check Instagram more frequently over the weekend when you’re not at work, and Twitter less so.
We’ve found that there is no “one size fits all” for businesses, however there is data out there which can help narrow this minefield and making it less ‘guesswork’ and more systematic.
GENERIC GUIDE FOR THE BEST TIME TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Best times to post on Facebook
There are currently over two billion active users on Facebook, making it the most popular social media channel. The biggest thing you need to be aware of with Facebook is that their algorithm favours content by friends and family over business pages, which was done in an attempt to restore meaningful connections and increase engagement on the platform.
Before you change your posting pattern to accommodate the below, we would recommend you take a look over your own page’s insights and look at what time of day your audience is online.
- Wednesday is the best day, at 11am and 1pm
- Sunday has the least amount of engagement
- Between 9am and 3pm is the safest time to post
- After 5pm-7am has less engagement
Best times to post on Instagram
Given the rapid increase of active users, and its median engagement rate of 1.6%, Instagram is becoming one of the most popular social media channels. Similar to Facebook, Instagram changed its algorithm from a chronological feed to favour specific content.
Make sure your Instagram is set up as a business profile to gain as much insight as possible about your audience and how they engage with your content.
- Wednesday at 11am and Friday at 10-11am are the best times
- Tuesday through Friday at 10am-3pm is the safest time to post
- Sunday has the least amount of engagement
- After 11pm-3am has the least amount of engagement
Best times to post on Twitter
There are 500 million tweets sent every day, making it a great opportunity for brands to utilise the platform as an extension to their customer care services. Although users will be displayed highlights first, Twitter still operates a largely chronological ordering of posts.
From analysing your own content, you may have already started to see a pattern in what type of content works well at certain times of day – always prioritise this data over generic global engagements.
- Wednesday and Friday at 9am are the best times to post
- Monday through Friday at 8am-4pm is the safest time
- Saturday gets the least amount of engagement
- After 10pm-4am has the least amount of engagement
Best times to post on LinkedIn
Unlike other social media channels LinkedIn has a very specific audience. You will often see posts from anywhere between 2-5 days ago in your feed, but it is still worth considering the specific time you choose to post your content.
Consider your audience, who they are and the hours they work – are they computer-based or not? Check your page’s insights to see what has worked for you previously.
- Wednesday 9-10am and 12pm is the best time to post
- Tuesday through Friday from 8am-2pm is the safest time to post
- Sunday has the least amount of engagement
- After 9pm-3am has the least amount of engagement
What we can learn from this
We would always recommend following what has been working for your own content above what this data shows. As great as this insight is for each channel, the best time to post on social media is individual to a business and its content – however this helps as generic guide for anyone starting out with a new platform and unsure of ‘when’ to press the send button.
Disclaimer: Data from Sprout Social include users from various plan types, industries and locations. All time frames are recorded in Central Time Zone (CST). Number of engagements represents total engagements a brand received on the specific channel during that hour time frame. Industry-specific data includes mid- to high-level engagement times.
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