The Best Times to Post on Social Media [Current Research]

So, what are the best hours to post on each social media channel?

Social media is one of the best ways to amplify your brand and the great content you’re creating. But it isn’t enough to just post content to social whenever you feel like it. Some times are better than others.

You worked really hard on those social media posts for an upcoming campaign, but do you have any idea how many people will engage? Learning the best times to post on social media is more than just turning a few clicks into a dozen. This data lets you understand your audience inside and out.

Unfortunately, there’s no perfect answer. People browse each social network differently, and businesses may find different days and times work best for them. For example, while Twitter sees tweets perform well at hours like 3 p.m., Instagram sees certain posts perform well as late at 2 a.m.

These aren’t your only (or best) times, though. Good post timing depends on the platform you’re using, as well as on how your target audience interacts with that platform, the regions and corresponding time zones you’re targeting, and your marketing goals (e.g., click throughs versus shares).

BEST TIMES TO POST ON FACEBOOK

Pew Research found that 71 percent of Facebook users visit the site every day—more than any other social network. People login from both their desktop and mobile devices (at work, home, and elsewhere), but mobile use is increasing. In fact, at least a quarter of Facebook users in 14 markets around the world are mobile-only users.

The best time to post on Facebook is between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
And on the weekends from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

There are a number of other studies out there that report Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. work well. And we see similar results for many industries in our analysis of Hootsuite userdata.

As always, you should test and track results for yourself. Use engagement data from Facebook Page Insights.

Facebook still reigns supreme in social media with more than 1.4 billion daily active users. However, it’s also the top choice for social media advertising with 93% of marketers using the platform regularly.

What does that mean for your brand? It’s simply not as easy to reach your customers anymore. In fact, with the newest updates to the Facebook algorithm, users see more posts from friends and family instead of business pages.

WHAT THE DATA SHOWS

If this data shows us anything, it’s engagement rates consistently peak during the midday on weekdays. The most engagements are sent on Facebook during typical lunch breaks on Wednesday and Thursday. This could be from users trying to reach out for help during lunch or simply due to the additional free time on their phone.

Additionally, weekends tend to be poorer times for engagement–especially on Saturday. People are out and about on Saturdays so don’t expect much engagement when your audience is the busiest.

BEST TIMES TO POST ON FACEBOOK FOR NONPROFITS

For nonprofits, Facebook works as a great gathering point to get users to attend events, follow your organization and be up-to-date on happenings without going to your website. When we pulled data from all of our customers considered a nonprofit, we found some unique engagement times for this specific sector.

The best times to post on Facebook for nonprofits is Wednesday and Friday at 2 p.m.
Other notably high engagement times include Monday at 9 a.m., Tuesday at 6 p.m., Thursday at 10 a.m. and noon and Friday at 9 and 11 a.m.
The safest times to post are from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.
Sunday has the least amount of engagement for nonprofits on Facebook.
Weekends and Mondays see less engagement in the week for nonprofits on Facebook.

BEST TIMES TO POST ON INSTAGRAM

More than 70% of US businesses currently use Instagram and many expect that number to rise. Whether it’s highly engaging photos or breath-taking videos, Instagram is the home of visual content.

The only problem is, just like Facebook, it’s getting harder to organically appear in front of your followers. Instagram says more than 80% of usersfollow a business on the app–so why not make sure you’re reaching out to them in the best way possible?

If you’re still not convinced, our Sprout Social Q1 2017 Index found 67% of Gen Xers and 60% of millennials say they’re more likely to make a purchase from a brand they follow. Don’t sleep on the power of social media–especially Instagram.

Instagram is meant for use on mobile devices. Half of its U.S. users use the app daily, though it would appear that many engage with content more during off-work hours than during the workday.

Sprout Social Team found…

In general, the best times to post on Instagram are on Monday and Thursday, at any time other than 3-4 p.m.
The best time to post videos is 9 p.m.-8 a.m., on any day.
Some outlets have reported success on Mondays between 8-9 a.m., correlating with the first morning commute of the week for many.

When people scroll through Instagram, they almost always do so on a mobile device. Does this mean off-work hours work best? After posting over 1,000 photos and videos throughout the day and night, the Hootsuite social marketing team found that…

The best time to post on Instagram is from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Monday to Friday.

“There’s no doubt our community scrolls through Instagram during their lunch hour,” Hootsuite social media team lead Amanda Wood explains. “We find that time also works best on the weekends, but since we are a B2B [business-to-business] brand, our Instagram strategy is weekday-focused.”

Instagram moved away from the reverse-chronological feed, but timing is still important. Instagram explains on their blog that posts are ordered “based on the likelihood you’ll be interested in the content, your relationship with the person posting and the timeliness of the post.”

Your results will likely be different—especially if your relationship with the audience is more business-to-consumer (B2C). In that case, you should test off-work hours like 7 p.m. during the week and various times throughout the weekend.

Finding the best time to post on Instagram—or any social network for that matter—is about knowing your audience, testing different times, and measuring results.

WHAT THE DATA SHOWS

This data shows us some very interesting trends with Instagram engagement. For starters, some of the highest engagement was at 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday. More likely than not, this is from people waking up and checking their phones first thing in the morning.

Other high engagement times include the middle of the day on weekdays. Instagram users under 25 spend approximately 32 minutes a day on the app–so think of all the midday lulls when users are picking up the phone to check their feed.

Weekends are not necessarily that far off from weekday engagement. Afternoon brunches, hangouts and other events still have people on their phone through the day. However, engagement falls off dramatically early Sunday and Monday in the a.m.

BEST TIMES TO POST ON TWITTER

A lot of people use Twitter like a sort of digital newspaper, scrolling through content on their downtime or when they sneak in a break at work. With that in mind, we analyzed nearly 60,000 tweets from the @Hootsuite twitter handle and found that…

The best time to post on Twitter is at 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.

“For us as a B2B organization, the best times to tweet are between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays, with the highest amount of clicks and retweets occurring at 3 p.m.,” explains Wood.

But again, this will differ depending on your audience, location, and content strategy.

If you’re a business-to-consumer (B2C) brand, you may find that tweeting when your followers aren’t working—before 9 a.m., at noon, and after 5 p.m. during the week—is best.

Looking at an aggregate of Hootsuite userdata shows us the most popular days to post on Twitter are Monday to Friday, and the most popular times to post fall between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

What Sprout Social Learned…

With more than 350,000 tweets sent every minute, driving Twitter engagement can feel like a needle in a haystack. Marketers have to be smarter about how and when to reach their core audience.

However, there’s still plenty of opportunity for brands on Twitter. In terms of organic posts, Twitter still has one of the best chances to answer a question, comment or concern in real time–providing a much better brand experience.

Did you know that 35% of users will straight up boycott a brand if their social media message goes unanswered? That’s serious business for brands unresponsive on networks like Twitter. We recommend to always be available by listening, engaging and publishing at the right times.

The best time to post on Twitter is Friday 9 to 10 a.m.
Friday is the best day to post to Twitter.
The safest times to post Tweet are everyday 10 a.m. to noon.
Sunday mornings receive the least amount of engagement.

WHAT THE DATA SHOWS

Twitter engagement doesn’t stop on the weekends. Some of the higher engagement happens during afternoons on Saturday. This could be due to sporting events during these time periods. Additionally, engagement goes deep into the night nearly every day except Monday.

Twitter’s “instant thought” and then “instant reactions” drives so much communication throughout the week. Friday’s could be popular simply due to workers and students checking out before the weekend. Lastly, 9 and 10 a.m. seem to be the common engagement time for most brands on Twitter.

THE BEST TIME TO POST ON LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a professional network, so posting during working hours makes sense. That said, 57 percentof all LinkedIn traffic comes via mobile. Like Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn’s algorithm is designed to show you the most relevant content. Here’s what the Hootsuite social team has learned about LinkedIn publishing.

The best times to post on Linkedin are 7:45 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. Monday to Thursday.

“The Hootsuite social team posts on the 45-minute mark because most brands are posting on the hour,” Wood says.

And that brings up an interesting point. When you hear about the best or most popular time to post, we recommend you test and measure the results against a wildly different schedule.

Think your audience only engages with your content on the weekends when they are at home relaxing? Try workday hours. The results may surprise you.

And yes, maybe a larger share of your audience is online over the weekend, but are all your competitors flooding those times with content? You might benefit from posting off peak hours when competition is low.

What Sprout Social learned…

Let’s go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room. When it comes to brand engagement, consumers are simply not lining up to reach out to you on LinkedIn. And that makes sense!

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network for a reason–the channel is perfect for advocacy, sharing helpful career tips and connecting with industry leaders. However, it’s probably safe to assume GE isn’t selling all its refrigerators on LinkedIn.

But that’s fine. LinkedIn should still be used by brands to find valuable content, locate future employees and share stories closely related to your industry or company news. On that note, engagement rates are pretty low across the board compared to the other networks we looked at. But we did find some interesting data about LinkedIn.

The best time to post on LinkedIn is Wednesday 3 to 5 p.m.
Wednesday is the best day to post to LinkedIn.
Engagement varies per day, but Tuesday through Thursday rank best.
Friday through Monday receive the least amount of engagement.

WHAT THE DATA SHOWS

Overall, the weekdays are the best times to post, which makes sense given LinkedIn’s demographics of professionals.

Fridays and weekends could receive lower engagement due to workers checking out for the weekend.

HOW TO FIND THE BEST TIME TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Know your audience

How old are they?
Where do they live?
What’s their commute like?
What do they do for work?
What are their challenges and pain points?
What social networks do they use?
Do they scroll through their feeds on a phone or computer?

Those are the types of questions you need to answer to figure out the best publishing schedule. Our guide to creating audience/customer personas will walk you through each step of this important exercise.

USE THE SAME CONTENT TO TEST DIFFERENT TIMES

Like any good experiment, you need consistency to accurately measure results. When testing times, use the same or similar content. That way a less than engaging post shared at a high-traffic time won’t skew the results.

CONSIDER LOCATION

Did you know 80% of the US population lives in the Central and Eastern time zone?

If you’re based in the PST time zone and have followers in the EST and GMT time zones you might find posting at 8 a.m. PST works best because it hits the workday in both other regions.

If you have a global social media you could create different social media handles for different regions. Or, simply schedule content throughout the day and night for 24-hour engagement.

The point is location matters. If 6 p.m. on Thursdays is a good time to post for retail brands, that’s 6 p.m. for the target customer, not necessarily the brand.

Sources: Hootsuite, Sprout Social, CoSchedule

FINAL THOUGHTS

Continue to test and optimize

Don’t get complacent. Find the times that work best for you, but never stop testing. Audience habits—and network algorithms—change.

Every brand has a unique audience. Your audience is likely made up of mostly your customers and your fans while other brands’ audience is made of theirs. What works for other brands might not work for you so it’s important to do your own experimentations to find your best time to post on social media.

About Blair

Blair Evan Ball is a Social Media Coach and founder of Prepare1, a company that works with businesses, individuals and non-profits. He is a former executive with a Fortune 50 company, and his national division did $1Billion+ in sales annually.

Blair has written three e-books: Facebook for Business Made Easy, Facebook Pages for Business Made Easy, and WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy.

Blair also educates, trains entrepreneurs and business professionals how to amplify their brand, increase revenues, and raise more funds.

The Race is ON! | PREPARE | Get into the Game and WIN!