Winning Tactics For Best Time To Post On Social Media

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We spend hours or months researching, brainstorming, creating, editing, and polishing this new post or campaign, and now it’s time to unveil it to the world.

Brands had to pivot to succeed in a quickly rapid digital transformation, and social marketers had to combat burnout as the volume of social interactions and the demands on messaging increased.

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Both brands and their customers were constantly adapting in the way they operated online, leading to new patterns of interaction and engagement on social media.

For every successful brand on social media, there is a data-backup schedule determining the best day and time to post.

Even the most excellent social media posts won't do your business any good if you don't publish them at the right time.

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Publishing during high-traffic times maximizes the odds of catching your audience's delicate attention.

The Best Times To Post On Social Media: Does It Even Matter?

For some social media users, posting at a random hour is fine because they might be using it for fun. But if you are using social media to promote yourself or your brand, optimal timing is essential.

The reality is that most of your target audience won't even see what you post on social media.

This is partly due to the utter volume of posts and partially due to the social network's algorithms.

Algorithms curate a user's news feeds such that it seems interesting for them to spend more and more time on it.

And these algorithms use the source and engagement to decide which post will be relevant to which users. Engagements immediately after posting help determine your posts’ relevancy.

Best Time To Post On Social Media

Is There A Global Best Time To Post On Social Media?

Several factors come into action when thinking about "the best time to post on social media." Your target audience, their demographics, and behavior patterns play a huge role.

Your brand’s service, or product, the industry you operate in have a vast impact. Given that social media runs on a 24/7 schedule, the time zones of your target audience are also of increasing importance.

While there is no such "perfect" time to post, note that there is always a "best" time.

Best Time To Post On Facebook

The days closer to the weekend, like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, & Saturday, are considered the best days to post on Facebook.

As a B2B brand, Sunday is considered the worst day to post on Facebook as it has low interaction rates and much lesser peak hours to post.

Facebook posts that are published between 1 P.M. & 4 P.M. on weekdays consisting of Wednesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays have delivered more likes and engagement.

Facebook videos have a view count of up to 8 billion per day. Not just that, 62% of Facebook consumers are influenced by video posts to make a purchasing decision.

When it comes to the best time to post a video on Facebook, noon & 1 P.M. are considered ideal as most people are on a break and likelier to interact with their devices.

The second-best time to post videos on Facebook is early in the morning, between 9 A.M. & 11 A.M.

Best Time To Post On Instagram

With its complicated algorithm and the secrets behind hashtags, Instagram isn't just a hobby anymore; it has become a science.

If you are one of those hopefuls trying to break into the iceberg of Instagram stardom, you would want to know how to use this platform in your favor.

• Best times: Tuesday 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday through Friday 11 a.m.

• Best day: Tuesday

• Worst day: Sunday

Throughout 2020, Instagram continued to step up new features such as Reels, enhance Stories, and push discovery on its Explore page.

This made it a perfect platform for social media audiences dealing with lockdown measures to find and share new hobbies something brands can use social listening to stay up to date on as these trends emerge.

Similar to Instagram’s parent company Facebook, the top times to post on Instagram expanded in 2020 compared to previous years.

Midday engagement during weekdays became even denser with top times throughout the 11 a.m.–2 p.m. range, and evenings and weekend times showed increased opportunities for engagement.

Instagram is a great place for brands to branch out with their content: reinforce your visual identity with high-quality photos, or highlight your brand’s graphic design efforts by showing off what you’ve created for content such as info graphics and data reports.

Instagram Live, like its Facebook counterpart, exploded in popularity in 2020 as a way for people to stay connected in an immediate and less curated way.

Reels also allow for shorter and more viral-ready content that can complement your feed content. Instagram also experimented with longer-form content by adding Instagram Guides as a way to provide more in-depth information on wellness, eventually expanding to other topic areas.

What are the best times to post on Twitter?

• Best times: Wednesday 9 a.m.– 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday 9–11 a.m.

• Best day: Wednesday

• Worst day: Saturday

In 2020, Twitter was many social media users’ first source of information on developing stories such as COVID-19 and the US Presidential Elections.

As such, the platform focused heavily on news and information accuracy, with specific trending topics discovery tabs dedicated to these ongoing stories.

Twitter peak times for engagement remained high throughout all weekdays in 2020, with increased periods of high engagement going into the evenings.

This could reflect the ongoing attention to developing news and updates, as well as the platform’s role as a place for entertainment via viral Tweets and memes.

While Twitter distinguished itself as a resource for up-to-the-minute news in 2020, it’s also still a key place for customers to easily get a direct line to brands through conversations and mentions.

This means that having a customer care strategy in place is particularly important for the platform, as is moving beyond reacting to individual issues and towards proactively improving the overall customer experience through social listening and analyzing the voice of customer data.

Review the top times we found above to help determine when you should focus on prioritizing publishing new content versus devoting resources to customer support.

What are the best times to post on LinkedIn?

• Best times: Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m.–noon

• Best days: Tuesday and Wednesday

• Worst day: Sunday

LinkedIn engagement has become extremely consistent throughout the workweek, unsurprising for this professional-focused social platform.

You’re less likely to get eyes on your LinkedIn content on the weekend, where engagement drops more significantly compared to weekdays than on other social networks we reviewed.

Considering how much LinkedIn content is centered around professional thought leadership and career growth, it makes sense that a majority of audiences are getting the most out of this content during their working day.

While LinkedIn continues to be more specialized in focus than other social platforms, it’s also increasingly branching out in what types of audiences it attracts.

In addition to being an important target for employee advocacy campaigns and recruiting, LinkedIn is becoming equally important for a wide range of content creation.

While the platform is an obvious match for B2B strategy, any brand can utilize LinkedIn marketing best practices and highlight wins as a company and culture.

It’s an ideal fit for employee support and permitting employees to advance their brand or professional development as they publish content to their profiles.

Best Time To Post On YouTube

You invest a good amount of time and resources in creating incredibly amazing videos.

Distribution is a core aspect of promotion on YouTube. A solid video marketing strategy involves presenting engaging content to the right audience at the right times.

Best Day To Post On YouTube

Thursdays and Fridays are the best days to post on YouTube as a brand. A slightly earlier time slot from 12 P.M. to 3 P.M. is the best time to post on YouTube on Thursdays and Fridays.

The YouTube videos that you post earlier in the week are seen to perform best on the weekends.

Best Time To Post On Reddit

Reddit is not a typical social platform, and it doesn't like to receive frequent promotional posts from its users at all.

Reddit admins won't let you go wild promoting your brand here and there on their platform. This community hates any and every kind of spammers and relentlessly blocks them.

But, if you don't cut corners and post quality content at the right time on Reddit, you are sure to increase your brand awareness.

In most cases, Reddit content must be published between Monday and Thursday. The Reddit traffic is the highest during those days because users are near their computers or laptop at work or home.

Reddit is a platform where you need to think twice, thrice, and even more times before putting out anything.

Hence, Reddit users usually avoid using the platform in the evening after their work due to drowsiness and difficulty in concentrating on what's being discussed on the forum.

Best Time To Post On Pinterest

Maintaining a spectacular Pinterest presence is an absolute must if your audience is visual-based.

When you worked so hard on your blog entries and pins, you would, of course, want to pin it at the best possible times!

When someone checks their feed page on Pinterest, the results appear mostly historical. The same happens when someone searches for a hashtag on Pinterest.

Therefore, if you wish to have your pins appear at the top, the best bet is to pin when your audience checks their Pinterest feed.

The late hours of the day from 8 P.M. to 11 P.M. are the best times to post on Pinterest on Fridays and Saturdays with a peak reaching at 9 P.M. The middle of the night from 2 A.M. to 4 A.M. is also a decent time for getting your pins discovered.

The two best days to post on Pinterest are Fridays and Saturdays. This seems true because people often use Pinterest to plan their projects, and weekends are some of the ideal times to map out projects.

Evening commuting times between 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. are among the worst times to post on Pinterest. This is because many pins require users to navigate away from the platform.

Key Factors When Looking For The Best Times To Post On Social Media

Your Goal For Posting On Social Media

Your goals to post can include generating the maximum number of page views, making more people aware of your brand, increasing your number of followers, selling your products or services, or increasing engagement in the comment sections.

Days Of The Week

Days of the week form a part of the audience's behavior pattern of using social media.

If you target B2B customers, you might want to target them during workdays and work hours.

On the contrary, if B2C is your ideal audience, you might wish to target them towards weekends or during their breaks and off-work hours.

Time Zones

Time zones are of utmost importance when your target audience is not covered within your time boundaries. In such scenarios, your posting schedule should align with your audience's time and routine of using social media.

Frequency

When you post too often, the social algorithm might detect you as a spammer and would completely stop favoring you, preventing it from putting your content in front of your ideal audience.

At the same time, you need to post regularly so that your feed does not look outdated. Now, you decide what's the sweet spot between the two.

Industry & Demography

The industry you operate in will influence the audience base you target, your posting frequency, and the type of social media post (images or videos). The audience demographic is critical, especially when it comes to deciding time zones.

It's also a wise choice to research your target audience's occupations and social media usage behavior to understand when they are most likely to be active on social media.

Competitors

You might attempt to reach as many people as possible by publishing during peak activity hours. But remember, your audience's attention is also something that your competitors need.

To increase your visibility, make a note to publish in those hours when your audience is live, and your competitors are mostly not posting to increase your visibility.

Algorithm

Social platforms work in such a way that people tend to revisit them time and again. If you have to strive on the platform, you need to adapt and follow its algorithm.

Analyze From The Past

An in-depth analysis of your past posts should be the initial step in determining the best time to post on social media.

Give you a point to start, and you canister figure out things as you proceed with your social media campaign.

Analyzing your past post performance will become easier with inbuilt post insights provided by Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Test & Optimize

Not every industry audience is the same. Different industry audiences might want to become active at various times on social media to fulfill their purpose.

Hence, you would have to perform A/B testing with your post times and reflect on the results of a specific duration to see which times work best for the highest engagements from your desired audience.

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