THE BEST TIMES TO POST ON SOCIAL
The million dollar question. Though there is no exact answer, we’ve come pretty close.
There are a few things to consider when you’re figuring out the best time to post on social and reach the highest number of your fans and followers through social media marketing.
TARGET AUDIENCE
In order to reach your target audience, you have to think like your target audience. For example, if you’re targeting women with families between the ages of 35-50 you’re not going to post at 11:30 p.m. Why? Because the majority of women in that target audience have already put the kids to bed, packed lunches, and have gone to bed. What you would do is post around 9 p.m. when mommy finally gets quiet time. Kids are in bed and the iPad is most likely in her hand.
The point is, put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. When would you be on social if you were them? That’s the best time to post.
INSIGHTS
If this were 2014, you would require a third-party social media management tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer, but it’s 2017 and almost every social media platform has a form of insights now.
Let’s use Facebook as an example. If you have a Facebook page, take some time to review the insights Facebook has been automatically collecting for you. At first, it can be super overwhelming. But let’s just focus on the basics here for the sake of this blog. We want to know what the best time to post is so under Insights, you want to click on Posts like the screenshot below.
Facebook tells you when your fans are online and organizes it by day of week and time of day.
You’ll find similar insights on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest if you have a business account on each. Each platform is used at a different time for different reasons. Use these insights to your advantage – that’s what they’re there for!
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
If you’re just starting out and don’t have many insights you can use the following suggestions from HubSpot as a guideline.
People use Facebook at work and at home on both desktop and mobile. The suggested best times to post are:
- Saturday & Sunday 12 – 1 p.m.
- Wednesday 3-4 p.m.
- Thursday and Friday 1-4 p.m.
Twitter is used at work and at home usually during beaks, a commute or other downtimes. The suggested times to post are:
- Monday through Friday 12 – 3 p.m.
- Wednesday 5 – 6 p.m.
LinkedIn is used by professionals usually during working hours. The suggested best times to post are:
- Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 7:30 – 8:30 a.m., noon and 5 – 6 p.m.
- Tuesday also from 10 – 11 a.m.
Pinterest users tend to be female and are online in the evening. The suggest best times to post are:
- Saturday 8 – 11 p.m.
- Evening hours everyday
- 5 p.m. on Friday
Instagram is designed for mobile so users tend to use Instagram at all times throughout the day from their smartphone. The suggested best times to post?
- Anytime Monday through Thursday except 3 – 4 p.m.
Again, the suggestions above are meant to be used as a guideline. When figuring out the best time to post on your social platforms it’s best to take a tailored approach for your brand and your target audience. It may take some time but once you figure out when your fans are online, you’ll see your engagement numbers hit the roof.
Questions about when the best time to post is? Ask away.
D1ZI as a full digital marketing agency Kitchener establish social identities and build communities around your brand to bring your business above as compare to your competitors.
