Time Stamps: The Best Times to Post to Social Media
What are the best times to post to social media? If you do the social media for your business, this is a question you’ve probably asked yourself (and Google) once or twice. Everyone wants to know what the best times are for getting the most engagement on all the major social media channels. This is because posting the right content at the right time can make the difference between getting lots of clicks on your links or no engagement at all.
The best times to post to social media platforms are when the people you want to see the content are online.
This is the simplest answer, but it is not a helpful one because there are a lot of factors to consider, including the region you’re targeting, the type of content you’re posting, the social media platform itself, as well as your target audience and how they interact with that platform. This means different businesses may find different times and days of the week work best for them.
Fortunately, there are a number of studies available to help you determine the ideal times for you to share content. Based on an analysis of more than 17.5 million posts, one cheat sheet for the best times to post on social media suggests the following times for the major social media platforms:
Twitter: 5 p.m. EST, Thursday
Facebook: 8 p.m. EST, Thursday
LinkedIn: 9 a.m. EST, Wednesday
Instagram: 7 p.m. EST, Friday
Pinterest: 1 a.m. EST, Friday
This is a good guideline, but it shouldn’t be the end of your research. Consider looking into Google Analytics to find out more about when your target audience is active online and how best to reach them.
Follow this up by tracking your social media traffic by date and hour. Take note of when your content gets the most engagement and adjust your social media schedule accordingly. A number of the major platforms offer their own analytics tools, which you might find useful to help you measure the success of each post.
Ultimately, the best times and days to post on social media varies per business. Make sure you consider the platform you’re using and the specific social media habits of your target customers. Being in tune with your customers will help you create a social media strategy that works.