02 May The Best Times To Post On Social Media
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When planning your posts for your business’ social media pages, it’s important to consider the best times to post on social media; which day of the week and what time of day will result in the most people seeing and engaging with your post?
In order to get your content noticed, you need to try and post when the most people are using the social media platform you’re posting to and at a time of day when they are most likely to engage with your brand’s content. But what are the best times to post on social media? The best times to post on social media depend on the platform, the industry of your business and who your audience is.
Sprout Social, a social media scheduling platform, recently released a blog revealing the best times to post on social media according to platform, industry and audience. They tracked a range of different social media accounts from a range of different industries to find which times of day had the highest level of engagement on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Here’s a summary of their results:
The best times to post on social media
Sprout Social reported that, generally, the best time to post content to Facebook is around the middle of the day, Monday–Friday. Their data showed that most people check their Facebook feed during the week, peaking around the time of lunch breaks.
The education industry had results that varied from other industries, with evidence showing that the best times to post is between 9am and 3pm, Monday-Friday, and on Saturday between 4pm and 9pm.
The report showed the best times to post to Instagram are around midday on weekdays, according to Sprout Social. Wednesday and Friday morning between 7am and 10am also showed high levels of engagement in their results across most industries.
Posts on Saturday evenings also showed great results for the education industry on Instagram.
Sprout Social’s results for Twitter varied more than other platforms. Generally, the best time to post is in the morning around 9am, however this isn’t true for all industries.
The best time to post to Twitter for consumer goods is on Sunday, particularly around 11am.
The education industry sees the best levels of engagement on Saturday evening.
The best time to post to LinkedIn is on Wednesday, between 9am and 10am or at 12pm. LinkedIn receives the least amount of engagement on Sundays, according to Sprout Social.
Other factors to consider
We’ve found the best times to post on social media, but do these times make sense for your brand?
Depending on your business, you may not want to be posting to your social media pages outside of your business hours. Keep in mind that you need to have someone monitoring your social media accounts around the time your posts are going out. You don’t want your audience to be engaging with your content by asking questions and sending enquiries if they’re going to be kept waiting. Make sure that someone is going to be able to answer your customers when your posts are going out.
It is also important to remember to post content on national holidays, even if they aren’t on a day that are normally likely to generate high levels of engagement. Remember to post content in the lead up to Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter and any other widely celebrated holidays. When you are posting about something topical, you are more likely to generate engagement from your followers, so it’s a good time to increase your posts.
Additionally, you should also keep an eye on changes being made to the social media platforms you are using. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn are constantly making changes to their algorithms which will affect the best times to post your content. Keep track of your posts and look at which times of day are generating the most engagement.
It’s also good to sense check whether the timing is best for your content, if your post is promoting a lunch special, then you may want to promote the post around lunch time when people are in the mind-set of ‘What will I get for lunch today?’.
We hope this has helped you figure out when the best times to post on social media are for your brand. If you need help with your business’ social media, contact us today for a free quote.