Have you ever been excited to share content on your social media channels only for it to fall flat? Minimal views, few shares…your post essentially gets lost in the ether of the Internet.
It’s a disappointing feeling, both personally and professionally.
You spend all this time crafting the perfect content only to have it go unseen.
Your first instinct may be to reevaluate the post – maybe the imagery was off, or the copy didn’t resonate with your audience.
In addition to reexamining what you posted, you also need to look at when it was posted.
While the quality of your content (and its relevance) will always affect performance, so will the time of day and the day of the week.
If you feel like your posts have not been performing as well as they should, you might need to change your posting schedule a bit.
First things first: are you following a posting schedule? Or do you post your content as it’s available, without any thought to a content calendar? Participate in our poll to see what others are doing.
The Importance of Posting on Social Media
Before we get into the when of posting, let’s get into the why.
If you’re not using social media marketing tactics to help your business, you’re missing out.
Social media is an essential way to reach your customer base, gain insights regarding your target audience, and increase your brand’s visibility.
These days, it’s more than just funny cat videos. People spend hours on social media learning, sharing content, and shopping. And social media offers fast, inexpensive, and effective ways to market your business.
One of the best things about social media is the potential audience you can reach. Nearly everyone and their mother is on social media these days.
Here’s an overview of monthly active users on some of the most popular social media sites of 2022:
- Facebook: 2.9 billion
- YouTube: 2.2 billion
- Instagram: 2 billion
- TikTok: 1 billion
- Twitter: 436 million
- LinkedIn: 250 million
That’s a lot of people on social media with different interests and living in different time zones. That’s why it’s important to make sure you are tailoring your content to your intended audience.
Relevancy is an important ranking factor when it comes to formulating your PPC and SEO strategy. It is equally important for your social media marketing strategy across all platforms.
While there still exist some challenges with social media marketing across various social media platforms, these can easily be overcome with a little savvy.
One of the easiest things to start paying attention to is scheduling and which post times work best for each social media platform.
After all, why put forth the effort to create great content if no one will see it?
How to Determine the Best Times to Post on Social Media
If you’re reading this, you’re looking for an answer to the million-dollar question: what’s the best time to post on social media?
Just as each social media channel has its own benefit to your marketing efforts, they each may have different peak times of engagement. This means that when it comes to scheduling your content, it may be best to choose different post times for different platforms.
As frustrating as it may be to hear “it depends,” that is the case here. There is no hard or fast rule regarding social media post times.
The optimal time is highly dependent on your audience. Your industry and location will all factor into your prime post time.
So, that’s not to say that there is no definitive information. No, we will cover that – it’s just going to be highly dependent on your data, which we’ll walk you through how to find.
Generally, the best time to post on social media is early morning on a weekday. The rationale behind this is your audience will wake up and start scrolling their feeds and will see your content.
From my own experience, social media posts tend to perform better Monday through Saturday when posted in the morning. Wednesdays, in particular, have been consistently good days to post.
If you just launched a business and your social media channels are new, or you haven’t posted much until now, it’s best to use this as your basis, at least early on. Once you increase your engagement, you can look at your data and tailor your post times better.
It’s also worth noting that in addition to your own post times, your content will compete with other content and each platform’s unique algorithm.
Let’s look at the best times to post your content on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The Best Time to Post on Facebook
When it comes to determining the best time to post on Facebook, social media professionals have conducted studies to find the answer.
The thing is, though, that some of these studies contradict one another.
For instance, Buffer found that the best time to post on Facebook is between 1 PM and 3 PM on weekdays and Saturdays.
Other studies, however, found slightly different information:
- Thursdays and Fridays between 1 PM and 3 PM [HubSpot]
- Monday through Friday at 3 AM, Tuesday at 10 AM and noon [Sprout Social]
- Tuesday and Thursdays between 8 AM and noon [Hootsuite]
While it can certainly be frustrating to see inconsistent information, what it points to is that there is no singular “best” time to post on Facebook.
For one, there are just so many people on the platform. We can’t possibly expect everyone to have the same behaviors. That’s why it’s important to look at your audience to gain individualized insights.
Here are some ways to figure out the best time to post on Facebook and maximize the reach and engagement of your posts:
- Use Facebook Page Insights to determine top engagement times with your audience
- Check Facebook Audience Insights to learn more about your audience
- Experiment with your posting times and measure your progress
When in doubt, try experimenting with different times and see what works best for your content. If you experiment, keep track of your data in a spreadsheet so you can revisit the information easily later.
The Best Time to Post on YouTube
If you want to do some video marketing, you will need to post on YouTube. YouTube has more video marketers than TikTok and Instagram and is one of the most-visited websites.
A lot of work goes into scripting, filming, and editing a video, so of course, you want it to be seen by as many people as possible.
HubSpot found that the ideal post times on YouTube are between 6 and 9 PM, 3 to 6 PM, and noon to 3 PM. Generally, Friday and Saturday are the best days to post, while Mondays and Wednesdays are the worst.
Posting your content at optimal times will help you generate more views quickly. Unlike some other social media platforms, however, YouTube has a little leeway with how “fresh” your content is.
While platforms like Instagram put more value on new content, YouTube values relevance, which is the biggest ranking factor.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t pay attention to posting times. When your video quickly gains traction, you stand a better chance of gaining more shares and followers.
To find your YouTube channel’s best time to post, head to your Analytics dashboard by opening YouTube Studio, selecting Analytics, and opening the Audience tab.
With this information, you can view when your viewers are on YouTube so you can post your content around that time frame.
The Best Time to Post on Instagram
Much like with Facebook, the best time to post on Instagram is different depending on whose data you’re looking at.
For example, HubSpot reports that the best time to post on Instagram is in the late afternoon between the following times: 6 and 9 PM, 3 and 6 PM, and 9 and 12 PM. Saturdays are better for posting on Instagram than on Facebook.
Sprout Social reports the best times for Instagram posts are Mondays at 11 AM, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10 AM and 1 PM, and Thursdays and Fridays from 10 AM to 11 AM.
The Hootsuite social team found the best time to be 11 AM on Wednesdays.
Buffer found the following days and times to work:
- Monday: 6 AM, 10 AM, 10 PM
- Tuesday: 2 AM, 4 AM, 9 AM
- Wednesday: 7 AM, 8 AM, 9 AM
- Thursday: 7 AM, 8 AM, 11 PM
- Friday: 5 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM
- Saturday: 11 AM, 7 PM, 8 PM
- Sunday: 7 AM, 8 AM, 4 PM
Once you have grown a following on Instagram, you should use your insights to determine optimal post times.
To view this data, go to your profile and select Insights. From here, you can view all sorts of data, including your Audience.
You can check when your followers access Instagram, their location, age range, and gender. You can also view their most active times in days and hours.
This is important because you want your content to be relevant when your audience is most active.
Keep in mind that this information can change, so check this data monthly and try out different times to see if anything performs better.
The Best Time to Post on TikTok
While TikTok does a good job of serving its users relevant content on every individualized For You page (FYP), content creators and businesses looking to take advantage of the platform naturally want to post at opportune times.
At this point, you won’t be surprised to learn that there is no single best time to post on TikTok. However, there are certain periods when your content will perform better. It comes down to when your audience is most active.
After all, videos that appear on the FYP are generally not more than a few days old.
Hootsuite found the best time to post on TikTok is Thursday at 7 PM (PST).
Influencer Marketing Hub analyzed 100,000 posts to find the best engagement rates, and these are their findings (in EST), broken down by day of the week:
- Monday: 6 AM, 10 AM, 10 PM
- Tuesday: 2 AM, 4 AM, 9 AM
- Wednesday: 7 AM, 8 AM, 11 PM
- Thursday: 9 AM, 12 AM, 7 PM
- Friday: 5 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM
- Saturday: 11 AM, 7 PM, 8 PM
- Sunday: 7 AM, 8 AM, 4 PM
While these guidelines are helpful, especially for those just starting, it’s more important to know when your followers (or targeted audience) are most active.
You can view your analytics, including information about your audience, by heading to your profile and selecting Creator Tools. From there, you can click on analytics. You’ll be able to view follower insights once you reach one hundred followers.
For additional account insights and tools, you can make your TikTok account a Pro Account.
The Best Time to Post on Twitter
When it comes to the best time to post on Twitter, the morning seems best.
Hootsuite’s analysis found the optimal time for tweeting to be 8 AM on Mondays and Thursdays. Similarly, Sprout Social’s data shows Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 9 AM is the best time to post.
One thing to be mindful of is the different time zones. If you are posting content from the East Coast but are targeting a West Coast audience, schedule your posts for 9 AM PST, not EST, for example.
If you have a global audience, it’s best to sprinkle your posts at different times of the day.
Additionally, don’t forget that one of the appealing things about Twitter is the emphasis on real-time communication.
The Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
Like with other social media platforms, determining the best post times for LinkedIn requires some market research. However, unlike the others, LinkedIn has some consistent periods with high engagement.
The best times to post on LinkedIn are weekdays around mid-morning to noon. Engagement on LinkedIn is highest during the workweek during typical US workday hours.
The worst time to post on LinkedIn is on the weekend.
It makes sense since most LinkedIn users are business professionals, and much of the content is about professional growth.
Optimize Your Social Media Strategy with the Help of LSEO
Sharing valuable content is one of the best ways to build your social media presence and engage with your customers and potential customers. However, the only way to experience these benefits is for your content to be seen in the first place.
Social media can eat up a lot of your small business’s resources, especially when it comes to creating engaging content and sharing it at different times across your various social media platforms.
If you’re not using one already, we highly recommend creating a content calendar to keep your content marketing strategies organized.
At LSEO, we understand that not all businesses have the resources to optimize their social media. If you want help growing your social media presence and increasing your engagement, look no further.
Contact us today!