Social and unsocial hours – when it’s the best time to post online

You wouldn’t call a customer at 4am in the morning to discuss an order, so why post to social media when customers aren’t online?

Social media is an effective way to interact with customers, drive traffic to your website and even make sales. But it’s all about timing – social timing – and there’s a distinct science behind it.

But what a lot of businesses struggle with is finding the best time to post to their social media channels. Ultimately, your posting time can be the deciding factor in whether or not you get lots of clicks, shares and comments.

Fortunately, recent research sheds light on when the best time is to post on social media. Here are some tips with the best time to post on six of the most popular platforms.

Facebook

You’ve crafted an intriguing and amusing Facebook post, and all you need to do is click the ‘Send’ button. You’re anticipating hundreds of likes and comments. But when is the best time to do this?

According to a recent study by Klout, weekdays (during work hours) and after that between 7pm and 8pm are the best times to post for increased Facebook engagement. Apparently, weekends are nowhere near as active for Facebook users – so if you’re thinking about posting on a Saturday night – it might be best to wait until Monday!

Of course, it does depend on the type of audience you’re targeting. Conduct personalised testing and research to see what times work best for your audience. Working with a supplements brand targeted at new mums, I found we got maximum reach weeknights between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am!

Twitter

You’d be surprised by how many people just guess at when the best time to post on Twitter is.

Buffer studied 4.8 million tweets earlier this year. The study found across all time zones, the most popular time to tweet was between 12pm and 1pm.

This information is revealing, not because it tells us when to post, but because it also shows when our tweets have a higher chance of being visible. Instead of always posting at the most active times (making it more difficult for people to pick your tweet out), try posting during less active times such as in the morning between 5am and 8am, or late at night so you don’t get lost in the feeds.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is THE place for sharing business-related content and educating connections about industry related topics.

Generally, there are three times where LinkedIn engagement is at its peak:

1. In the morning before work (7am-9am)
2. During lunchtime (1pm-2pm); and,
3. In the early evening (6pm-8pm)

As a result of this, why not try posting three separate updates or pieces of content each day during these times and see which ones get the most engagement with your connections?

When posting to LinkedIn groups, be wary that members are likely to be from different parts of the world.

Google+

According to research conducted by QuickSprout, Google+ users are most active on weekday mornings between 9am and 11am. To be more precise, the peak for activity and engagement is Wednesday morning at 9am.

So if you only ever post once a week on Google+ – make sure it’s at this time!

The industry you’re in and your target audience also plays a role in choosing the best times to post. There’s a little tool that can be used to determine the best Google+ posting time called Timing+. If you’re thinking about using Google+ for content promotion (which itself is a good idea) use this tool to help decide when to post.

Instagram

As with Google+, Instagram users seem to like Wednesdays. In fact, according to Latergramme, an Instagram scheduling tool which analysed more than 60,000 posts, Wednesday at 5pm is the best time for receiving likes and comments on Instagram.

Overall, between 2pm and 5pm are the best times for attracting attention. Meanwhile, 9am and 6pm apparently receive the least amount of engagement, but this doesn’t mean that you should avoid posting at these times, just keep them in mind when you’re scheduling content.

Pinterest

Pinterest is all about getting your images re-pinned. Rather than blindly posting images to Pinterest, it’s best to strategically think about when your users are most active and how frequently they engage with your content.

According to QuickSprout, the best time for posting to Pinterest is Saturday night between 8pm and 11pm. This is a stark contrast between the other social media platforms – but once again – test it for your community.  

And of course the WHAT you post is just as important as the WHEN. When it comes to posting to any social media channel, consider these three questions first:

• How does my target audience spend their day? (Consider developing a content strategy with buyer personas).
• What type of content do they prefer? (Does your audience like reading articles, or do they prefer funny pictures of cats?).
• How much time do I have to dedicate to social media? (If you don’t have much time, you might want to consider social media marketing services).

As with anything social, it’s all about engagement, rather than just showing up. Any brand can create a page on any social media channel – but to actually build your brand and engage your audience – that’s really being social!

Have you experimented with finding the best times? Leave us a comment below about what you have discovered on the best times to post for your social media channels.

Jasmine Batra is a digital marketing strategist and the founder of Arrow Internet Marketing.