When is the best time to post on social media?
So, you’ve got your company’s social media platforms ready to rock and it is time to start posting. Before you begin, ask yourself – “Ok, so when is the best time for me to throw these tweets, posts, and updates out to the public?” Well, be happy you’re here because we are going to teach you just that.
Time Zones
First things first, you want to know where most of your audience lives. This will help you determine what time zone you should focus your posting in. So, let’s say the majority of your customers are in Sweden, you’ll need to execute your posts during CET. Or maybe your largest audience is in the USA and Canada? You’ll want to focus on timing your posts during peak EST hours. Since EST hosts cities like New York and Toronto – this time zone has the largest number of people.
However, the more popular your brand is, the more time zones you’ll likely need to consider. Your goal here is to reach as many time zones and customers as possible without overdoing it. To determine what geographical area your audience is coming from you can use social media analytics tools to help plan which times work best for your business.
Your social media audience
Now that we know you want to make sure you’re posting when your followers are online, this will be different for each platform and each brand. To go along with that, you need to post during your customers’ highest engagement period during the day, not just the largest audience. If you are posting on LinkedIn, your audience’s prime time of engagement will differ from the most engaging time for customers on Facebook or Twitter. A good way to do this is by not only tracking each platform separately, but also by tracking your competitors. See when they post and how those posts do in terms of engagement. (If it works for them, it’ll probably work for you!) By keeping track of when your audience is the most active, keeping up to date with current trends, holidays, and events, you can maximize engagement with your customers.
Social Media Platforms
While it’s important to track your own social media metrics to determine the best time to post for your business, there are some general go-to times to get you started with your posting.
Best times to post: (data from Sprout Social)
- Best days: Wednesday 11 AM or Friday 10-11 AM
- Worst day: Sunday
- Honorable mentions: Monday and Tuesday 11 AM or Tuesday 2 PM
- Best day: Wednesday 11 AM and 1–2 PM
- Worst days: Weekends or weekdays after 5 PM
- Honorable mentions: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10-11 AM
- Best days: Wednesday 8-10 AM and 12 PM, Thursday 9 AM and 1-2 PM, and Friday 9 AM
- Worst day: Sunday
- Honorable mentions: Wednesday 3 PM, Thursday 9-10 AM, and Friday 11 AM- 12 PM
- Best days: Wednesday and Friday at 9 AM
- Worst day: Saturday
- Honorable mentions: Friday 7-9 AM
YouTube
- Best days: Thursday and Friday 2-4 PM
- Worst days: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
In the end, your brand’s prime time to post is just as unique as your customer base and will vary channel to channel. While the times we mentioned above can get you started on the right path to posting, you will need to keep tracking your company’s data on each platform to find the optimal time to engage with your audience. Keep it up! With the right tools and constant improvement of your posting schedules, you will drive results and improve your social ROI for an awesome social media presence.
Do you have questions on how to leverage your company’s social media to build business and brand awareness? We have a team of social media strategists ready to help! Contact us today for more information.