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Most people fall into one of 3 categories when it comes to posting on social media: don’t bother, randomly post and hope for the best, or spend WAY too much time on it. None of those are ideal.
Since I’m all about simplifying things, I wanted to share the BEST “bang for your buck” times for you to post so you can:
- Get in front of as many people as possible
- Post at your most impactful times (especially if you only post once every time you have something new to share)
- Focus on other things – like going outside ;)
Michaela (my amazing assistant) recently found an article that compiled studies from 16 places to find the best times for you to post. Studies were compiled from places like Forbes, Buffer, Huffington Post, Fast Company, and on and on. The article is great – it’s just a little long, so we condensed it and added a few extras from other things we found.
A couple quick points:
– I am not advocating your using ALL social networks. Focus is great and not that you asked, but my vote is for you to pick one or two sites and maximize them. I’m listing 6 options here because I don’t know which one you use, or because maybe you want to quickly share your new blog post at the best time possible and move on.
– When I say “best times”, I mean times when you’ll get more views/engagement than any other time.
– The time zones listed below are dependent on the area you’re serving. If you work with people from Greece, for example, follow the European Time Zone.
For USA, 50% of people in USA are based in EST. 80% are based in EST or CST, so I’d pick one of those (unless you have drilled in data about which state most of your customers come from).
– These are based on overall studies and you may find that results are different for your specific business model.
Below, you’ll learn about the best times to post content to each of the major social media platforms so you can get the biggest bang for your effort.
Facebook
Best days:
Sunday (32% higher engagement)
Thursday (18% higher engagement)
Friday (18% higher engagement)
Saturday (32% higher engagement)
Best times to increase shares/clickthroughs:
1pm (gets you most shares)
3pm (gets you most clicks)
9am
Other active time periods:
Saturday and Sunday from 12-1pm
Thursday and Friday from 1-4pm
Wednesday at 3pm
For more on Facebook, check out Viral Buyers System.
Twitter
During the work week is generally best, with the peak time being at 5:00PM.
Best days:
Wednesday
Weekends (for B2C businesses)
Workweek during business hours (for B2B businesses)
Best times to increase retweets/clickthroughs:
5-6pm
12pm
3pm
Other notable time periods:
Wednesday at noon and 5–6pm
Monday – Friday at 12-3pm and 5pm
Some people have good results with 2-3 am, 6-7 am, and 9-10pm – test to see what your group responds to.
In general on Twitter I recommend recycling your posts so that they’re showing up as often as possible. It’s the one network where this doesn’t look super-sleazy because Twitter users are generally looking at their Twitter stream versus your page specifically.
Pinterest
Best days:
In general Saturdays are the best for posting on Pinterest, but the rest is niche-dependent. Some niches are covered here:
Sunday (for food)
Monday (for fitness)
Tuesday (for gadgets)
Wednesday (for quotes)
Thursday (for outfits)
Friday (for gif images)
Saturday (for travel)
Best times to increase reach:
Make sure to include a call to action – 80% of people won’t interact otherwise.
Saturdays 8-11pm
Fridays at 3pm
Worst time:
Work hours
Other notable time periods:
8-11pm with a peak of 9pm
2-4 am
2-4 pm
1-3 pm
Instagram
Best day:
Monday
Thursday
Worst day:
Sunday (very low engagement)
Best times to post:
8 – 9am
2 am
5 pm
Worst time to post:
3-4pm
Other notable time periods:
Monday and Thursday at any time besides 3-4pm
9pm – 8am for videos (posting a video at 9pm gets 34% more interactions)
Off-work hours
For a video on how I made a sale in Instagram in 5 minutes, go here.
LinkedIn
Best days:
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Worst days:
Monday
Friday
Best times to increase click throughs:
5-6pm
7-8am
12pm
Other notable time periods:
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5-6pm
Tuesday at 10-11am
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 7:30 – 8:30am
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 12pm
Google+
Best days:
Wednesday
Worst times:
Early morning
Late evening
Best times to post:
9am
11am
12-1pm
Other notable time periods:
Wednesday at 9am
Weekdays at 9-11am
So there you have it.
What do YOU think? Please comment below and let me know!
