The best times to post on social media depend on your social platform of choice, your audience and their online habits, and the type of blog you are promoting, among other factors.
Updating your social media profiles too frequently or infrequently can alienate your target audience, leaving you ignored or unseen by your followers.
This is why understanding when your audience is active on social media can help you increase shares, traffic and links.
While the best days and times to publish a blog post are Monday through Thursday, between 8:00 AM and 1PM in the time zone where most of your readers reside, social media follows a different rhythm.
The simplest way to think about the best time to post on social media is to analyze when people are bored or tired at work or school.
Below, we have a complete social media guide detailing how and when to post on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
Here is a specific breakdown of the best times to post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn!
When To Post on Facebook
Number of Updates Per Day: 3
Best Days To Post: Wednesday – Friday
Best Time of the Day To Post: 1-4PM
Worst Days/Times To Post: Any day after 8PM
Hashtags on Facebook:
- 1-2 Hashtags ~ 600 avg. interactions per post
- 3-5 Hashtags ~ 400 avg. interactions per post
- 6-10 Hashtags ~ 300 avg. interactions per post
When To Tweet on Twitter
Number of Updates Per Day: 5
Best Days To Post: Monday – Friday (B2B) and Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday (B2C)
- 17% higher engagement for B2C brands on weekends.
- 14% more engagement for B2B brands on weekdays.
Best Time of the Day To Post: 12-6PM
Worst Days/Times To Post: Any day after 8PM
Hashtags on Twitter:
- Tweets with hashtags get 2X more engagement (clicks, retweets, favorites, and replies) than Tweets without.
- 1-2 hashtags is optimal for Twitter, increasing engagement by 21%.
- 55% increase in retweets when you have at least 1 hashtag.
When To Share on Google Plus
Number of Updates Per Day: 3
Best Days To Post: Monday – Thursday
Best Time of the Day To Post: 9-11AM
Worst Days/Times To Post: Early morning and late evenings
Hashtags on Google+: Hashtags can be added to your post and comments section, increasing the reach of your update.
When To Pin on Pinterest
Number of Updates Per Day: 5
Best Days/Times To Post: Saturday mornings; otherwise, Monday – Friday from 8-11PM
Worst Days/Times To Post: Business hours
When To Share on LinkedIn
Number of Updates Per Day: 1-2
Best Days To Post: Tuesday – Thursday
Best Time of the Day To Post: 10AM-6PM
Worst Days/Times To Post: Mondays and Fridays
What’s the Worst Day to Post on Social Media?
Overall, the consensus for the worst day to post on social media seems to be Sundays.
This is because no matter what demographic or audience the platform hosts, most people are using Sunday as a day for resting and taking part in activities outside the digital space.
However, this isn’t to say that Sundays are a desolate, digital desert.
But while the highest social media traffic is generally seen Tuesdays through Thursdays, Sundays do see the least.
This means that the worst day to post, particularly for any sponsored posts that will measure the return on investment, will be Sundays.
Why is the Best Time to Post Different for Every Social Media Platform?
The biggest reason that each platform has different “best times” to post is that they are used by different audiences.
Not only are they used by different types of people, but they are used for very different purposes as well.
Looking at the differences between each platform can help illustrate this point.
Let’s take a look.
Facebook is the leading social media platform.
It’s used by both the largest and most varied audience, but it’s also used on the greatest array of devices.
It’s frequently used by people at work and at home, which can impact how your posts are viewed based on the use of the platform at the time you post.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, is mostly used by professionals, those working, and those looking for work.
This means it’s primarily used for work-related purposes and for sharing content related to employment.
Twitter is a platform used to directly engage and interact with end-users.
It is one of the most common platforms to be used while on breaks or while commuting to and from work.
It has a wide variety of users, and the post brevity is a big reason that there are millions of tweets each day.
Pinterest is a platform built around leisure and personal interests.
This means that most Pinterest users are browsing during their personal time, like evenings after work.
As you can see, just from the four platforms we’ve dug into here, there is a huge variety of uses.
There are several more major platforms that also have their own unique uses and best times to post, including TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit.
Knowing as much as you can about each one can help you make more sense of the best times to post on each.
How to Find Your Own Best Times to Post on Social Media
Even though there are some general “best times” to post, your own best times may be slightly different.
Before you schedule any posts, you should compare the generally accepted best times for each platform to the insights and analytics your platforms provide.
Use the Data and Trends
One of the most reliable ways to check your own social media impact is to look at the data provided by your various platforms.
On nearly all platforms, any pages other than conventional personal accounts will be given access to analytics for their posts.
These analytics can be crucial to finding trends among posts you’ve already made.
They can help you isolate times and days where you get the best engagement, as well as days and times where you’re getting lower numbers.
The exact name will differ depending on the platform you’re using, but the function will be the same.
The social media provider will mine the data for you; all you have to do is look at it.
Use a Tool Like BuzzSumo or SproutSocial
For companies or celebrities that have accounts across many or even all of the major social platforms, analyzing engagement data can become complicated.
Worse than that, it can eat up a tremendous amount of time for the social media team that runs the accounts.
Using cross-platform tools like SproutSocial or BuzzSumo can help unify and collate much of that engagement data.
These tools can help you form a more cohesive view of your post’s effectiveness across all channels.
They can help you see, at a glance, what’s working and what isn’t and can highlight what may give you the most significant improvements.
How to Find Out When Your Fans Are Online
Finding a tool like SproutSocial that can give you a deep analysis of your audience is the first step to finding out when most of your fans are online.
It can also help you determine when you’re likely to be able to engage with your customers, but your competition isn’t.
How to Find Posting Times of Successful Posts
The reports generated by your platform-specific insights and analytics, as well as by cross-platform tools like BuzzSumo and SproutSocial, are the key.
They can help you perform a deep analysis of your past posts and engagement trends.
Looking at this data can give you practical, actionable input on when your posts tend to be the most successful.
Wrapping Up
No matter what platform you use or why you use it, understanding the best times to post on that platform will make the best use of your time there.
Whether you post to drive traffic to your personal content or to bring engagement and reach to posts that your business makes, knowing the best times will make those posts much more effective.
The biggest thing to remember is to be as informed as possible about your chosen platforms and the audience you’re trying to reach.
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