Social Media Hints: Best Times to Post
Social media is a worldwide network, but every aspect of that network – from Facebook, to LinkedIn, to Twitter – is different, and as a result there will be different posting strategies employed in each.
Social media marketing is all about expanding your reach at every turn. Considering the vastness of your audience, it would be devastating to waste a solid piece of content on a dormant audience. As we like to say, if a post falls on social media at the wrong time, will anybody see it?
We thought that it might be helpful to break down where and when you should be posting based on best times to post by network. Before you can employ these tips, however, you need to answer two questions. First, what are the features of the audience you are hoping to target? In other words, what demographics are you targeting? Second, where does you content best fit when it comes to social media? Once you have established answers to these two important questions, then you can apply these tips and see your reach skyrocket on social media!
Best Times to Post
People are constantly asking what the best times to post on social media are, and the reality is that the easy answer is, “It depends.” Who are you looking to target? Night owls? Then these general data will not apply to your niche. However, based on amalgamated survey data, these are the best times to post to different social networks.
For Facebook, traffic hits a peak between 1p.m. and 4p.m. The best time for traffic on the social network is Wednesdays at 3p.m. On the other hand, posting first thing in the morning (as people are getting to work) and between 8p.m. and 8a.m. will leave your post stranded on Facebook with few, if any, being reached.
What is important to note for Twitter is that business hours are key, with an emphasis on the afternoon (1p.m.-3p.m. more specifically). After 11a.m., traffic on Twitter begins to build and by mid- to late-afternoon, it reaches its zenith. However, posting in the late afternoon on Fridays, or between 8p.m. and 9a.m. will, once again, leave your tweets with few users engaged.
Leading up to and away from business hours is when you stand to see the highest exposure on LinkedIn. From 7a.m.-9a.m. and 5p.m.-6p.m. is when your reach will be maximized on the social network, while 10p.m.-6a.m. will generate the least exposure. Traffic also tends to fade during business hours on LinkedIn, and Mondays and Fridays are statistically a little quieter than the rest of the week.
Google+
Google+ is most active during business hours, with a peak being hit between 9a.m. and 11a.m. However, as you head out of the business day, traffic tends to slow and doesn’t pick up until the following morning. Evening posts generate the lowest reach on Google+.
Pinterest is where the night owls show up. (Well, also the afternoon owls.) Traffic on Pinterest begins to build after noon, and peaks between 2p.m. and 4p.m. and again between 8p.m. and 1a.m. However, avoid posting to Pinterest during dinner hours! Between 5p.m. and 7p.m. is when your exposure stands to be the lowest, and the same holds true for the couple of hours leading up to dinner. But Saturday morning is the Pinterest gold mine – this is the point in the week where the network has its highest traffic.
Now, these are all the hours where your content stands to garner the most exposure due to the traffic on the social networks. However, consider in your strategy whether you want to be competing at peak hours, or if you would rather be one of the few competing for attention in non-peak hours. For example, the weekend may not be the busiest time of the week for Facebook, but there is still a large audience on the network and very few businesses posting to it. Furthermore, there is a higher share ratio on Facebook on the weekend. Think about it!
When have you found is the best time to post to different social networks? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter! And don’t forget to ‘Like’ us on Facebook!
Hey Corey- good post. I just yesterday began to do an analysis of our twitter community and when the best times to tweet are. I used SocialBro and Tweriod to do this so far, but I’m wondering if you know any other tools you find helpful when doing such an analysis. Thanks!
Hi Kelly,
SocialBro and Tweriod are great tools. There are also a few others such as WhenToTweet, TweetsStats, TweetReports and TweetWhen (from HubSpot). But the important thing to note is that these tools provide relatively superficial data when it comes to your Twitter audience.
What you really want to focus on is when your most engaged audience is active and where your monetized (or best possibility to monetize) audience is active. Say, for example, you have 500 followers and these reports tell you that the majority of them are online between the hours of 1p.m. and 5p.m. But say that your internal data shows that you are engaging most early in the morning. Despite the fact that the majority of your followers might be online at different hours you are going to want to keep an eye on that engaged portion.
While these tools may benefit you when you are getting started with Twitter or other networks, internal testing for the best times to post is still going to be your best bet. Having a set strategy in place facilitated by the use of these tools is something we always advocate.
Hope this helps!
This is a really resourceful article! Thanks for putting it together for us. Also, do you think there is a best time to bookmark the contents in sites like stumbleupon, Digg and the like?
Hi Vinma,
When it comes to social bookmarking sites, the process is a little different due to the fact that some of these posts need to go through approval before being found on bookmarking sites. Having said that, you might find a little more success posting your blog to these sites early in the morning (8AM EST), when traffic is a little lower than during regular business hours.
Thanks. Very insightful.