What Are The Best Times to Post on Social Media?
Today’s guest post is from Natasha Haley from Social Elephant.
Social media gurus around the world have been trying to pinpoint the ideal time to post for some time now. The truth is it differs for everyone. It depends on your market, your time zone, where your customers are, and so on. So before taking any advice from me, please think about where your customers are in comparison to your business and think about possible time differences.
There are some guidelines which you can follow if you want to see your post have maximum exposure. The specific times differ between Gurus (keep in mind they will be regurgitating what worked for them in the hopes that you can duplicate it.) Usually, they all agree on general times of day, though, and this is different for each platform they use.
Best Time to Post on Facebook
There are some general times to stick to when posting on Facebook. If you plan to post twice a day, stick to a morning post and an evening post. At the least, you should post 7-10 times per week (and this is a good number to stick with.) Typically people are checking this Facebook pages between getting up from bed and going to work. This usually means they are online sometime between 7am and 9am. So it helps your reach to post between those times. The same goes for the evening – people are usually online after work before they go to bed. This means they are likely to be online from 5pm-9pm. Some research indicates that posts just after 7pm get the most engagement.
If you want to post more often per day you could add a lunch-time post between 12-1pm. Remember to stick to the 80/20 rule. 80% of your posts should be valuable or engaging, and only 20% should be coupons, deals, sales and so on. With this in mind, the 20% of posts relating to your business do best from Wednesday – Thursday.
Best Time to Post on Pinterest
Pinterest is a very under-rated social media tool. If you use it right, you can begin to see powerful results using this platform.
Again the sources of optimal times for posting differ, so it depends on what works for you. The best times to test are Saturday 2-4am and Saturday 8-11pm. If you think about what you are selling you can probably narrow this down a lot, for example, if you sell fashion items, you might find that a Friday afternoon post leads to more sales of ‘weekend outfits.’ If you do business to business work, you are likely to get better results during the week as more people are working.
Best Time to Post on Twitter
Twitter feeds move at the speed of light. This means you post it bound to get lost in the crowd pretty quickly. If you are making your tweets interesting and able to grab attention they should see results if you post between 4-6 times per day.
You can repost the same tweets and this it totally okay. Spreading these 4-6 tweets out throughout the day means people in all different time zones can see them.
[clickToTweet tweet=”What are the best times to Post on Social Media? We’ll tell you via @brandingbeard” quote=”What are the best times to Post on Social Media? We’ll tell you.”]
Best Time to Post on Google Plus
Since Google Plus allows you to create targeted and specific ‘circles’ you can target these groups individually at the time you think is best for them. For example, you might have a circle who you know are in an entirely different time zone and can target your posting time toward them so you can reach as many people as possible.
Google Plus should be posted to around 2-3 times per week. The most powerful posts are during the weekdays. People are more open to business related posts midweek, so Wednesdays are an excellent day to post here.
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is typically used by those looking to build a business network, which means the most active times are during the working week. Mondays and Fridays tend to be the worst days to post on LinkedIn, with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays being the best. Typically two posts per week work well, but if your business is large then look to do up to 5 per week. This means you can make the most of the weekdays, but if you can, try to steer clear of posting on a Monday or a Friday.
Sources differ in what they think the ’peak’ time to post on LinkedIn is, so my advice is to try the different suggestions out and see what works best for your business. Try out different times between 7am-11am and try again between 5-6pm. Remember to keep track of your results and use what worked best for you.
Best Time to Post on Instagram
Instagram is one of my favorite platforms to use. I have found that my travel blog defies all posting time rules, because of the amount of people traveling all over the world at different times in different time zones.
Instagram, for business outside of this worldwide niche, works well throughout the whole week, but it does tend to be more active outside of the usual 9-5 working hours. Other, however, have found significant results from posting between 3-5pm.
It is becoming clear that not all social media platforms are the same. The language used on each is different, and so is the etiquette, and clearly so are the most active times. To find out what works best for you and your niche the best advice is to test out these different time suggestions and work out when you get the most interaction – then stick with that time!
It is important to understand each platform; otherwise, you will find that your posts are as good as you screaming into an empty cave. No one is going to hear what you are saying. Make sure you respect the differences between these and take the time to post content in different places at the times that work best for each place, rather than spam all of your posts before breakfast so that you are done for the day.
Make sure you are always posting interesting and relevant articles too, or you posting at the right times won’t matter.
Natasha Haley – Social Elephant
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