Getting user engagement on social media seems like a fairly easy feat, right? You create amazing content, share blog posts on your social media accounts and publish updates regularly, mixing up content between articles, images, videos, etc. However, for some reason, you don’t seem to be getting many likes, comments or shares on your various accounts.
While the content you share is crucial, your lack of user engagement could be due to the times you are posting. Are you being strategic about when each update goes live on each social media platform?
Thanks to social media tools like Hootsuite, you can craft updates in advance and schedule them out for the specific days and times you want them to go live. Keep reading for a guide to know when to publish your updates on each social media platform.
The Best Times to Post Social Media Updates on Facebook
While there is research that shows ideal days and times to post your Facebook updates, the absolute best way to strategically schedule your social media posts is to review your company’s Insights.
How to Find Facebook’s Social Media Insights
When you go to your Facebook page, click on the “Insights” tab at the top and then scroll down past your Page Summary and 5 Most Recent Posts, to a link that says, “See All Posts.” This will bring up a screen that shows you when your fans are online, organized by both days and times:
As you can see based on Three Girls’ analytics, it’s best for us to publish our updates around 7am or 8am and 6pm as that’s when most of our followers are online.
Then, if you hover your mouse over each day at the top, you’ll be able to see the Times chart based on that specific day, too. For example, here’s what Saturday looks like:
This can tell you that, while 8am is a good time for most of the week, for Saturdays 7am and 7pm may be better.
Industry Research: Ideal Times for Facebook’s Social Media Updates
Scheduling your posts at the high-traffic times indicated by your Insights is a strategic place to start, but it’s also helpful to play around with varying publishing times to see if your engagement increases at alternative times. If you decide to deviate from your company’s Facebook Insights, we recommend you start by experimenting with existing industry social media research.
According to Hootsuite:
The best time to post on Facebook for business to business brands is:
- Tuesday 9am to 2pm EST
- Wednesday 9am to 2pm EST
- Thursday 10am to 11am EST
The best time to post on Facebook for business to consumer brands is:
- Monday 12pm
- Tuesday 12pm
- Wednesday 12pm
Remember to pay attention to your analytics regarding shares, comments and likes as you publish your Facebook updates at various times, and note if you see any trends as to which social media posts perform best when.
The Best Times to Post Social Media Updates on Twitter
While Twitter provides analytics regarding which tweets receive the most impressions and engagements, the platform doesn’t break down the social media data quite as nicely as Facebook.
How to Find Twitter’s Social Media Analytics
If you sign in to your account and go to analytics.twitter.com, you’ll see an overview of your activity. Scroll down past the 28-day summary, into the current month. Right below the “Top Tweet,” you’ll see a button that says, “View Tweet activity” and next to it there’s a link that says, “View all Tweet Activity.” Click on that link to pull up an overview of all your updates. The chart at the top breaks down your tweets by day, which can be helpful in choosing which days to focus on publishing more social media updates on Twitter.
Industry Research: Ideal Times for Twitter’s Social Media Updates
If this still doesn’t give you enough insight regarding when to publish your social media updates on Twitter, there is research to get you started. According to Hootsuite,
The best time to post on Twitter for business to business brands is:
- Monday 9am and 4pm EST
- Thursday 9am and 4pm EST
- With emphasis on 11am to 1pm EST
The best time to post on Twitter for business to consumer brands is:
- Monday 12 pm or 1pm EST
- Wednesday 12pm or 1pm EST
As with Facebook, it’s best to create a schedule to form a baseline, and then start publishing at different times to see if you notice any positive changes in your engagement. Pay attention to trends you’re able to notice so you can find the best time for your brand to push your tweets through.
The Best Times to Post Social Media Updates on LinkedIn
As a general rule of thumb, LinkedIn updates tend to perform best during the week; because it’s considered the most professional of the social media platforms, the majority of users only sign in when they’re thinking about work.
How to Find LinkedIn’s Social Media Analytics
To find your brand’s LinkedIn analytics, go to your company page and click “Manage page.” Then select “Analytics” from the bar at the top and, when the drop-down menu pops up, click on “Updates.” This will bring you to a line graph of your updates’ impressions, and from there you can click the drop-down menu to look specifically at clicks, comments, likes, shares, etc.
By looking at each different metric, especially those related to your social media goals, you can see which days your updates are performing best and strategically select which days to prioritize publishing updates.
Industry Research: Ideal Times for LinkedIn’s Social Media Updates
Even if you know what day(s) you want to focus on, which times are ideal? Hootsuite shows that the best times to post on LinkedIn are:
- 7:45am EST
- 10:45am EST
- 12:45pm EST
- 5:45pm EST
The Best Times to Post Social Media Updates on Instagram
The nice thing about Instagram is, much like Facebook, the platform’s Insights break down social media users’ time online to help you maximize the best times to publish your posts.
How to Find Instagram’s Social Media Insights
To find your analytics, go to your page’s profile and then click the three lines in the very top right-hand corner. This will open a menu; select “Insights.”
From there, you can scroll down to see a quick snapshot of your content and its visibility.
Then, if you click on the “Audience” tab (to the right of “Activity”) and scroll down to the bottom, you can see a breakdown of which days your followers are online as well as times they’re online each day.
As you can see, these social media analytics will give you a fantastic starting point for figuring out the best time to post your Instagram updates. Curious what the industry research says?
Industry Research: Ideal Times for Instagram’s Social Media Updates
According to a Hootsuite, the best time to post on Instagram is:
- Monday 12pm to 1pm EST
- Tuesday 12pm to 1pm EST
- Wednesday 12pm to 1pm EST
- Thursday 12pm to 1pm EST
- Friday 12pm to 1pm EST
The Best Times to Post Social Media Updates on Pinterest
Depending on your business’ industry, a strong presence on Pinterest could be vital to social media success. How do you make sure you’re Pinning (publishing updates) at the optimal times?
How to Find Pinterest’s Social Media Analytics
Although it’s not as intuitive to find, you can sign in to your Pinterest account and then visit analytics.pinterest.com to find helpful data. On the left-hand side, you can adjust the date range, and then in the middle, there’s a drop-down menu where you can toggle between Impressions, Engagements, Close-Ups, Link Clicks, Saves, etc.
While this information can certainly help you fine-tune your Pinterest strategy, it doesn’t give you much insight into the best days and times to publish your updates.
Industry Research: Ideal Times for Pinterest’s Social Media Updates
According to HubSpot the best times to Pin are:
- 8pm – 11pm EST
- 2am – 4am EST (This time indicates global content)
The best day depends on the topic
- Sunday: Food and crafts
- Monday: Fitness
- Tuesday: Gadgets and technology
- Wednesday: Quotes
- Thursday: Outfits
- Friday: Gifts and humor
- Saturday: Travel
Of course, as with all the other social media platforms, it’s best to see what works best for your target audience.
Finding the Social Media Sweet Spot
As you can tell, there’s a lot of information available to fine-tune your social media strategy. Look at your analytics, experiment with different days and times and watch for trends that emerge so you can find the best publishing schedule for each of your social platforms.
Do you want help managing your company’s social media channels? We’re happy to assist! Contact us today for a complimentary consultation! In the meantime, check out these other helpful posts about developing a successful social media marketing presence.
- Instagram For Nonprofits: How to Use it And Best Practices
- Social Media Management: A Crash Course In Being A Facebook Admin
- How to Create a Successful LinkedIn Ad Campaign
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