As times have become more digital and companies have shifted their focus towards social media, marketers are often wondering the best way to engage with their audience online. With an influx of brands joining the organic social media movement and paid ads coming in from every angle, there seems to be an increase in brand messaging, filling up timelines each day. But, from a marketer’s perspective, when is the best time to get your message across?
At Glewee, we work with an array of brands that strive in product and service categories ranging from e-commerce to hygiene and everything in between. Each brand has its mission and goal, but within those goals comes a unique brand tone, identity, and messaging. The first focus is what is being said, and then from there, it’s up to the brand to understand its unique approach to how it is being said. Digital advertising acts as a behavior change module, and it is our job as marketers to change the behavior of those consuming our media correctly. The last piece of the trifecta of messaging boils down to when you should say it.
From Instagram to Facebook, through Twitter and LinkedIn, there is a right place and right time to post content to maximize impressions, engagement, and reach. SproutSocial has developed intuitive graphs that depict the best time to post on social media by social platform and industry. All of the times in the data are recorded in US Central Time.
What are the best times to post on Facebook?
- Best times: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9 a.m.–1 p.m.
- Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
- Worst day: Saturday
Although Facebook is by number the most used social media platform in the world, there are still prime times and low times that brands need to be aware of before sharing messaging to the platform.
Think about the consumers themselves—when will they most likely have some free time to scroll through Facebook? The obvious answers that match the data are mornings, evenings, and weekends. As the data describes, Saturdays are not ideal for publishing content to Facebook because most people try to avoid work-related tasks like scrolling on social media for a single day a week, understandably Saturday.
Play the role of the marketer and the consumer here and understand why the weekdays mid-morning are the most engaging times. To us, these numbers don’t come as any surprise. If you want to send out branded content and messaging on Facebook, look to that middle of the week’s enhanced engagement zone to get the greatest results.
What are the best times to post on Instagram?
- Best times: Tuesday 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday through Friday 11 a.m.
- Best day: Tuesday
- Worst day: Sunday
Over the past year, as people worldwide have been confined to their couches and bedside in-home offices, platforms like Instagram have seen ginormous increases in users, content, and growth. With the introduction of Reels, enhancements to Stories, and the new digital shopping mall feature, the new Explore page, there is so much to do on Instagram now.
With a parent company like Facebook, it’s clear that they push their users to engage during prime times, and the organic flow of usage follows similar paths from Facebook to Instagram. Engagement during the weekdays even became more dense in the past year, peaking in the 11 a.m.—2 p.m. range and spiking back up in the evenings and weekends.
Instagram is an amazing place for brands to reach out to their audience, engage with them, and showcase their products and services all in one place. As a brand, if you’re having trouble increasing followers, engagement, and brand awareness on Instagram, utilizing Glewee’s platform to deploy Instagram Creators as your next brand advocates has enhanced engagement exponentially.
If you want to ramp up your Instagram presence and strategy, remember these times. If that still doesn’t increase your numbers, it’s time for Creator Marketing!
What are the best times to post on Twitter?
- Best times: Wednesday, 9 a.m.– 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, 9–11 a.m.
- Best day: Wednesday
- Worst day: Saturday
Twitter is another social platform that has seen an influx in user-generated content and growth due to everything that has happened in the past year, from the COVID-19 virus to the US Presidential Election. With users able to get breaking news and information in real-time, many people look at Twitter like they do the newspaper. With this in mind, think to yourself, “When do people read the newspaper?”
Twitter is an easy-to-access social media platform that consumes small bits of information. It sees surges in usage daily, starting with morning readers and those who consume their media. Weekdays are the most popular for Twitter because it is a vehicle for news media. Understandably, weekend nights drop off with the lowest levels of engagement on the platform.
There is something to be said about the increase in usage times during the day versus evenings and weekends. To a brand, this can spark inspiration to publish content during the first half of weekdays and focus their Twitter customer support services on the weekends when people are spending less time on media. There is less to think about while on the platform.
What are the best times to post on LinkedIn?
- Best times: Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m.–noon
- Best days: Tuesday and Wednesday
- Worst day: Sunday
LinkedIn has come a long way in the past few years. As a leading social platform in the business world, LinkedIn follows a similar engagement pattern to Twitter as people spend time browsing, uploading content, and promoting their business during the work week. As a tool for marketing, networking, and brand awareness, LinkedIn has proven its importance as a leading social media platform that brands must stay active on to stay relevant.
New opportunities, company updates, personal achievements, and recent project releases are just a few reasons individuals and major companies flock to LinkedIn. It makes perfect sense that engagement on LinkedIn spikes during the work week and lowers as the weekend approaches.
LinkedIn has a heavy ‘work-life’ connotation as a social media platform. With that in mind, many people like to take evenings and weekends off from ‘work-related processes,’ as proven in the engagement data above. LinkedIn isn’t going anywhere anytime soon as a critical B2B marketing and strategy source.
What are the best times to post on TikTok?
This seems to be the magic question millions of people ask themselves. Between creators looking for the prime time to get their video out there and marketers tasked with creating and growing a TikTok following on behalf of a brand, many people are scratching their heads and doing far more than some A/B testing.
Currently, the foreign-owned platform is so new, and its management is outside of the US, that it is difficult for us to get proper data on the platform’s average engagement times. Not to mention that this is the first social media platform we’ve ever seen that seems to prioritize the value and engagement of the content over when it was posted. If you browse the For You Page, you’ll likely see videos posted over a month ago mixed in with ones posted that hour.
Seeing that the feed algorithm boosts TikTok videos out to people worldwide that it thinks will engage best with the content, becoming familiar with hashtags, popular sounds, and video editing tools in the app are the first places to look. Next, it’s best to go into your account and look through your Account and Business Panel to see when your followers are most active on the platform and posting accordingly based on that given data.
More concrete evidence around average engagement times will emerge as more data is created via TikTok and the platform matures. Until then, just focus on hashtags and popular sounds, and remember—post! Great content proves to gain great traction!
What are the best times to post on Threads?
Since “Threads” can refer to different platforms (like Twitter’s threaded tweets or other context-specific threads), the best times to post can vary based on the platform and your target audience. Generally, for social media platforms:
- Twitter Threads: Typically, weekday late mornings and early afternoons (Tuesday to Thursday) tend to have higher engagement. Avoid early mornings and late evenings.
- Reddit Threads: Timing can depend on the subreddit’s activity, but generally, mid-morning or early afternoon on weekdays can be effective.
- Facebook Threads: Midday on weekdays and early evenings are often recommended for professional content. Avoid weekends.
- Instagram Threads (Carousel Posts): Late mornings and early evenings on weekdays, but this can vary based on your specific audience’s behavior.
- LinkedIn Threads: Mid-morning to early afternoon on weekdays, especially Tuesdays to Thursdays, aligns well with professional engagement patterns.
Consider your audience’s habits and preferences, and use analytics tools to refine your posting schedule for optimal engagement.
What are the best times to post on Pinterest?
The best times to post on Pinterest can vary based on your target audience’s behavior and the content you share. However, generally speaking, here are some optimal times to consider for posting on Pinterest:
- Evenings and Late Nights: Pinners often engage with Pinterest in the evenings, especially after dinner (around 8-11 PM).
- Weekends: Saturdays and Sundays increase engagement, particularly in the mornings and evenings.
- Mid-Week: Wednesdays and Thursdays can also be effective, with midday to early afternoon (2-4 PM) being popular times.
- Avoid Early Mornings: Unlike some social platforms, Pinterest users are less active early in the morning (before 8 AM).
- Seasonal Considerations: Post seasonal content (like holidays, events, or specific trends) well in advance to attract early planners.
Monitoring your Pinterest analytics to understand when your audience is most active and engaged is essential. This data can help refine your posting schedule for better reach and interaction with your pins.
Factors That Affect The Best Time To Post On Social Media
Determining the best time to post on social media involves analyzing several key factors. Firstly, understanding your audience demographics is crucial; knowing where they are located and their typical online behavior helps schedule posts when they are most active. Platform algorithms also play a significant role, as each social media platform has peak times when content is more likely to reach a larger audience. Industry and content type are additional considerations, as they can influence when your audience is most receptive to specific posts. Time zone differences must be considered for global reach, ensuring posts align with peak engagement times in different regions. Monitoring engagement patterns, leveraging seasonal trends, and using analytics tools to track performance all optimize the timing of social media posts for maximum impact and audience interaction.
Finding The Right Time For Your Company To Post
There are a multitude of strategies a social marketer could use to post on social media. Strategies that work best for news publications may not work for E-commerce brands. The best way to identify the time that works best for your company is with the help of data. On all social media platforms, one equipped with a ‘Business Account’, data regarding the time your followers are most active, their psychographics, and engagement patterns are displayed. Focus on the data specific to your company and cross-examine it with the average usage data displayed here so that a social marketer can have a better grasp of when the companies’ followers are most active.
Posting at peak times works well because many users are online and active during that time, but think about the value of the content and how much time it takes to truly go through it, digest it, understand it, and evaluate it. If it’s longer than the average post, then it may be beneficial to take a step back and avoid these prime-time posts.
As a marketer, if you are curious about posting on and off-peak time at glewee.com, we suggest you do some A/B testing. Try posting content during the most engaged times and during less engaged times and view the difference in the analytics of the posts, identify discrepancies in click-through rates, and understand what your audience likes the best. At the end of the day, it’s up to the reader to see a post by a brand and think, “Oh, this looks interesting; I’ll give them a few seconds of my time!”
Need help getting a word out there?
If posting organically doesn’t help increase social traction, drive new engagement, and reach marketing goals, then it is time for Creator Marketing. With Glewee a brand can choose from a plethora of qualified Creators across all market categories and channels, and deploy them to be their new brand advocates.
Need an additional Twitter retweet to reach 1 million new eyes? We have the Creator for that. Your new Instagram post didn’t achieve your desired engagement regarding a new product release. How about having a highly followed and dedicated Creator post for you?
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of Creator Marketing and the opportunities that await with glewee.com, feel free to schedule a live demo here.
