The Best Time to Post on Social Media Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Linkedin)

Posted On October 22, 2022October 17, 2022

What time of day is ideal for social media posting? Our analysis indicates that weekdays in the early morning are your best bet. What time of day is suitable for social media posting? Although it’s an old question, we can still be of assistance.

In order to determine whether specific days and hours consistently generate more engagement than others, we looked at over 30,000 social media posts. Here is a brief synopsis of what we discovered:

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays around 10:00 AM are ideal for posting on social media.

• Tuesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM are ideal for posting on Facebook.
• Wednesdays at 11:00 AM are the most fantastic time to post on Instagram.
• Mondays and Thursdays around 8:00 AM are the ideal times to post on Twitter.
• On Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9:00 AM, you should post on LinkedIn.
• Thursdays at 7:00 PM are the ideal time of day to publish on TikTok.

What, though, do these times mean?

These are fantastic posting times to start with if you’re new to social media and don’t have a lot of previous posting data or audience insights to work with. However, they are quite general. You should adjust your posting frequency as your accounts get bigger to better match the habits of your target audience. How much it differs from the ordinary populace would surprise you.

The strategy used by Hootsuite’s social media team to determine their own optimum posting timings is demonstrated here. Learn how to determine the ideal posting times for your audience, sector, and time zone by reading on.

1. Is there truly a perfect moment for social media posting?
2. When to post on Facebook most effectively
3. When should I post on Instagram?
4. When is the ideal moment to tweet
5. When should I post on LinkedIn?
6. When should I post to TikTok?
7. How to decide when to post anything on social media
8. Important lessons regarding when to share on social media

Is there truly a perfect moment for social media posting?

Posting your content when your followers are online is one of the simplest ways to increase your organic reach because of newsfeed algorithms, particularly the Facebook and Instagram algorithms, view “recency” as a primary ranking factor.

Everyone and their uncle has conducted research on industry benchmarks, but the actual source of truth always returns to your own data on your own followers. This gets us to the disappointing news: it’s difficult to agree on a single standard “optimal time to post on social media.”

For new accounts that have not yet developed a following and so have no one to test on, universal optimal times to post, such as those we discovered in our research above, work well as beginning points.

The optimal time to post on your social media channels is surprisingly simple to determine once you do have a following, especially if you have the correct tools.

First, we’ll explain how the social media team at Hootsuite, which has an audience of about 8 million followers, determined when to post on each social media platform. Then we’ll demonstrate how to locate yours.

When to post on Facebook most effectively

Our data shows that Tuesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM are the ideal times to post on Facebook. This matches what the Hootsuite social team discovered after analyzing their own data.

The optimum times to post on Facebook, according to the Hootsuite social media team, are on weekdays at 6:15 and 12:15 PST.

Both prior performance and follower activity are significant on Facebook. But that doesn’t tell the whole tale. It turns out that the optimum times to post to Facebook for Hootsuite’s channels are on weekdays at 6:15 AM and 12:15 PM PST after accounting for prior post-performance

Important Facebook statistics to consider when posting:

• 74% of Facebook users in America do so at least once every day.
• 51% of Facebook users in America do so frequently.
• 34 minutes are spent on Facebook daily on average.
• 80% of Facebook users only use their mobile devices (19% use both mobile and desktop).

When should I post on Instagram?

Our research shows that 11:00 AM on Wednesdays is the ideal time to post on Instagram. Similar results were seen when the Hootsuite social team examined their posting history.

The optimum time to post on Instagram, according to the Hootsuite social media team, is anytime between 8 AM and 12 PM or 4-5 PM PST.

Unsurprisingly, Instagram’s algorithm and Facebook’s have a lot in common. Recency is therefore a significant ranking indication. This implies that publishing timings are, once again, greatly influenced by audience behavior.

Important Instagram statistics to consider while posting:

• Instagram is checked by 63% of American users at least once every day.
• 42% of American users visit Instagram frequently.
• In 2020, Instagram usage increased to an average of 30 minutes per day (from 26 minutes per day in 2019)
• In 2019, people used Instagram for an average of 6 minutes, and 35 seconds for each visit.

When is the ideal moment to tweet

Our research shows that the ideal time to publish on Twitter is 8:00 AM on Mondays and Thursdays.

The Hootsuite social team examined their data and discovered comparable (but broader) results: weekdays between 6 and 9 AM PST.

Click-throughs are the most crucial Twitter metric, according to Social Listening & Engagement Strategist Nick Martin, and Hootsuite’s stats make this evident. Tweeting during East Coast and UK business hours produces the best click-through and engagement rates.

Mornings are still preferable, even on the weekends, but he schedules posts a little later.

Important Twitter data to consider while posting:

• 42% of Twitter users in America do so at least once every day.
• 25% of Twitter users in America do so frequently.
• In 2019, people used Twitter for an average of 10 minutes, and 22 seconds per visit.

When should I post on LinkedIn?

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 9:00 AM, you should post on LinkedIn.

When looking at their posting data, Hootsuite’s social media team saw results that were comparable. They should publish on LinkedIn on weekdays between 8 and 11 AM PST.

Hootsuite’s LinkedIn presence is managed by Iain Beable, the company’s social marketing strategist for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He claims that while he has often observed stronger performance in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings, the epidemic has caused the numbers to be a little more erratic and dispersed throughout the day.

According to Beable, “For LinkedIn, it’s very much a data-led, test-and-learn approach to find out what works” in terms of post-scheduling strategy. Our schedule is primarily determined by what has worked effectively in the past and by testing various times to determine what is most effective.

Beable continues by saying that, in his experience using the LinkedIn algorithm, quality, relevancy, and trending content take precedence above recency.

Important LinkedIn data to consider while posting:

• 9% of American users access LinkedIn daily or more frequently.
• 12% of American users visit LinkedIn frequently.
• Mobile accounts for 57% of LinkedIn’s traffic.

When should I post to TikTok?

According to our study, Thursdays around 7:00 PM are the ideal time to publish on TikTok.

We’ve discovered that posting frequently on TikTok can help you reach your audience more widely than simply when you do. TikTok offers prizes to active users and advises uploading 1-4 times each day.

How to decide when to post anything on social media

Consider the times that your audience is online the most.

Recency is given priority by several social media algorithms. Why? People are interested in what is new, especially in light of how frequently we now check our feeds.

Unfortunately, neither Twitter nor LinkedIn makes audience activity data available to individuals, brands, or even your neighborhood analytics dashboard. Researching your audience’s priorities and behaviors is essential for these platforms.

Looking at your analytics will allow you to determine when your followers are online for your Facebook and Instagram tactics.

One of the simplest ways to use the Facebook and Instagram algorithms to your advantage (and not against them) is to post when your followers are online. You may increase the likelihood that your material will be seen by your followers and spark a conversation with them by anticipating when they are likely to be reading their newsfeeds.

Examine your most successful old postings.

Your material is already optimized to meet your objectives for social media performance. We advise using the same data-driven strategy to choose the best moment to publish that information.

The first step is to focus on your most effective posts for a certain measure by looking at your analytics tools or social media reports. The articles that performed best in terms of

• Awareness (i.e., posts that get high impressions) (i.e., posts that have high impressions)
• Engagement (i.e., posts that received high engagement rates) (i.e., posts that earned impressive engagement rates)
• Sales/Traffic (i.e., posts that attracted a lot of clicks) (i.e., posts that attracted a lot of clicks)

Next, examine when you posted successful material and what days of the week it was, and search for any patterns.

Observe the competition

To find out what your competitors are doing, look at their feeds. Examine their top-performing posts to see if any trends emerge, or you could even conduct a thorough social competitive study, or you might try to figure out how your rivals’ techniques worked.

Keeping an eye on developments in your field is valuable, whether you discover strategies that are worthwhile to emulate or just identify dangers to avoid. (You might even think about incorporating publication timetables into your ongoing social listening efforts.)

Post in the time zone of your readership, not your own.

Posting around 6 AM makes great sense if you want to snag individuals during their sleepy morning bed scroll. Of course, you should schedule that post for 6 AM Central European Time if your target audience consists of European innovation CEOs (or even earlier if you want to make sure you catch Eastern Europe, too.).

Brands that have a sizable following in a certain area could think about setting up a unique handle for that demographic. (This may also provide you the opportunity to post in your target language.)

The ability to continuously post content is another choice for those of you with a global consumer base. (In that situation, a social media scheduler is unquestionably advised.)

Test and Optimize

When you’ve done all the research you can, it’s time to press the publish (or schedule) button and wait to see what occurs. But what if the outcomes fall short of your expectations?

Systematic A/B tests, in which identical content is posted several times to determine which garners the highest results, can be instructive.

Keep an eye out for changes.

Both social media and the users that use it change constantly. For instance, the shift to remote work in 2020 has led to an increase in social media usage.

Instead of checking feeds at lunch, many are now doing so in between zoom meetings. Your strategy might need to adapt if your audience is evolving.

We examine our time metrics for Twitter once a month, but they rarely change, and when they do, it’s not significant. Having said that, we analyze the ideal posting window for campaigns with a short deadline. 

For instance, we discovered that International Women’s Day is far more well-known in the UK than it is in North America. As a result, we changed our publishing schedule earlier to hit 9 AM–12 PM in the UK.

The secret is to continue to refine your social media scheduling strategy while viewing time as a crucial yet erratic aspect.

Important lessons regarding when to share on social media

There isn’t a certain, all-encompassing ideal moment to share something on social media. The best time for your brand to be seen is different for every channel and is as distinctive as your audience.

However, using the correct data to optimize your publishing schedule can increase your social ROI and produce tangible results.

• Pay special attention to the performance of previous posts on Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Examine historical post performance on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, as well as the times that your followers are online.

Schedule yourself to be most productive during certain times:

• Impressions;
• Engagement; or
• Click Links

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