When is the best time to post on Social Media?

I have overheard some ‘self-acclaimed experts’ who will say you need to post on social media at a particular time and on a particular day due to this and that. I want you to take that advice only as a guide or a starting point because I don’t think people set time on the internet.

The best time to post is when your customers are online. You need to discover what works best for your audience!

What others are doing may not work for your business. It takes trial and error to see what works for your own kind of business. Knowing your audience pattern on social media takes time.

Know your audience

How old are they? Where do they live? What’s their commute like? What do they do for work? What are their challenges and pain points? What social networks do they use? Do they scroll through their feeds on a phone or computer?

Keep an eye on your competitors

When do your competitors get a high amount of likes, shares, retweets, reactions, and comments?

Test those times as well as an opposing schedule. Do you also get more engagement at noon on weekdays? Or do you see a boost on the weekend when your competitors are quiet? The question here is whether you should follow suit, or you zig when they zag.

Keep on testing

Don’t get complacent. Find the times that work best for you, but never stop testing. Audience habits — and network algorithms — change.

Have fun with your social media. Forget what everyone else is doing and only concentrate on what works for your business.

Don’t always choose the most popular times when posting online. Posting on the hour is a predictable time to post. The majority of businesses will post online, for example, at 11:00 am.

For example, if a person was going to look at their social media on their lunch hour, they would probably get their food first and then start looking around to press the damn phone immediately after or before they go back to work.

Facebook and Instagram via DM provide great analytics that can help you understand when your followers are online.

It’s not when they are on your page, but when they are online in general. Facebook in its own peculiarity narrows the times down by day and by the hour.

And of course just because you are up at 5:00 am in the morning doesn’t mean your audience is up too. Lol

Enjoy it. Test, test and then test more and see what works. Once you find the best times for your business, social media may be more enjoyable, less stressful and easier to understand.