How to find out the BEST time to post on Instagram?
It is all about the right timing[s]! Yes, even on Instagram. Read on to find out the best time to post on Instagram 🕒
While using the right hashtags, the perfect picture, ideal tags, marking the location, and complimenting captions is a must when you are posting on Instagram for maximum traction. However, what we often miss is the BEST time to post on Instagram. Yes, it is important to understand the time when our audience is the most active because what are we posting for, otherwise?
If you are wondering that you are doing all the right things on Instagram for your business to achieve heights yet you are not receiving the much-needed traction then you are at the right place! Here, we are going to talk about the most under-looked factor while posting content on Instagram that is — TIME. The time when our audience is the most active to interact with our content.
In this blog, we are going to take you through a step-by-step process to help you find the best time for your Instagram Business to post, for the best results.
After reading this blog, you will learn about:
- Ways to find the ‘ideal’ time to post on your account
- What all is involved — the factors that will determine the ‘ideal’ time to post
- Tips & tricks for testing new posting times and self-analyzing results
So now that you are — here’s the [brutal] truth — there is no one-size-fits-all best time to post on Instagram. All those studies that you are calling ‘research’ while scrolling Google are not helpful, those millions of followers that those studies have studied are not YOUR followers.
Well, let’s be honest — all of you reading this blog, must have heard that the ‘ideal’ time to post on Instagram is between — 11:00 am to 12:30 pm or 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm, and finally 10:00 pm onwards. Also, ensure that you are NOT posting on Monday & Sunday mornings, Friday evenings, and definitely Saturday. However, go all out on Tuesdays & Thursdays, and so on and so forth….
So, let’s get going, pull up your socks, and buckle up — because we are here to show you: How To Find The Best Time To Post On Your Profile For Maximum Traction 😎
Factors to Determine Best Time to Post on Instagram
The best time to post on Instagram is when YOUR audience is the MOST active. Additionally, it may also be a time slot when a handful of your followers are online if what you are posting is relevant to them and their routine.
Perhaps both timeliness and relevance are factors that today’s Instagram Algorithm uses to determine where your content/post falls within your followers’ feed. And the frequent your posts show in your follower’s feed, the more impressions your account is likely to gain which leads to larger engagement and ultimately higher traction on the page — and this can lead to having your future posts larger traction too, creating a beautiful snowball effect. Learn about increasing engagement on your post via hashtags and content here.
1. Timeliness
Timeliness is an important factor determining your best time to post on Instagram, it is when most of your followers are online. And obviously — posting at the time when most of your followers are active will give your post[s] a boost and a better chance to be seen.
2. Relevance
Relevance is another important factor, it is all about being relevant and relatable to your set of followers for them to be able to interact with your content. The Instagram Algorithm is smarter than what we think — it seeks to first show users the content they want to see the most. An important question here is — How does it know what people want to see? Simple! By looking at the user’s interest and relationships. The more ‘relevant’ the content is to your followers, the more they are bound to interact with it. This whole scene prompts Instagram to display your content ‘higher’ on your audience’s feeds.
Steps to Find the Best Time to Post on Instagram
Finding the best, rather the ‘right’ time to post on Instagram for your brand does not have to be complicated at all! All you will need to do is, consider the following two things:
- Find out when your greatest number of followers are active on the ‘gram
- When your brand’s content is the most relevant for them
Just the above two data points will give you an idea of your optimal posting times, which you can then test and refine with time.
Step 1: Take a peek inside your Instagram Insights 🧐
All you have to do is click the Insights button on your Instagram Business Profile and see when your greatest number of followers are active.
Once, you have clicked on Insights — you can then click to view data broken down by:
- Content
- Activity
- And, Audience — select this button to see data on your followers, including when they access Instagram, what location they belong, their age range, and gender. You can swipe between hours and days to view their most active times.
Be mindful of the fact that the data shown here is only accounting the last seven days of activity. This however gives you limited data, but well it is a starting point. Be alerted and watch out for the impact of special occasions and seasonal behavior before you base your decision on the data showcased from such a short period of time.
Step 2: Think About What Type Of Content To Post When — Hypothesize! 🤔
Know for a fact that the best time to post for two varying content pieces cannot be the same — they are bound to differ. At this step, come up with a hypothesis — let’s be honest, you know your target audience the best.
Step into their shoes and understand what time of the day they are dealing with what or what are they thinking and how you as a brand can solve it on Instagram. It is always best to think from the receivers when you are hypothesizing.
Example — A scrumptious Pizza post’s posting time will differ from that of an exciting giveaway for a meal.
Step 3: Create A Posting Schedule To find out the Best Time to Post on Instagram 📆
Now you are fairly aware of when your followers are online, and you have an idea of what content you think may interest them at those particular time spans. Now, all you have to do is put it into action with a simple schedule of what content will go when and at what time for a set period such as three weeks.
Let’s say you run an Instagram account for a bakery. Think about different types of content that you think might resonate with your followers at different points in their day. The idea is simple — it is to consider what time your followers want to hear from you.
From your bakery account, your followers might be looking out for tips and tricks to bake that cake to perfection. Tools for beginners that are a must and so on.
Remember, you don’t have to publish a certain number of times in a day. Once you find your optimal time periods, you may be able to publish less with greater impact. And, you can also read on the following to optimize your content — Engagement is KEY! Here are a few ways to manage social media to amp up your overall engagement.
Step 4: Analyze and read your findings to figure out the best times for your content
By the time you have come through a few weeks of doing the above, you will have a fair bit of idea regarding which content is resonating with your followers at what times. This will help you ease out your work and you can accordingly tweak your schedule as per requirement.
From the previous content posted — look for content that resonated with your followers and performed the best and remove the content that did not work at all.
Final Thoughts…
While the above steps provide a good strategy to find out the best time to post on Instagram — it is also a very tedious process. We also need to be mindful of the fact that digital is an ever-changing space and that what worked yesterday, might not work today. And for that, we have Predis AI, an AI which is learning every day and can for sure help you with ‘trendy/current’ updates.
Also, if you use Predis.ai, you will find a goldmine of content that resonates with your posts along with a plethora of hashtags that can support your content. It also helps you with understanding the best time that you should post that particular content for maximum traction.
Don’t believe us? Check it out here:
Know the best time to post on Instagram — check it out here.
We hope you are taking away some key learnings from here. If you liked what you read then do not forget to like, share, comment your feedback. We would love to hear from you.
Also, do not forget to read on this blog we recently published — We all want more and more Instagram followers, right? But how? Keep Scrolling — This will help you ramp up your Instagram followers so that your content reaches a higher number of people and is showcased on top of their feeds.
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