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How many times have you found yourself wishing you could turn back time, when you thoughtlessly sent out a social post only to find it received hardly any engagement…again. The time is now for you to make a social media comeback!
With varying social channel algorithms, not to mention more people working from home resulting in a wider range of peak connectivity times, it can seem all too confusing as to when the best time to post on social media is. The good news is, there is no need to take a stab in the dark. As long as you have engaging copy and imagery, this guide for the best times to post on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will help you get well on your way.
Before we dive in, it’s important to note that our infographics give a general indication of the best time of day to post on social media across B2B and B2C, however it can vary slightly depending on your business. We’ve also factored in that many people are working from home during the pandemic so they are online more often. To help you drill down further, here are our four top tips to remember as you continue your path to social domination.
Think about when your target audience would actually be online and engaging. For example, if you are a B2B business, this could be about catching people before they settle in for work in the morning, between 9am-11am. If you’re a B2C brand, publishing a lifestyle post after work when people are winding down for the day and getting their social media fix would be more ideal.
Social media scheduling tools such as Sprout Social automatically generate suggestions for the best time to post based on audience insights, as well as data from previous best-performing posts. Not only will it give you the best times in the day for each channel, but it will also tell you the overall best time if you are posting across multiple channels at once.
For those who don’t have a scheduling tool, you can see when your followers are online on Facebook by going to Facebook page insights > Posts > When your fans are online.
If your engagement levels are low despite having created engaging content and posting at the right time, your problems could lie at audience level. Be sure to regularly check in on your audience information by using social channel insights and reporting tools.
If your followers aren’t in the customer/client demographics and industries that you’re wanting to target, consider using social media advertising to reach new audiences and increase your follower base through relevant targeting.
When using this guide for the best times to post on social media, always remember to do your own tests in and around these times. There is no ‘one size fits all’ on social media. It’s about knowing your audience and how they interact with your business. Testing posts across different times and days will give you a much more data-driven, detailed approach to your scheduling strategy.
Now that you’ve got these four top tips in mind, without further ado, we bring you the best time to post on social media in 2021.
It’s no surprise that LinkedIn users are most actively engaging with content on the platform during the working week, with Wednesday and Thursday delivering the highest engagement rates. Weekends and evenings are generally no-go zones for LinkedIn, so if you have an important piece of news on a Friday afternoon that you want as many eyeballs on as possible, you’d be better off saving this until after the weekend for stronger impact.
The rapid way in which posts are consumed on Twitter makes for posts to be read most frequently in people’s down time for quick social updates. The highest engagement rates tend to be during the week between 12-1pm.
Posts have a much smaller lifespan on Twitter compared to other channels because of the nature of tweets being limited to 280 characters, which lends itself to fast ‘live’ updates. The key here is to post frequently during the week.
If you’ve been looking at LinkedIn and Twitter and thinking “will I ever be able to post anything on a weekend?” then never fear! Facebook achieves the best engagement levels between Wednesday to Sunday, with Thurs-Sat edging at having the highest rates of the week. Opt for posting in the afternoon, as trends show early mornings having the lowest engagement.
According to Sprout Social, Instagram is one of the most logged-in social media sites for daily use. So, while we see mid-week engagements having the highest success rate, don’t let this fool you. Another tip to remember for global businesses is to publish posts in and around your international target market’s time zones too. For example, if you have a strong follower base in the UK as well as the US (let’s say Washington for the sake of this example) then posting at 4pm on Wednesday would reach your target audience in the US at the peak time of 11am.
Are you looking for support in creating social strategy which increases engagement across LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook? Contact us today or get in touch with our social media manager Emily on t: +44 (0)7939 374364 or e: emily.neilsen@brand8pr.com