The best time to post on social media
What is the best time to post on social media?
This is a question many people ask to find out when they will receive the most engagement on their social media channels. Posting the right content at the right time can make the difference between getting lots of valuable comments on your post and clicks on your links or no engagement at all.
The best time to post on social media depends on a variety of factors including the type of information you post, the platform, your target audience and how they interact with the platform. This means different businesses may find different times of the day work best for them.
Here are some general guidelines that we have found for the best times to post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The best times to post for all social media channels
From Monday to Friday the best time to post on social media is when the majority of people will be either at a computer or using internet enabled mobile devices. This is usually in the mornings between 7:00am to 9:00am when people are travelling to work, during lunchtime between 12:00pm to 1:00pm, or early evenings between 5:00pm and 7:00pm when people are travelling home.
The best time to post on Twitter is 8:00am and between 1:00pm and 3:00pm on Mondays through to Thursdays. Generally a good rule of thumb to follow is to post between 8:00am and 3:00pm Mondays to Thursdays.Mornings are great to post on Twitter because that’s when most people are sifting through their streams to catch up on the daily news.However, do not post after 3:00pm on a Friday or after 8:00pm on any other day, unless it is breaking news and must go out ASAP, because there is very little engagement during these times.Frequency of posts
The shelf life of a tweet is very short and only lasts about eight hours (or in a split second depending on how your followers use twitter). With this in mind it’s a good idea to post at least four tweets a day to ensure you maximise your exposure in the newsfeed. You can also post more than this amount including retweeting your old tweets, if they are still relevant.To save you time on Twitter you can use an app like Buffer or a platform such as HootSuite to schedule your tweets. This means you could spend half an hour in the morning scheduling your tweets so they go out automatically during the day at certain times.You will still need to check your Twitter feed regularly throughout the day to monitor engagement and respond to comments.
The best times to post on Facebook
According to research conducted by bit.ly, a URL shortening service, Wednesdays at 3:00pm provide the highest average engagement and clicks on Facebook. In addition, links and updates posted between Mondays and Thursdays from 9:00am to 4:00pm also generate a good level of engagement.
Similar to Twitter, engagement on Facebook dies down on Fridays and picks up again from Sunday.
Frequency of posts
The minimum for posting on Facebook is twice a day. However it depends on the type of posts and who your target audience is. You should also regularly monitor and respond to comments and questions posted on your page.
Facebook also allows you to schedule posts from your Facebook company page, which means you can spend half an hour in the morning setting up your posts for the day.
The best times to post on LinkedIn
Ideally it’s best to post content around 12:00pm or early evening for LinkedIn. If you post a status, message or share a link to an article at this time, you’re more likely to catch business professionals on lunch checking their online social networks. Another good time is early evening between 5:00pm and 6:00pm. At this time users are at the end of their work day and are checking social media while travelling home.
The worst time to post content on LinkedIn is between the hours of 10:00pm to 6:00am.
Frequency of posts
You should post at least once a day on your LinkedIn personal profile and/or Company Page. To make this process easier you can use the same articles you posted on your Twitter and Facebook profiles. You may need to change the wording of the post to ensure it suits the tone of LinkedIn. Avoid automating your posts to go straight from Twitter to LinkedIn profiles. This looks like you are not active on LinkedIn and you won’t be able to generate a high level of engagement.
If you have a LinkedIn group, posting three times a week is enough. These posts should be thought provoking and engaging to start discussions with your members. You also need to regularly check back and contribute comments to any discussions.
These recommendations for the best times to post on social media may not always be effective for every business. You should experiment with posting on social media at different times of the day with different types of content to find out what works best for your business.
Sydney Social Media Agency, CP Communications provides specialist social media strategies as well as traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au or download our free Social Media eBook http://bitly.com/12GEPor