20 Social Media Holidays to Celebrate This May
By Yasmin PierreApr 10
[Webinar] Leveraging Social Media Trends for Brand Engagement
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Unlock the secrets to staying ahead in the ever-evolving world of social media marketing.
Published July 6th 2023
To post or not to post, that is the question.
Well, of course, you should post, but when? Is there the best time to post on social media?
The answer is yes. There is the best time to post on social media, but it depends on your specific industry and audience.
If you think this sounds complicated, it’s because it is. There is no silver bullet or panacea for finding the best times to post on social media.
If you’re trying to up your social media game, we’ve got some tips for you.
Here are the times and days most researchers think are peak hours for maximum engagement with your posts.In this blog post, we’ll look at:
The best time to post on Facebook: 11 AM–3 PM.
Facebook has roughly 2.963 billion monthly active users, so it’s a great place to get some eyeballs on your content.
Most of the research suggests that you’ll want to post to Facebook right before high noon and three in the afternoon. The studies we consulted showed that Facebook usage and engagement peaks during early-to-mid-afternoon hours.
The best days to post: Thursday to Sunday.
Best time to post on Instagram: 12 PM–3 PM and 6 PM–9 PM.
Your best bet on Instagram is to plan around peoples’ workdays. Users scroll through images, videos, Reels, and Stories on the platform for bits of bite-sized content they can engage with during the moments they’re not hard at work.
Lunchtime is a peak time for user engagement on Instagram — and it’s not just because people are uploading pictures of their sandwiches. People are simply more likely to check their feeds for snackable content when they’re on a snack break.
Instagram posts published right after working hours tend to get more engagement as well. Many users are checking their feeds on their commutes home or while slowly melting into their couches after work.
So, aim to push out content whenever most of your target audience are done with their jobs for the day.
The best days to post: Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Thursday seems to be the peak of the week, and it’s also the peak day to post to Instagram if you’re looking to rack up clicks, favorites, and comments. And no wonder. Friday is just around the corner, and everyone is looking for some gorgeous Insta shots to get them through to the weekend.
All other weekdays except Tuesdays tend to have solid engagement rates too. But beware of posting on Sundays and Mondays, as you’re unlikely to get many likes or comments then.
Best time to post on X: 9 AM–12 PM and 5–6 PM.
X is perfect for dishing out tasty little bite-sized nuggets of content when people get a break from their fast-paced days.
With that in mind, it makes sense that engagement with brands’ X posts peaks at noon when everyone’s having lunch and from 5 to 6 PM, right after people clock out from their jobs.
The best days to post: Wednesday, Friday.
Generally, putting out X content during the workweek will be your best bet, especially if you’re in the B2B sector. By Friday, a lot of people have already zoned out—and Saturday and Sunday tend to be even worse in terms of X interactions.
X usage and engagement are especially high on Wednesdays and Fridays, so keep that in mind when planning your next post.
Wednesdays generate the highest clickthrough rates and the greatest number of reposts of any day of the week.
Best time to post on LinkedIn: Before 8 AM, around 12 PM, and 5–6 PM.
LinkedIn sees the most clicks, shares, and comments occur right before work, after work, and during lunchtime.
Maybe you’re finally remembering to update your profile after 5 years and changing your education from “the school of hard knocks” to an actual school.
Or maybe you’re congratulating your former classmate on that amazing new job that you’re totally not jealous of.
Either way, you’re doing it when you’re thinking about work but not actually working. That’s probably why most users seem to engage with LinkedIn content during their commutes or their breaks during the workday.
There’s a silver lining, though. With LinkedIn, posting time matters less than on other networks. It’s not unusual to see posts popping up in the LinkedIn feed that are weeks old.
This is because the algorithm is designed to give priority to high-quality posts that spark conversation and engagement. If the content is good, the algorithm will give it a much longer shelf-life than on other networks.
The best days to post: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
People prefer to check their LinkedIn feeds during the week rather than over the weekend. Whatever the reason for these trends, you should focus your LinkedIn content strategy on the center of the week. Tuesdays, in particular, generate the most clicks and shares on the network.
With over 1.53 billion users, TikTok is a vibrant social network to enjoy through any hour of the day. But let’s look at what time is the most appropriate for your brand to join TikTok entertainment with a post.
Best times to post on TikTok: 12–9 PM.
For TikTok, you have plenty of options. TikTok users engage with the social network mostly after lunchtime, throughout the day, and during the evening to check what’s new and trending on TikTok. We recommend experimenting with different times to boost your engagement on TikTok.
The best days to post on TikTok: Friday.
TikTok is on fire at weekends, so starting Friday, you should focus on sharing your brand’s posts on the social network.
How do you know which time zones to focus on? And how can you be sure that these times and days will work for your specific follower base?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution that guarantees the right people will see your posts.
The simple truth is that you need to know your audience.
Keep in mind that your followers’ profiles may vary from one social network to another. For example, your Facebook audience is probably different from the LinkedIn one.
Therefore, you need to monitor and collect data on your target audience profile and behavior and repeat this exercise every couple of months.
When should you post if you’re attempting to reach consumers or businesses in multiple time zones at once? A solution could be to post at times that hit peak engagement hours in two or more time zones.
For example, if you want to reach consumers on Facebook at peak times in EST, CST, MST, and PST all at once, you could schedule your post for 4 pm EST. It will then appear in people’s feeds at 3 PM CST, 2 PM MST, and 1 PM PST—all optimal hours for posting.
Alternatively, you can create ads targeted specifically at locations in each of these time zones.
Once you have understood the behavior patterns of your audience, you can schedule your posts for the right time zones you need to target.
If you're looking for a tool to save time and schedule your posts across social networks, let us show you our Brandwatch suite.
Now, it’s time to find the best time to post for your brand!
Don’t forget to test your findings and explore how your posts perform for a couple of weeks before you make conclusions.
Good luck!
Data compiled from CoSchedule, Adobe Spark, TruConversion, Hubspot, HuffPost, SurePayroll, Later, Maria Haltoff, Oberlo, Add People, Neil Patel, Raka, and InfluencerMarketingHub.
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