Is There a Best Time to Post on Social Media?

In my last blog post, I discussed the 6 myths about social media marketing. We’re going to dive a little deeper into one of those myths in this week’s blog post.

Is there really a best time to post on social media?

It’s hard to agree on a single standard “best time to post on social media.” It seems like everyone has done a study on industry benchmarks—but the real source of truth always comes back to your own data on your own followers. Back in the good old days when our social media feeds were in chronological order, there were, technically, “best” and “worst” times to post. However, constant algorithm updates have shifted to displaying your timeline according to engagement and other factors. There’s more to successful social media posts than simply posting at the “right” times but ultimately, it comes down to engagement. Posting when your audience is most active can help get the engagement you’re looking for in the first few hours after it’s live.



Instead of focusing on what “time” to post, aim for the best timing. Studies from Sprout Social have determined that overall, engagement is highest during midweek mornings. Again, this isn’t universal and can differ depending on your audience, platform, product/service, and content. We recommend posting a few different times to determine when you see the most engagement. You can track when your audience is online on Facebook and Instagram right in the Audience Insights tab of your business page.



Twitter and LinkedIn do not make audience activity information available to users, brands, or even any type of analytics dashboard. For these platforms, researching your audience’s priorities and behaviors is crucial. The first step is to zero in on your more successful posts for a given metric. The posts that did the best in terms of:

• Awareness (i.e., posts that have high impressions)
• Engagement (i.e., posts that earned impressive engagement rates)
• Sales/Traffic (i.e.,posts that attracted a lot of clicks)

Next, take a look at what time of day or week you posted successful content, and see what kind of patterns form. This will give you a good idea of when your audience is most active and more likely to interact with your content.



So, there you have it. There’s no failsafe universal best time to post on social media. Your brand’s optimal time is as unique as your audience, and different for every channel. BUT! With the right data, optimizing your posting schedule can drive real results and improve your social ROI. For Twitter and LinkedIn, pay close attention to past post performance. For Instagram and Facebook, look at past post performance and when your followers are online. Happy posting!