Maybe you’ve read through our guide on dealing with negative comments and decided that your business would benefit from an increase to its social footprint. The most common questions we get have to do with when is the best time to post on social media. While the most accurate way to see when your target audience is active is using analytics software, we will cover some easy ways to reach your business’ customers.
Sprout Social’s Industry Engagement Report for 2018 delves into when users of certain platforms are the most likely to interact with a post. Below is a heatmap of Facebook’s activity by users for different times throughout the day. The darker shades indicate a higher level of engagement for certain hours.
While it may seem obvious that engagement will be low during normal sleeping hours, it’s the differences between Thursday and Friday at 1:00 p.m., and Saturday at the same time that are significant. Knowing when your audience is typically on a platform is important when making decisions about when to post your content, boost a post or promote an event.
According to the report:
“Facebook still reigns supreme in social media with more than 1.4 billion daily active users. However, it’s also the top choice for social media advertising with 93% of marketers using the platform regularly.”
Perhaps your business is deciding to focus more on Instagram. Sharing updates through stories or displaying products on your timeline are great ways to engage with your customers. Just like Facebook, Sprout’s data on Instagram use showed that activity is concentrated mid-day/ mid-week.
With the 5 a.m. Tuesday – Friday being somewhat outliers, this may be an indication that the first activity some people do when they wake up is check Instagram.
My theory; celebrity fitness and motivation accounts continue to harp about the benefits of waking up early and getting the most out of your morning. Overrated if you ask me – but if this article is shared 50 times on Facebook then I’ll try it out for 2 weeks, Instagram videos and all. If my hypothesis is correct then companies targeting the health and fitness segments may want to plan content for those early risers.
We apply these insights with our very own client, a local boxing franchise, by scheduling those motivational posts for the early risers on their way to the 5 a.m. class.
“Instagram says more than 80% of users follow a business on the app–so why not make sure you’re reaching out to them in the best way possible?” -Sprout Social
If your business is concerned with interacting directly with its consumers, then integrating Twitter can be a useful tool for maximizing Call to Actions and branded content. Twitter’s activity concentrates toward the back end of the work week. Fridays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. have the highest activity levels for the site with weekend usage being the most consistent when compared to the other sites.
The spike in early Thursday/ Friday could be a reflection of the segment of consumers planning their weekend activities. Businesses like bars and restaurants may find it beneficial to draft promotional content to be published at these hours.
LinkedIn’s B2B model serves the purpose of sharing helpful career tips, advocacy, and connecting with industry leaders. According to the heat map, site usage occurs most frequently during the middle of the workweek.
LinkedIn can be a useful tool for increasing brand awareness through professional channels or reading up on the latest industry trends. So, planning content should serve the purpose of informing. However, planned content should stay within the middle of the work week to avoid low weekend engagement.
For more tips about managing your social media pages, check out our Instagram 101 and Twitter 101 guides.
Join the Backcourt Newsletter for monthly digital marketing insights.