Finding the right times to post on social media isn’t always easy, but it’s a key factor in the success of your marketing strategy.
Depending on the day and time of publication, the reach and engagement of your posts can be doubled… even if your content is qualitative!
Everyone has their own opinion, but very few studies exist on the subject. Whether on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or X/Twitter, publication times and days can be radically different.
To determine when to publish on social networks and help you maximize your ROI (return on investment), we examined the posts on all our social network accounts to determine the best times to post on social networks (but also the worst).
Why publish when your audience is most engaged?
In the rest of this article, you’ll discover when to publish on social networks, in other words: the times when the audience is most engaged on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X/Twitter.
Why does it matter?
On social networks, posts have a limited lifespan. This varies from network to network, of course: on Twitter, tweets have a lifespan of around 30 minutes, while LinkedIn posts can continue to be seen after 24 hours. But generally speaking, it’s best to post when your audience is reactive, to encourage engagement with your publications. As content and virality are ephemeral, posting at the right time is key if you want to perform well on social networks.
What are the best times to post on social media ?
The most popular days for posting on social networks
As we have seen in other studies, such as the state of the art in community management, or the use of social networks by agencies and e-tailers, social network professionals tend to publish on weekdays, from Monday to Friday.
Community managers publish 2 times less at weekends on all social networks. And yet, as we’ll see later in this article, it’s on weekends that average engagement is highest!
The most popular parts of the day to post on social media
When it comes to specific hours and times most frequently used by community managers to publish, the trend varies from one social network to another.
The best times to post on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are 11am and 6pm.
Whereas on LinkedIn, companies mainly publish in the morning between 8am and 12pm.
When to post on Facebook?
To determine the best posting times and days on the Facebook social network, we analyzed 2.5 million posts in a European country.
The best days to post on Facebook
When it comes to the best days to publish on Facebook, the findings are pretty clear. Engagement is higher on average at weekends, while it remains stable throughout the week.
Our recommendation: to increase the engagement of your Facebook posts, give priority to weekends, Saturdays and Sundays. If you prefer to publish during the week, the day doesn’t matter.
The best times to post on Facebook
Posts published in the morning receive the least engagement on Facebook. On average, engagement is highest from 1pm onwards, and stable throughout the afternoon. However, it is significantly higher in the evening after 8pm.
Our recommendation: to increase engagement on your Facebook posts, publish in the evening between 8pm and 11pm. If you prefer to publish during the day, opt for 13 and the afternoon.
When to post on LinkedIn?
To determine the best times and days to publish on LinkedIn, we analyzed 700,000 posts published in the same area.
The best days to post on LinkedIn
As on Facebook, engagement is on average higher on posts published at weekends (peak engagement on Sundays). On weekdays, engagement is fairly stable from Monday to Friday, with a notable peak on Wednesdays.
Our recommendation: to increase engagement and impressions on your posts, publish your LinkedIn posts on weekends, Saturdays and Sundays. If you prefer to post during the week, engagement is highest on Wednesdays.
The best times to post on LinkedIn
Of the 700,000 posts analyzed, those published between 8pm and 11pm generated the most engagement.
Over the course of the day, engagement is highest on average at 7am, and in the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm.
Our recommendation: post on LinkedIn between 8pm and 11pm, in the morning at 7am or in the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm to optimize engagement on your posts. Indeed, these time slots are often more advantageous for brands posting on their social networks. They correspond to morning and evening commutes to and from work, or to break times.
Your audience will therefore be more likely to consult LinkedIn at these times.
Read also : 15 ways to use LinkedIn effectively
When to post on X/Twitter?
To answer this question, this time we were able to analyze 800,000 posts published on Twitter.
The best days to post on X/Twitter
Of the 800,000 tweets analyzed, engagement was on average twice as high on weekends, and even three times as high on Sundays!
On the other hand, average post engagement is stable throughout the week.
Our recommendation: post on Twitter at weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays. If you prefer to post during the week, the day doesn’t matter, even if engagement is on average higher on Mondays.
The best times to post on X/Twitter
When it comes to posting hours, engagement on X/Twitter is significantly higher between 7pm and 11pm.
During the day, engagement is highest from 1 p.m. and stable throughout the afternoon.
Our recommendation: to optimize the engagement of your tweets, post in the evening from 7pm to 11pm, or during the day from 1pm.
When to post on Instagram?
The best days to post on Instagram
To optimize the engagement and impressions of your Instagram posts, the day of the week doesn’t matter, except for weekends. Average impressions are constant from Monday to Friday.
However, average impressions on the posts analyzed are significantly higher on Saturdays and Sundays!
Our recommendation: post on Instagram at weekends to increase your impressions and post engagement. If you prefer to publish during the week, the day doesn’t matter.
The best times to post on Instagram
On Instagram, engagement and impressions are constantly changing throughout the day.
A peak in engagement occurs at midday and stabilizes throughout the afternoon, then continues to increase from 7pm to 11pm.
Our recommendation: post on Instagram from 7pm to optimize engagement on your posts. If you want to publish earlier in the day, we recommend publishing from 12pm. Engagement is on average lower in the morning on Instagram.
Best time to post on TikTok
The best times to publish on TikTok:
- Tuesdays, 4 pm to 6 pm
- Wednesday, 9 to 11 am, noon and 2 to 6 pm
- Thursday, 9 to 11 am. and 2 to 6 pm
- Friday, 4 pm to 6 pm
Best days to post on TikTok: Wednesdays and Thursdays
Although TikTok was one of the last social networks to enter the market, the platform has grown considerably and managed to establish itself twice as fast as the others. With an app that now boasts over 1.5 billion active users worldwide who spend almost 23 hours on the app every month, TikTok has a competitive edge over other platforms.
The best times to post on TikTok are Tuesdays and Fridays from 4 to 6 pm, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 11 am and 2 to 6 pm. Engagement is highest in the afternoon, when users are looking for entertainment at the end of the day. In general, however, it’s Tuesday to Friday, from mid-morning to mid-afternoon (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), that TikTok sees the highest levels of engagement on its app.
How do you find the best times to publish on social networks for your brand?
Here are a few tips to help you determine the best hours to post a photo, video or other content to effectively promote your brand on social networks.
Analyze your audience (typical day, worker or student, etc.)
What’s your audience’s typical day like? The answer to this question inevitably impacts their social media consumption. In general, if your target audience works from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., they’ll consult their social networks during their lunch breaks, their daily commute, and especially in the evenings and at weekends.
On the other hand, if your audience is mainly made up of students, it’s highly likely that they’ll consult social media several times a day, and throughout the week.
The first step to optimizing your social media publishing hours? Define the personas of your buyers and prospects. To do this, you need to conduct an audit of your social networks.
And with so much information available online, we recommend using a media monitoring tool. This will enable you to monitor over 15 different social media channels and sort the information on customized dashboards.
Use publishing tools to optimize posting hours
Scheduling posts is a useful and time-saving way of managing your brand’s presence on social networks. You can choose the best times to publish on social networks.
The tool analyzes your most active and influential users on social networks to find out when they engage the most. It then recommends the right times to post your content on social networks.
See what hours your posts get the most engagement
A simple way to determine your audience’s “peak hours” on social networks is to analyze the hours and days when your publications generate the most engagement. The data to be taken into account can be the number of “likes”, shares, comments, etc. To simplify this work, social platforms have their own built-in tools.
On Twitter, you can measure and improve your impact on the platform with the Twitter Analytics tool. Simply go to the tool and sort by “Top Tweets”.
For Facebook, use the Audience Insights tool from Meta For Business. This tool allows you to get to know your target audience by gathering consumer insights.
For Instagram, you first need to have a professional account. The platform provides an integrated analysis tool, to find out the number of visits, interactions, audience breakdown, etc.
Finally, for a consolidated view of your audiences’ engagement on social networks, social media analysis tools exist to help you interpret all your data. The aim is to enable you to make more informed decisions, in all areas of your business.
Experiment to find your best niches for posting content
Fourth and final tip: experiment! By publishing different content at different times, you’ll be able to work out what works for you and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to try things out. Don’t hesitate to test things out to understand the algorithm of the social network you’re interested in.
Conclusion
Now you know the best times to post on social networks and how to determine them! If you’d like to find out more about optimizing your social media strategy with a few simple adjustments, don’t hesitate to contact the PIUP team.