How To Use Social Media For Business (part 2) – the Best Times to Post Your Content

In the first instalment of our guide to sharing on social, we looked at the content you should be sharing on the social platforms you use. We focused on the four main social platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

In part 2, we’re looking at the next step of sharing on social once you’ve decided on your content – when you should be sharing it.

What’s important to remember is that you can create and share the most tailored content for each of your social channels, but you won’t receive engagements unless your content is seen by your desired audience, and timing can have a big effect on that.

Sharing times for Facebook

On Facebook, you have access to the Insights section of your business page. Under the posts section, you can see the activity of your audience week by week – note which days and times are the most popular for your audience.

As you can see in the graph below, the most popular time of day for users to view content from the Vertical Leap Facebook page is 1pm.

However, each industry differs in its timing and, especially when you’re setting up a new Facebook page, you won’t have the audience size necessary to unlock these insights. So, until you have built up your audience and can find out about their behaviour specifically, here are the times of day that have been found to be the best times to post in general.

During the week, you want to be posting content on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between 12pm and 3pm. During the weekend, content should be shared between 12pm and 1pm.

Sharing times for Twitter

Again, the best way to know when to post on your Twitter account is to look at your audience and see how they react at different times of day. This may take some trial and error because a number of factors can influence results, such as your location, content strategy and whether you’re a B2B or B2C company.

Twitter users are generally far more active during weekdays, according to Hootsuite, and the most popular times regular users post are between 9am and 4pm. For B2B companies, this changes to 12pm to 3pm, with the most clicks and retweets occurring at 3pm. For B2C companies, it’s better to post either before work at 9am, at noon when everyone is on their lunch break, and at 5pm after work.

Sharing times for Instagram

Instagram is almost solely accessed on mobile devices so target users as they scroll at home during downtime. Off-peak hours may work best for B2C companies, such as after 7pm during the week and on weekends.

Don’t forget the lunch break though – according to Hootsuite, the best time of day to post on Instagram is between 12pm and 1pm from Monday to Friday. This is most likely when users are looking to kill some time and catch up with what’s been going on while they’ve been working.

However, as Instagram is such a customisable platform, your posting strategy should take into account the audience you’re reaching – will they check Instagram when they get up or in the evening after work? Test different times to find out which may work best for your specific audience.

Sharing times for LinkedIn

Since LinkedIn is a primarily professional network, posting during work hours is more effective. Most brands post on the hour, so Hootsuite recommends posting on the 45-minute mark to stand out and keep your content uncrowded.

The times they recommend are 7:45am, 10:45am, 12:45pm and 5:45pm. You should be posting on LinkedIn from Monday to Thursday.

We can help

If you’d like assistance with creating a social media strategy that utilises each of your social media platforms to the best of its ability, with a tailored social calendar for each one, our Content Marketing Team can lend a hand.

With specialist knowledge about what works well on each social channel, we’ll make sure your brand stands out from the crowd on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.