It’s interesting to think how many times a day we pick up our devices, whether that be a computer, cellphone or tablet, to check social media. On average, people spend 1 hour and 56 minutes on social media apps including YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, DAILY! There are over 3 billion of us across the globe using social networks each month, platforms on which we rely on to help us make informed decisions. This is why social media marketing for any business, small, medium or large, is so important.

It’s essential to know when to post, how many times to post, the type of content you should post and your audience segment before diving into the social media deep end. Finding your audience and segmenting them into targeted groups should be the first step of any marketing campaign. After that, make sure you research when your specific audience/s are engaging with the social media platform you want to use.

We’ve put together a little cheat sheet on the best times to post to help you get started!

When to post on Facebook

Facebook still remains one of the most active platforms for users, with 1.4 billion people using it daily. People tend to spend an average of 35 minutes a day on Facebook, so what a great place for marketers to generate content on, right? YES! So much so, that 93% of marketers use Facebook to advertise their content regularly.

If you want to get the highest engagement on your posts, the best times to publish your content is,

 Wednesday | 12 pm and 2 pm

Thursday | 1 pm to 2 pm

After you feel comfortable with posting content, you should begin to amp up the amount of times you post each day to remain relevant. While making sure you schedule content during the times listed above, it is best to keep additional posts Monday – Friday, 10 am – 3 pm. 

For scheduling Facebook and Twitter posts, we LOVE using Buffer! 

Fun Fact: Keep them short and sweet! Posts that contain 50 characters or less are found to be more engaging than longer posts.

When to post on Instagram

People tend to divert their attention to visuals, such as videos and pictures, rather than text. All content on Instagram is driven by visuals, allowing a caption to be placed underneath. In 2017,  HubSpot found that Instagram engagement rates for brands were 10X higher than those on Facebook. Many brands find Instagram to be helpful in showing their content without the need to extensively describe their work or products. 

Instagram is a fun way to share your brands story and Instagram users enjoy receiving content in such an attractive way! You’ll receive the highest engagement with your posts on Instagram when you post,

Wednesday | 3 pm

Thursday | 5 am, 11 am, 3 pm to 4 pm

Friday | 5 am

Now i’m sure most of you are thinking, 5 am?! I know I am guilty of this and i’m sure some of you are as well! When people wake up, the first thing they tend to grab is their cellphone. Since Instagram is a pleasant, usually mindless platform to scroll through first thing as you let your eyes adjust, it is most visited in the early morning.

Again, as you start to schedule a greater number of posts on Instagram, you will still receive high engagement, Tuesday – Friday, 9 am – 6 pm. If you want to post throughout the weekend as well, choose Saturday, Sunday is the least engaging day of the week.

One of the great things about Instagram is that while you plan your posts for specific times of the day, you can add content to your Instagram Story anytime you wish! This allows you to keep your brand top of mind in more ways than one.

We like to post on our story as much as possible. If you want to follow us along on our journey, or even just want to connect to say HI, you can follow us on Instagram here 🙂

Fun Fact: You can link your Facebook and Instagram accounts so that the same content can be shared on both platforms at the same time, or different times, whichever you choose!

When to post on Twitter 

Each minute, 350,000 tweets are posted by Twitter’s 330 million users. The live nature of the platform offers marketers a great opportunity to engage with their audience effectively and quickly.

Twitter is used by most users to receive news and stay up-to-date with current trends. So if you don’t have a Twitter account or haven’t used it in years, slowly get posting and build your content. We promise, it’s worth your while!

To receive the highest engagement on Twitter, try and post on Fridays between 9 am to 10 pm. Friday’s overall are the best day to post on Twitter due to its high user volume. Additional times that are best to post include,

Monday – Friday | 8 am to 7 pm

Saturday | 9 am to 10 am, 1 pm

Fun Fact: Adding 4+ hashtags to your post will make your post more searchable for your audience or prospective customers.

Promoting your blog on social media

Blogging is an extremely useful tactic to implement into your business strategy if you have not. Especially smaller businesses that are hoping to promote growth. The reasons?

• • It assists in driving traffic to your website

• • It gives your brand a personality

• • It helps you establish credibility and a voice in the larger conversation
  • It drives long term results

Now once you have written the blog and posted it to your website, it’s time to share it across all social media channels!

On Facebook, share your blog post once for that initial content push. Make sure to share it among your various FB groups and on your page at different times during the day (keeping in mind the best times to post above).

After completing this first step, share your blog post every 2 to 3 months after to make sure you are not overloading your audience with the same content but still making sure your blog post is being shared and not forgotten about.

On Instagram, most interactions take place within the first few hours of posting. Try and get to your point within the first 155 characters. When sharing your blog post make sure to use the keywords highlighted in the blog post as hashtags on Instagram. This sometimes can be overlooked, but doing so can help your blog post increase its searchability.

For the initial post, share your featured image along with the description and LINK (very important since Instagram does not support clicking on imaging and taking users to a different linked site). Next, make sure to share the blog post every other day and then begin practicing every other week to keep the content fresh in users minds.

On Twitter, make sure to keep tweets below 140 characters and to include links and an image. Since a tweet relevancy last for about 18 minutes, you want to make sure you share your blog post multiple times over the course of multiple days.

For the initial promotion, share the blog post up to four times the first week (again, keeping in mind the best times to post above). After the first week, share once a week for a month and then once a month after that. Social media examiner states that you should share your evergreen content every 2 to 3 months after this cycle.

On Pinterest, make sure to keep descriptions of your pins between 150-300 characters and include searchable words and hashtags. Make sure to add a link to your pin description so that pinners will be able to locate your blog post. To increase engagement, always add a call to action button. These include promoting visits to your website, a greater amount of calls, more messages on Facebook or help finding your business.

The best times to post on Pinterest are from 12 pm – 2 pm and from 7 pm – 10 pm on weekdays and on weekends. When scheduling for Pinterest we LOVE using the Tailwind, it makes life so much easier and allows you to change the featured image on each pin so that you don’t feel like you are sharing the same image over and over again.

So, what are your thoughts? Have you found other times that are more engaging with your specific audiences? If so, with who and when?