We all know social media is one of the most powerful marketing channels when it comes to building a brand. Whether you are in the B2C or B2B space, a social media channel like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn can really help amplify your brand’s presence. It’s one thing to put a social media marketing strategy together, it’s a whole other ball game to actually create content for social media and to determine what the best time to post on social media is.
Social media is constantly evolving. As a result, users’ behaviours change with it. One element that doesn’t switch out is that all social platforms move quickly. There is a steady stream of content competing for social media users’ attention. You want to get the most eyes that you can on your content so that you can get the maximum ROI for your social media marketing spend and maximise engagement by knowing the best times to post on social networks.
WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT GETS THE MOST ENGAGEMENT?
Individuals engage with visual content more as opposed to non-visual content:
- Tweets that have images attached receive 150% more retweets as opposed to tweets without images.
- By the same token, Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those that don’t have images.
Include images into your social media content calendar and ensure that your images are relevant to your post. Make sure that the images that you use are high-quality images, be these stock images or your own images. Whether you use humorous memes, educational infographics, quirky illustrations, or just photographs, get creative. Do experiments with what works best in order to reflect your brand values as well as what resonates with your audience.
WHEN SHOULD YOU POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
The best times to post content on social media channels are the times when your customers as well as followers are online. Yes, there are actual times that work will work best for your specific brand and each social platform will have a particular time that works in the best possible manner for the particular audience. For example, the optimal time to post on Facebook differs from the best time to post on Instagram. In addition, when begin taking into account different time zones, it starts to get tricky. Here are the best times to post on social media:
BEST DAYS OF THE WEEK TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA
It’s important to note that all social media channels are different. Posting specific times on one channel doesn’t mean it will work for another.
According to recent finding, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are some of the worst days to be posting on social media. And if you think about it, it makes sense. Mondays are usually quite hectic and they are jam-packed with catching up on e-mails and internal meetings. Tuesdays and Wednesday aren’t always as “hectic” as a Monday, but it’s usually when most external meetings are scheduled.
This leaves little room for social media activities and that is why we’ve found that that there is higher engagement when posting on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. In fact, Saturdays and Sundays have 30% higher engagement on average. Posting on Thursdays and Fridays translates into 18% higher engagement and this goes to show that more people feel social closer to the weekend and during the weekend.
BEST TIME TO POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Keep in mind, as important as it is to find out what days of the week people are online, it’s also essential to know, for your marketing purposes, what times during the day they are active on the platforms.
According to some case studies about what is the best time to post on social media, organic posts perform better when they are posted at 9am, 1pm and 3pm. Again, if we think about it, it makes sense. People get to work and that is usually followed by a flurry of activity. Around an hour in they might feel like catching up with the world.
On the other hand, 1pm falls perfectly in line with lunch time and 3pm is when most people start to wind down after a hard day at the office. Even though more people are online during the evenings, posting at night might not translate in the most engagement. This is because posts take time to filter into Facebook’s algorithm.
If you managed to post a high-quality piece of content at 9am, 1pm or 3pm then the chances of someone seeing it that evening or the next day is also quite high. This all depends on how people interact with the post, of course.
Best times to post on Facebook: consumer goods
- Best times: Wednesday at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
- Best day: Wednesday.
- Most consistent engagement: Weekdays from 9 am – 3 pm.
- Worst day: Sunday.
- Lowest engagement: Early in the mornings and evenings, before 7 am and after 5 pm.
Best times to post on Facebook: media
- Best times: Tuesday at 5 pm and Friday from 8 – 9 am.
- Other good times: Wednesday from 8 – 9 am; Wednesday at 5 pm and Thursday at 5 pm.
- Most consistent engagement: Tuesday – Friday 9 am – 5 pm.
- Lowest engagement rates: Sunday and every day from 10 pm – 3 am.
Best times to post on Facebook: education
- Best times: Wednesday at 9 am and Saturday at 5 pm.
- Most consistent engagement: Monday – Friday from 9 am – 3 pm, with the peak from 9am –12 pm on those days. In addition, Saturday from – 12 pm to 9 pm – is also highly active.
- Lowest engagement: Sunday and every day from 11 pm – 5 am.
OTHER THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Some studies have shown that posting at 1pm might translate into more people sharing the post while posting at 3pm can have more people click on the post. People also tend to be happier on Fridays so posting upbeat content can help your post go a long way which translates into more brand awareness.
GET IN TOUCH WITH THE DIGITAL SCHOOL OF MARKETING
Are you thinking of learning more about social media and pursuing a digital marketing certificate? Then our Digital School of Marketing Social Media Certificate, which is accredited by the Media Information and Communication Technology SETA, is the digital marketing course that you need to go on. The Social Media Marketing Certificate will enable you to grow your brand strategically on any social channel, increase customer engagement and correctly target those who matter most. The Social Media Marketing Course is conducted online over a 12-week period and is considered to be the benchmark in social media marketing in SA. Read more here.
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