What is the best time to post content on social media channels?

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.

Include videos in your posting schedule

When you post visual media on your social media channels, don’t only post images. Videos may prove to be even more effective at boosting engagement, as opposed to images, as organic Facebook engagement is highest on posts with videos.

Videos are becoming increasingly popular, with video content representing 74% of all Internet traffic. In addition, video also works well to illustrate your ideas and communicate your message. This is because four times as many customers prefer to watch a video about a product as opposed to reading about it.

When making use of videos on social media, keep in mind that 85% of videos are watched without the sound. This means that you need to ensure that your videos have subtitles and that your ideas are executed effectively without sound.

You can also make use of live streaming features on many social media channels, including Facebook and Instagram, so why not try streaming a live event, interview, or product launch. Again, get creative and find the best ways to tell stories with your videos – from instructional and helpful videos to entertaining and funny videos: make your content stand out.

So, 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.

It’s not sufficient in order to guess the time when users could log in to a particular network or, alternatively, when audiences in your niche will be most receptive to the latest information. Now that increasing numbers of brands – from all kinds of industries – realise the value of connecting with their followers on social networks, it’s vital to understand the manner in which your audience makes use of social platforms as well as what they want out of your content. For example, an ecommerce brand may look at social engagement as well as follow daily as well as seasonal patterns of shopping engagement. Conversely, a corporate thought leadership account may see plenty of clicks at the start of the workday when readers are searching for inspiration.

We’ve done some research and have found a number of statistics that look at when it’s best to post on Facebook and what type of audience would respond better to this type of posting schedule:

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

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

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