Sep 29, 2017, by Tomas Gajar Best Times to Post on Social Media

Before we tell you the best times to post on social media, let’s first discuss why social media is important.

We should all understand the value of social media in modern digital marketing. If you already know the power of social media, feel free to scroll down and go straight to posting times, or you might also continue reading. We’ll try to keep it short.

Social is Giant

Social media marketing is no longer optional, but has become inseparable to our business. If you use social media strategically over time – it will become the most powerful marketing tool in your box. Numbers don’t lie – statistics and studies prove that nearly 2.5 billion internet users have an active social media account.

Nearly 2.5 Billion Internet Users have an Active Social Media Account

The largest of these internet marketing giants –  with sligtly over 2 bilion active users – is Facebook. YouTube is right on Facebook’s heels with 1.5 billion, Instagram has reached to 700 million users, and Twitter is approaching 330 million active users. Absolutely fantastic user base for your targeted ads – need I say more?

Let’s look at the numbers

• Social media ad spending is likely to exceed $35 billion in 2017, accounting for 16% of all digital ad spending globally.
• Social media spending in the U.S. alone is expected increase to $17.34 billion in 2019.
• On Facebook, desktop ads have 8.1x higher click-through rates and mobile ads have 9.1x higher click-through rates than normal search engine display ads.
• 86% of Twitter’s total revenue is from mobile ads… which proves to us that the future of advertising lives in your pocket.

Those are some interesting numbers, right?

[Sources: Hootsuite and Statista]

Marketers and business owners have already realized that social media is a marketing giant and are very important – if not critical – to our business success. Therefore, I would be very surprised if your company doesn’t have at least one active social media account – even if you don’t use it to its full advantages yet.

The Importance of Proper Timing

The opportunity to reach such a huge user base with targeted ads is very exciting. I’m sure you can’t wait to open your Facebook right now and start posting and running targeted ads to increase your website traffic, gain more customers, and build better relationships with them. However, before you start, don’t forget one important thing – timing is everything. That’s why your here right?

Posting at the right time will help you get more attention, engage more users, and acquire more followers.

It’s the same as traditional marketing, you want to run your television ad at 7 p.m. – which is a good time to capture a lot of people watching television… instead of 3 a.m. when most of us are having sweet dreams about our successful social media campaigns.

You might say, “but wait, this time is too expensive to run a television ad.” And you are right, it surely is. Fortunately, social media, unlike television, doesn’t charge you for what day or time you publish your ad. Instead, it charges you for the number of targeted users your ad will reach. In advanced social media, these platforms provide you with real-time data that shows you whether your followers are interested in your activities or not. Sounds fair and certainly like a more effective way of advertising.

So when are the best times to post on social media? Read on…

Best Times to Post on Social Media

To help you decide on which social media platform you should post, and on what day and time, we’ve gathered some data on the best times to post on social media – based on research and our own experience.

Starting with the most famous…

Facebook

The biggest social giant Facebook built primary for personal use is currently the most complex social network with high volume of various types of activities. And therefore it’s good for basically any kind of business.

• Active users: 2.047 million
• Effective day’s to post: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Weekends
• Best day’s to post: Weekends
• Best time to post: 9am, 1pm – 4pm

Instagram

Started as Twitter competitor, now is the most popular image centric social media with younger audience. Users seek for eye catching content which makes it great platform for aesthetic products.

• Active users: 700 million
• Effective days to post: Monday, Thursday
• Best day to post: Monday
• Best time to post: 8am – 9am, 5pm, 2am

Twitter

Micro-Blogging platform used primary to share short/breaking news. 140 character limit means emphasis on quality information. Many brands not only advertise on this platform, but also provide a friendly customer support.

• Active users: 328 million
• Effective days to post: Monday – Friday
• Best day to post: Wednesday
• Best time to post: 12pm – 3pm, 5pm – 6pm

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that helps you discover and save creative ideas. Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann described the company as; “a catalog of ideas”. Same as Instagram, it’s great for advertising aesthetic products.

• Active users: 175 million
• Effective days to post: Weekends
• Best day to post: Saturday
• Best time to post: 8pm – 11pm, 2am – 4am

Linked In

The world’s largest community of professionals with focus on career development and networking.

• Active users: 106 million
• Effective days to post: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
• Best day to post: Tuesday
• Best time to post: 5pm – 6pm, 7am – 9am

[Sources: Coschedule and  Statista]

Conclusion

When it comes to digital marketing and social media, the best data is always your own.

Thankfully, social media provide detailed data to help you better understand your audience. Understanding of your own audience and how your content is performing will bring clarity to your marketing strategies.

If you are reading this, my guess is you might just be getting started. If that is the case and you don’t have too much of your own data, the above insights for the best times to post on social media will be helpful as you begin posting.

[Source: Buffer Social]